Red-billed gulls reach Kunming for winter

Citizens feed the gulls. (Yunnan Daily)

Hundreds of red-billed gulls have already gathered in the Dianchi Lake area, central Yunnan’s Kunming city these days.

“Every year, the gulls will come to Kunming shortly after the National Day holiday on October 1-7, said Lu Jianshu, member of the Chinese Ornithological Society and director of the Yunnan Wildlife Conservation Association.

The red-billed gulls. (Yunnan Daily)

More than 40,000 red-billed gulls are expected to arrive by late November, and the best gull-watching sites in Kunming include Cuihu Lake, Daguan Pavilion, Panlong River and Huanxi Bridge.

  

The red-billed gulls. (Yunnan Daily)

Since their arrival in Kunming in 1985, the birds have lived in harmony with locals in the cold months each year. And they’ll return to their northern breeding areas from late March to early April next year.

Previous surveys show the gulls wintering in Kunming mostly came from the basins of Lake Uvs Nuur and Lake Kyrgyz in Mongolia, as well as the Baikal Lake area in Russia.

Source: Yunnan Daily; Trans-editing by Wang Yunya