Is there hope for the critically endangered Chinese Crested Tern to escape extinction?

On this colorful and diverse earth, the birds, with their graceful and graceful movements, are the best example of the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. With their bright and colorful feathers, agile and light bodies, and melodious bird songs while dancing and playing, every move of theirs makes nature more vibrant.

Loving and protecting birds is one of the unchanging themes of mankind . China is the country with the richest bird resources, with a total of about 1,500 species, ranking first in the world, accounting for about 13% of the world's total species, and can be called the "kingdom of birds". In recent years, with the joint efforts of government attention, the entry of scientific teams, and the improvement of social protection awareness, many rare and endangered birds, such as the Chinese Crested Tern, Blue-crowned Laughingthrush, and Yellow-bellied Tragopan, have frequently appeared. Today is International Bird Day. Let us witness the story of these birds from endangered to "rebirth".

01 Why is the Chinese Crested Tern, the “mythical bird”, named so?

In China's traditional bird culture, the status of birds cannot be ignored. In the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Zhou dynasties, characters such as "chicken" and "pheasant" appeared, and wild red junglefowl had been domesticated. According to scholars, the "Heavenly Mandate Black Bird" recorded in the Book of Songs "descended to give birth to the Shang Dynasty" was the ancient Yin ethnic group in my country that used birds as totems. For thousands of years, my country has produced countless poems, lyrics, songs, paintings, and other literary and artistic works, as well as folk dances, that use birds as the subject.

Part of the bronze bird-footed statue in the Sanxingdui Museum.

Image source: Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Wang Xi)

Among many birds, it is rare to find one named after a mythical bird. The Chinese Crested Tern is called the "mythical bird" because its head feathers resemble the phoenix in ancient mythology and its whereabouts are mysterious.

The Chinese Crested Tern is a marine bird about 40 cm long. It mainly breeds in coastal areas such as Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Taiwan, and on a few islands. It feeds on fish, shrimp, and insects. Its forehead is white, the top of the head and nape are black, the neck is white, the upper body is gray, and the tail feathers are gray-brown. Because its orange-yellow beak is tipped with black, it was formerly called the "Black-billed Crested Tern."

Chinese Crested Tern

Although the Chinese Crested Tern was discovered by scientists in Indonesia as early as 1861, little is known about this species except for limited specimens. After the 1930s, the Chinese Crested Tern disappeared for a time and was considered by most bird experts to be extinct.

More than 60 years later, this seabird was rediscovered in Fujian and Zhejiang. It was estimated that its total number in the world was still less than 50 at that time, and it was listed as the highest endangered level - critically endangered - by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and BirdLife International.

02 How can a family with “birds” prosper?

In recent years, ornithologists and bird protection volunteers have carried out a series of field surveys, scientific research, protection and publicity activities around the rare species of Chinese Crested Tern, making it the focus of social attention.

After the Chinese Crested Tern was captured in the Mazu Islands in 2000, researchers discovered its breeding colony in the Jiushan Islands in Xiangshan, Zhejiang Province in July 2004, which attracted widespread attention from ornithologists and the public. After years of efforts, the chicks were successfully bred in the Jiushan Islands and Wushishan Islands through artificial recruitment of breeding populations, bringing the population of the Chinese Crested Tern to more than 150.

The Chinese Crested Tern (with a black beak) and its "close relative" the Great Crested Tern (photo taken on July 24, 2019).

Image source: Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Yin Xiaosheng)

Today, the Jiushan Islands have become its largest and most important breeding ground in the world. 107 Chinese Crested Terns have been monitored , and the deserted island has become a holy place for the "mythical bird".

In addition to the Chinese Crested Tern, there are many endangered birds in my country. As early as 1989, in the first edition of the "List of National Key Protected Wildlife" issued and implemented in my country, birds accounted for more than half of all the first- and second-level key protected wild animals in the list. They are generally rare, limited in distribution, endangered, or unique to my country, precious, or a combination of these. In the adjusted "List of National Key Protected Wildlife" issued in 2021, there are 150 new bird species, bringing the total to 394!

Another tern, the River Tern , is distributed in a very narrow area in western Yunnan. It is also rare and is considered a "mysterious existence". The name of the Relict Tern comes from ornithologists expressing their regret for "seeing it too late", and the historical process after its discovery is very similar to that of the Chinese Crested Tern. These three gulls are all first-class key protected wild animals in the "List".

Relict Gull

03 Protecting endangered birds is urgent

There are countless endangered birds in China. For example , the black grouse and white-crowned long-tailed pheasants, which are graceful pheasants, have become extinct in the wild in many places, making their distribution areas discontinuous islands. Pigeons have been the most hunted birds in history, and many species have become extinct as a result. Many of the surviving species are now listed as endangered species.

Among geese and ducks, the white-headed hard-tailed duck , which breeds in northern Xinjiang and winters in Honghu Lake in Hubei, is experiencing a rapid deterioration in its living conditions. The Baer's Pochard, which was once widely distributed in China, is one of the world's "critically endangered" birds, with less than 1,000 of them in the world today, and is well-known internationally.

Baer's Pochard

The spoon-billed sandpiper, with its mouth expanded into a spoon shape, is a very cute species, and is also a critically endangered species, with a global population of no more than 500. Birds of prey at the top of the food chain are the main targets of poaching and smuggling, and their resources are under great threat.

Songbirds that are good at singing and building nests have not received enough attention as "inconspicuous little birds". Among them, the Yellow-breasted Bunting, commonly known as the "Heavenly Sparrow", has been unjustifiably dubbed the "ginseng from heaven" due to the wrong publicity of its "tonic" effect. People have made it into steamed in lotus leaves, fried with pepper salt and grilled on a teppanyaki plate, and even formed an one-stop industrial chain of "capture-transport-sale". In just over a decade, it has gone from a population that covered the sky to a critically endangered species.

The Crested Ibis, known as the pearl of oriental birds, has also experienced a life cycle of endangerment, extinction, discovery, and rebirth. Historically, it was distributed in large areas of eastern and northern China, but when it was rediscovered in 1981, there were only 7 of them. After more than 40 years of careful protection, the population of Crested Ibis has now exceeded 10,000 globally, and the area of ​​its wild habitat has expanded from less than 5 square kilometers when it was discovered to 16,000 square kilometers. China's Crested Ibis rescue operation has become another successful example of ex situ conservation of critically endangered species worldwide.

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

With the development of society, the expansion of economic activities such as road construction, mining, expansion of cultivated land, and artificial rubber plantations has gradually caused the natural ecosystem to lose balance. In addition, indiscriminate hunting, deforestation, and environmental pollution have further destroyed the habitats of birds. Saving endangered species and their living environment has become an urgent mission.

Birds, like other animals, are strong survivors of natural selection in the long history of evolution. They are an important part of nature and friends of mankind. Protecting birds is not only of great significance to the development of human economic construction, but also an important symbol of people's cultural literacy and spiritual civilization. Knowing how to respect and revere life is the ultimate goal of protecting birds and other wild animals.

Author: Li Xiangtao, researcher at the National Museum of Natural History, honorary executive director of the Chinese Ornithological Society

Reviewer: Huang Chengming, wildlife protection expert of the State Forestry Administration, researcher of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Produced by: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., China Science and Technology Publishing House (Beijing) Digital Media Co., Ltd.

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