HAIKOU, December 7. /TASS/. Tens of thousands of small snow-white herons (lat. Egretta garzetta) have flown to Hainan for the winter with the onset of cold weather. As the Haikou Daily newspaper reported, an amateur video of these birds has attracted the attention of many users in the Chinese social network Douyin.
According to the newspaper, it was filmed in the Dongzhaigang Mangrove Nature Reserve in Hainan. "In the evening, when the tide begins to rise on the seashore, the little white herons take off one by one and head into the mangrove forests for the night. This is how you get this beautiful picture," said Feng Erhui, an engineer at the park’s forestry department. He said that around 6 p.m. the birds fly into the forest, and in the morning, at first light, they return to the coast in search of food.
Feng Erhui noted that a video of flocks of these birds, which cover the coast like sea waves, quickly spread among Internet users and attracted many tourists to the national park. Many of them come to see the various birds that have come to Dongzhaigang for the winter with their own eyes.
The Dongzhaigang Mangrove Nature Reserve is located on the outskirts of Haikou and has been given national status. It is the largest protected wetland park in China, with a total of 36 species of mangroves which is the biggest number of these tropical trees in the whole country. For this, it is often referred to as "China's mangrove gene pool".
Since March 2019, the reserve has undergone a major renovation that has greatly expanded its mangrove forest. As a result, the number of migratory birds arriving here for the winter has increased from 180 to 218 species. These include state-protected yellow-billed herons, lesser spoonbills, common spoonbills, Chinese gulls, and other birds.