Recently, Beijing's municipal parks as well as rivers and lakes in  suburb Beijing have attracted many visitors with clear waters, blue sky and flocks of waterfowl.

Yuyuantan Park is a popular bird-watching destination for photographers. A few days ago, most of the lake surface in the park has thawed, making it a playground for a number of wild birds. After nearly three years of investigation, the park has recorded 160 species of birds.

According to Liang Ying, a greening engineer at the management office of the park, mandarin ducks are the star birds in the park. In winter, as many as 240 of them can be seen in one day in the park, accounting for one third of Beijing's mandarin duck population, which attract eco-photographers for photos. The aquatic environment and pebbly shallows are the favorites of these birds, and also perfect for low-angle photo shoots.

In the Summer Palace, swans are the favorite models for photographers. Around every second day of the second lunar month, the Palace would be visited by white swans resting during their migration. The southern part of Kunming Lake is a very popular swimming pool for the white swans. Photography enthusiasts would come early to the lakeside, choose their spots, set up their cameras, and often stay for a whole day.

The Shunyi section of the Chaobai River is a settlement of mallards and 10 more species of wading birds, such as egrets, river terns, white swans and black swans, whose number reaches the maximum especially in spring.　　

In May 2021, water flowed through the entire Shunyi section of the Chaobai River. The ecological water replenishment has created a water environment featuring "lake-creek-wetland" in the Chaobai River, attracting a variety of waterfowl, including the protected coot.

"The Niulanshan Bridge, Xiangjiao Dam of Henan Village and Jianhe Park are all excellent spots along the Shunyi section of the Chaobai River to watch birds in spring," said a photography enthusiast.

In recent years, the improvement of air quality, water quality of rivers and lakes as well as the environment along rivers in Tongzhou District has attracted an increasing number of birds. In 2021, the national first-class protected animal Chinese merganser, known as the "panda of birds", was spotted in the district, said Wang Zilong, head of the Water Environment Management Division of the Management Office of the Beiyunhe River.

(Source: Beijing Daily)