Mysterious Visitor: Jaw-billed Stork Visits Jinping, Yunnan
Over the past few days, a large bird with white feathers and black tails has appeared in many fields and corners in Jinping County, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, including Jinhe Town, Mengla Town and Adebo Township. According to relevant departments of Jinping County, this large bird is a ‘jaw-billed stork’, which is a second-level key protected animal in China and is listed in the 2013 Red List of Species of Concern by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). It mainly lives in countries in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam.
In a field in Baoshanzhaizhai Village, Ma'ilatang Township, Jinhe Town, more than a hundred ‘jaw-billed storks’ were seen foraging in the fields and corners. They were grouped in groups of three or five, sometimes catching insects, sometimes flying and playing, and sometimes gliding in the air, forming a beautiful landscape.
It is reported that ‘jaw-billed storks’ mainly feed on grass, fish, shrimp, snails and other aquatic animals, and are large migratory birds. Their migration season starts in spring and lasts until June. It is introduced that jaw-billed storks have high requirements for their habitat environment. They chose to stop over in Jinping County mainly because Jinping County has been firmly fulfilling its ecological protection responsibilities in recent years, practicing the concept of ‘ecological beauty is silver and gold’, and vigorously promoting ecological engineering construction such as natural forest protection and cropland-to-forest conversion. The masses have increased their awareness of environmental protection, and the ecological environment has been continuously improving, which is the reason. The county has good vegetation, with a forest cover rate of 59.48%, and is distributed with many national key endangered and precious wild animals and plants, excellent ecological conditions provide a good habitat for many migratory birds.
(Provided by Jinping Media Center)
