Poems by spoonbills and snipes

Not long ago, during the normal monitoring of birds in Xuanmenwan Wetland, Yuhuan, Zhejiang Province, a staff member found that a spoonbill sandpiper, an extremely endangered bird species, was foraging on the beach of the wetland. After careful observation, it is confirmed that this spoonbill snipe with a ring is a female bird from Chukchi, Russia. This is the first 1 time for a snipe to come to Xuanmen Bay Wetland, indicating that the ecological environment of the wetland has gradually adapted to the habitat and survival of this bird. The spoonbill snipe is a rare national first-class protected bird. It is characterized by a long mouth and a spoon-wide front end, which is very eye-catching. Here, we will introduce other living habits of this bird.

Spoon-mouthed snipers are fed by adapting to their mouths. Its mouth is flat and long, and its front end is as wide as a spoon. It uses this spoon to find food in shallow water and muddy water. After a series of movements, its mouth can filter out the small fish and shrimp in the muddy water and swallow them into its stomach. Feeding methods are very similar to ducks. When spoonbills are foraging, they often walk alone in shallow water or mud, constantly looking for targets with their heads down, and their mouths constantly reaching into the mud to search for food and sweeping back and forth. Even when it turns around, its mouth will always reach into the water to find food, which is really like a duck.

Snipe's food is generally small animals in muddy wetlands, including small fish, shrimp, crab, snail, nereis and so on. Many invertebrates and crustaceans are on its menu. Of course, its feeding ground can't be completely near the water. Many times, it will also look for food directly on the ground by the river and peck at insects and insect larvae directly in the grass.

The spoonbill snipe is a migratory bird. The spoonbill snipe is a migratory bird. Its breeding places are generally in northern Europe and Russia in Asia, and it will migrate to southern China, Myanmar and other places in winter. Most spoonbill snipes coming to China are tourists, and some are winter migratory birds. During migration, snipes will pass through China in April-May in spring and September 9- 10/0 in autumn. Some of them just temporarily stay in the southern and coastal areas of China, feeding on wetlands and supplementing their body energy. Some of them regard China as a wintering place and spend the winter here as winter migratory birds. The selection of snipe breeding sites is very strict, and now they are mainly concentrated in a small area on the far east coast of Russia. Their breeding ground must have lakes, short birch bushes, or bryophytes by the lake, so that they can nest and breed their offspring by the lake, and there must be an ocean within 5 kilometers nearby. Such a strict breeding ground is also one of the factors that promote the decline of snipe.