Chinese science examiners found a new route for the migration of red-beaked gulls

, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- A team of experts from the National Bird Ring Center and Kunming Bird Association has discovered a new migration route for red-beaked gulls. Along this migration route, the red-beaked gulls, which winter in Kunming, fly over the Sino-Russian-Mongolian border every spring and eventually reach the banks of russia's Viliuy River for breeding.
, secretary-general of the Kunming Bird Association, said that since 1985, red-beaked gulls have been flying from Siberia and other places to Kunming for more than 30 years. On October 25th, a team of five experts from the National Bird Ring Center and Kunming Bird Association set out from Kunming to explore the migration routes and habits of red-beaked gulls, which is also the first large-scale scientific expedition to fully track the migration of red-beaked gulls.
Zhao Xuebing said that in order to accurately understand the migration patterns of red-beaked gulls, researchers in November 2018 and March this year to 92 red-beaked gulls and two brown-headed gulls wearing a satellite tracker, which weighs only 6 grams, can be solar energy to receive Beidou satellite positioning system signals. Data transmitted by the satellite tracker can monitor the trajectory, speed, altitude, and coordinates of the red-beaked gulls during migration.
, about 40,000 red-beaked gulls come from Siberia to winter in Kunming's Yuchi basin each winter, according to the National People's Government. In March of the next year, the red-beaked gulls flew back from Kunming to Mongolia, Siberia, Russia and other places to breed. According to the Kunming Bird Association, about 10,000 red-beaked gulls have arrived in the waters of Kunming's Bochi, and most are still resting in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia along the Yellow River.
In addition, through data collection and analysis, the researchers also found a different migration route: some red-beaked gulls do not fly west or north to Lake Baikal or western Mongolia, but continue to move to the northeast, through the Sino-Russian-Mongolian border, after stopping at Hulun Lake, continue to migrate northwards, and eventually reach russia's Viliuyi River.
Zhao Xuebing said that the team will continue to pay attention to the new migration route, the analysis of information data, for the next joint protection of red-beaked gulls to provide theoretical support and scientific basis.