Recently, the Baishuijiang Survey Team discovered and photographed the white-tailed eagle, a national first-class protected animal, for the first time in Zhoujiaba Village, Shangde Town, Wenxian County.
The Gansu Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau organized a province-wide survey of wetland birds and habitats, along with a simultaneous survey of wintering swans. Recently, the Baishuijiang Survey Team conducted a survey in Zhoujiaba Village, Shangde Town, Wen County. Team leader Teng Jirong, using binoculars, discovered over ten species of waterbirds in the area, including mallards, green-winged teals, mandarin ducks, egrets, grey herons, and moorhens. Through the binoculars, he observed a large number of waterbirds rapidly taking flight and plunging into the reed beds. Survey member Wang Junliang quickly turned his camera, adjusted the settings, and spotted a large raptor swooping down, chasing after a mallard that had just taken flight. With the clicks of the shutter, his DSLR camera captured a precious image of the raptor. Later, Professor Zhang Lixun of Lanzhou University identified the raptor as a white-tailed eagle, a Class I protected animal in China.
This is the first time that footage of a white-tailed eagle has been recorded in the Baishui River basin. "This is the first time I've photographed this bird (white-tailed eagle). As it quickly swooped down towards a mallard that had just taken off, I quickly adjusted the camera settings and tried my best to capture the image. In recent years, the number of birds that can be photographed in the Baishui River basin has been increasing. Sometimes I can photograph more than 15 species of waterbirds in a single day," said photographer Wang Junliang.
The white-tailed eagle is a Class I protected animal in China, primarily inhabiting lakes, rivers, coastlines, islands, and estuaries. It feeds on fish, but also preys on various birds such as geese, ducks, cranes, storks, pheasants, rodents, and small to medium-sized mammals. According to records, the white-tailed eagle is a summer migratory bird in the Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia Greater Khingan Mountains regions of my country, and a winter migratory or transient bird in other areas. It was once widely distributed throughout my country; wetland bird surveys show it has been observed in the Hexi Corridor, Longdong, and Gannan regions of Gansu, but its discovery in the upper reaches of the Jialing River, including Wenxian, Longnan, and Tianshui, is a first.
