COP15: Oriental darters appear in Ruili after 80 years

Two news birds were photographed by Yin Xianlun, an ecology-conservation volunteer on Oct 20 in the Nongmo Lake park, Ruili City, southwest Yunnan’s Dehong Dai and Jingbo Autonomous Prefecture.

After identification by Yang Xiaojun, professor of the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the birds are confirmed as the ‘Oriental Darter’ which has been missing for more than 80 years.

The news immediately aroused the attention of bird lovers, and several local volunteering conservationists in Ruili also immediately went to the site for further observation.

"This discovery is of great significance to the study of bird species in Yunnan," said Yang Xiaojun. The oriental darter was last seen in 1931 in southern Yunnan, which was recorded by Ma Jingneng in "A Field Guide to the Birds of China".

The oriental darter has a slender neck which looks like a snake, accounting for its colloquial name of ‘snake bird’.

Source: Dehong Release and Yunnan Daily; Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi