With its bright red beak, yellow belly and chubby body, a chirping red-billed leiothrix will bring a smile to any nature lover hiking through the dense forest of central China's Hunan Province. The bird is not only attractive to look at, but also a source of pleasant melody.

However, the bird's attractive looks and sound attract danger, too. Increasing demand for having the bird as a pet is threatening its population in the wild. There were about 200,000 such birds in Hunan in the 1990s, but the figure has dwindled since.

The leiothrix is now under second-class national protection in China.

(Video by CGTN's Hu Hanpeng and Luo Haiya.)

(Cover image via VCG)

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