Critically endangered birds spotted at Juanqiaohe Wetland Park

About 10 critically endangered yellow-breasted buntings were recently spotted at Yichang’s Juanqiaohe Wetland Park. It is the first time that this Class-I endangered bird in China has been seen in the urban area of Yichang. The birds were believed to be passing through the city on their migration route to the south for winter.

Yellow-breasted buntings eat rice and grass seed as well as insects in the rice paddies. Yichang’s excellent ecological environment and the late ripening of the rice have provided the ideal conditions for the birds to find food.

Considering that the buntings will fly away when the rice runs out, the park’s office decided to delay the harvesting of a rice field of nearly 20 mu (about 1.33 hectares), allowing the birds to feed during their stopover in Yichang.

Additionally, the park said it plans to reserve 80 mu of rice paddies every year moving forward, as well as to invite bird specialists beforehand to jointly observe and study these buntings together.

Juanqiaohe River is a branch of the Yangtze River in Yichang City. After years of silting up, new land was formed along the river and many poultry farms had occupied the space. In recent years, Yichang made the effort to restore this area into a public park. After three years of construction, Juanqiaohe Wetland Park opened to the public before the National Day holidays in 2022. Covering 2,670 mu, the park is at the crossroad of Dianjun Road and Dianjun No.1 Road, Dianjun District.