What kind of animal is a mandarin duck?

Mandarin ducks are also known as Wuren Hachin, official ducks, birds, Deng Mu birds and so on. Mandarin ducks belong to the famous ornamental birds of the duck family. Mandarin ducks refer to males and females, which are regarded as symbols of love, because mandarin ducks are seen as pairs. As birds that often appear in ancient Han myths, legends and literary works, mandarin ducks are often used to describe love between men and women.

The size of the mandarin duck is between the mallard duck and the green-winged duck. It is 38-45 cm long and weighs about 0.5 kg. Hermaphroditic, male beak red, feet orange yellow, feather color bright and gorgeous, head with gorgeous crown feathers, broad white eyebrow lines behind the eyes, a pair of chestnut yellow fan-shaped upright feathers on the wings, standing on the back like a sail, very strange and eye-catching, easy to identify in the wild. The female bird has a black beak, orange feet, grayish brown head and entire upper body, white around the eyes, followed by a thin white eyebrow line, which is also extremely eye-catching and unique.

Mandarin ducks often arrive at the breeding ground in groups. When they first move to the breeding ground, they live in ponds and streams in the open areas of the low mountains, and when they rest, they live in groups by the water or on the unmelted ice. They often move in groups except during the breeding season, especially in the migration season and winter. There are as many as 60 birds in clusters, sometimes nearly a hundred. Good at swimming and diving, walking on the ground is also good, in addition to water activities, but also often to land activities and foraging. Sexually alert, encounter or other disturbance immediately take off, and make a shrill'Oh 'sound.

Mandarin ducks live mainly in mountain forests, rivers, lakes, ponds, Reed swamps and paddy fields during the breeding season, and in large open lakes, rivers and swamps in winter. Every day, when the morning fog is not over, he flies out of the jungle where he lives at night, gathers by the pond, floats and feeds on the water with shade or reeds, and then flies to the woods to look for food. About an hour or two later, he goes back to rest on the branches or rocks near the beach or pond.

Mandarin ducks are omnivorous, and the types of food often vary with seasons and habitats. In spring and winter, they mainly feed on plant foods such as grass, grass leaves, tree leaves, grass roots, grass seeds, moss and other plant foods. They also eat corn, rice and other crops, honeysuckle, acorns and other plant fruits and seeds. The breeding season mainly feeds on animal food, such as ants, stone flies, katydids, locusts, mosquitoes, beetles and insect larvae, as well as animal foods such as oratosquilla, shrimp, snails, spiders and small fish and frogs.

Mandarin ducks mostly breed in northeastern China and Inner Mongolia, overwintering in southeastern provinces and Fujian and Guangdong, and a few are resident birds in Taiwan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places. There is an 11-kilometer-long Baiyan River in Pingnan County, Fujian Province. The stream is deep and beautiful, and the mountains and forests on both sides are tranquil. Thousands of mandarin ducks spend the winter here every year, also known as Yuanyang Creek. It is the first mandarin duck nature reserve in China. Yuanyang Lake in Wuyuan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province is the largest overwintering habitat of wild mandarin ducks in Asia and even in the world.

Mandarin duck is one of the traditional exported birds in China. It once had a large population in China. Every year, a large number of live birds are hunted and supplied to domestic zoos and exports. Before 1975, large groups of 40 to 50 animals were often encountered in the Changbai Mountains in spring or in winter in the south, but this spectacle was rarely seen, mainly due to deforestation and hunting. the population is decreasing day by day. According to the survey, the number of breeding populations in China is 1500-2000 pairs, which has been listed on the list of endangered birds in the world.