Bird banding goes on in Weishan, west Yunnan

A 29-member team of ornithologists have been doing bird banding in Weishan county, west Yunnan’s Dali Bai autonomous prefecture since October 15, in a bid to better study birds’ migration routes, lifespans and nesting habits. 

In autumn each year, hundreds of thousands birds in China flew southward all the way to south Asia and southeast Asia for wintering, with some migration routes passing through west Yunnan. In Weishan, a Bird Pass was identified long ago by local bird observers. 

Bird banding is a method of tracking and identifying birds. It involves attaching a small, ring-like band of plastic or metal to a bird’s leg, which can be used to identify the bird. The data gathered from banded birds are helpful to ornithologists. 

As of October 27, they have banded 108 species of migrant birds, including the night heron, the Siberian rubythroat, the yellow-browed warbler, and others. And the bird-banding in Weishan will continue till early November. 

Source: Xinhua; trans-editing by Wang Shixue