More than 500 Chinese mergansers, or scaly-sided mergansers, are spending winter in the wetlands of Jingmen City in central China's Hubei Province. The Chinese merganser, which has lived on Earth for over 10 million years, is often referred to as a "living fossil."
Every year in early November, flocks of Chinese mergansers fly south to spend winter away from their breeding grounds in the Russian Far East and northeastern China. Nearly 500 of these rare and protected birds that enjoy top-level national protection have been spotted in Hubei, making the province one of its most important winter habitats.