Millions of Migratory Birds Pass Through Beijing 'Taking Off' and 'Landing'

The peak migration season for in spring has arrived, and at large habitats such as Mǐyun Reservoir are busy 'taking off' and 'landing'. As of the end of February, nearly a million birds have been observed at 88 monitoring stations across the city, an increase compared to the same period in previous years.

New China News Agency Reporter Yang Shiyao Photo

As winter gives way to spring, the broad and vast surface of Guanting Reservoir has become bustling and lively. Swans, grey cranes and passing are gathered here for rest and feeding. At the same time, Mǐyun Reservoir, Wild Duck Lake and NanhaiZi wetland such as open water areas have also welcomed flocks of.

The main migration routes for in Beijing are two, one from Mǐyun, Pinggui direction into Beijing, bypassing the city center, from Shunyi exit into Beijing continue south; the other is from Yánqíng Guanting Reservoir into Beijing, through Changping, from Fángyān exit into Beijing south. Passing, most of them are swans and duck species that live in Poyang Lake in China; the rest of the shorebirds will continue to fly to Australia for the winter.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Parks and Greenery related person in charge introduced that this spring, the migration time in Beijing is relatively early. On Friday, February 21 at 10:00 AM, monitoring personnel at the Wild Duck Lake monitoring station detected the first batch of 2 swans from above flying north, at the southern monitoring point of the lake district they detected another 2 swans at less than 100 meters away feeding and preening their feathers, at the same time they detected more than 1100 grey cranes, over 30 dabbling ducks, over 200 green-headed ducks and 12 ruddy ducks. In recent days, with the warming of the weather in Beijing, Wild Duck Lake has welcomed a large number of migrating and replenishing their energy.

At the same time, the number of birds detected is also significantly higher than that of last year's same period. As of the end of February, a total of nearly a million birds have been monitored at 88 monitoring stations across the city, an increase compared to the same period in previous years. They are 'resting' in more and more widespread locations in Beijing, in addition to Wild Duck Lake and Mǐyun Reservoir such as large water surfaces, NanhaiZi in Daxing and Dashihe in Fángyān also have a large number of migration and staying. In the past, it is not often to see some rare bird species in Beijing, the number of these rare birds is increasing, such as Black Stork, White-tailed Sea Eagle, Zhenduan Crow and Knob-billed Duck, these two species have been observed in the past two years.

(Original title: 88 monitoring points daily patrol twice

Millions of pass through Beijing 'pecking'

Source: Beijing Daily reporter Wang Haiyan

Process editing Liu Weili