Eleven Chinese mergansers—four males and seven females—have been lingering on a stretch of the Yalu River this spring, near the China-North Korea border. The birds are a Grade 1 protected species in China and on the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species as well as the endangered bird species list of the International Council of Bird Preservation.

Only about 1,000 are left in the world.

The Chinese merganser (Mergus squamatus) is native to China. A migratory bird, it reproduces in northeast China and Siberia, wintering in areas south of the Yangtze River. The species was named for a British collector who obtained a young male specimen in 1864, and is also sometimes known as the scaly merganser.

(China.org.cn April 23, 2004)