Glossy ibis spotted in south Yunnan’s wetland park

The news was updated om February 27, 2019.

Glossy ibis, a wild bird species under Class II state protection in China, was recently spotted in Yilong Lake wetland park, a conserved habitat for the purple swamphen in south Yunnan’s Shiping County. 

“While patrolling the wetland area during the Spring Festival, staffs with the Yilong national park noticed seven large birds flying in the sky, which were identified as glossy ibises by bird experts,” said Wu Chaoxiong, director of wetland park management. 

Wu said that a total of 120 million yuan had been invested in conserving the area since 2014, with around 1,200-hectare farmland and paddy fields turned into the lake areas.

In the 1980s, researchers first discovered purple swamphens in the area, which have been under law-based protection since 1994. Now the Yilong lake area is home to 460 plus purple swamphens.