Siberian crane first seen in Zhaotong

A crane with a different color of white was, for the first time, spotted hanging around with a group of black-necked cranes on December 24 at the national-level Dashanbao nature reserve, northeast Yunnan’s Zhaotong city.

Based on records in "A Field Guide to the Birds of China", ornithologists said this big bird belongs to the Siberian crane, or the snow crane. With a population of less than 4,000, the bird is listed as a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and it is under the first-class state protection in China.  

The white crane mostly breeds in northern Siberia and overwinters in China, India, Iran and other places. 99% of the cranes spent winter in the areas near the lakes of Poyang and Dongting in Chinese provinces of Jiangxi and Hunan.

The white crane had appeared another Yunnan locality in November 2012. 

Reporting by Shen Xun (Yunan Daily app); Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi