Small gull, a national second-class protected animal, was first observed in Kunming.

Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, February 1 (Reporter Yue Ran) Every winter, tens of thousands of red-billed gulls fly from Siberia and other places to Kunming, Yunnan for the winter. They have maintained this habit for more than 30 years. This year, researchers first observed the national second-class protected animal, the little gull, among the migratory birds who came to Kunming.

"The gull has a black beak and a white tail. It is small in size among gulls and likes waters with good water quality and abundant fish and shrimp. It is a national second-class protected animal." Li Weiwei, a senior engineer at Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that during the wintering, perhaps because of the clustering effect, small gulls were mixed in the red-billed gulls. Because of the small number, small gulls had not been observed and recorded in Kunming before.

Kunming Cuihu Park is one of the gathering places of red-billed gulls. Recently, the reporter saw the equipment for discovering small gulls in Cuihu Park-AI bird intelligence monitoring and identification system. "It is difficult for birdwatchers to catch new species with human eyes, but this system can." Li Weiwei said that since 2020, the team has successively built four 360-degree monitoring cameras in Cuihu Park, which can cover the vast majority of birds’ activities in the park. The system can quickly judge the number of birds and common species according to the size and pixel comparison, identify suspicious or unrecognized individuals, and then verify them manually. This greatly shortens the time of artificial bird watching, and it can be recorded continuously for a long time, making it easier to find rare species. This is how the gull was found.

Team member Lu Jianshu said: "The two small gulls observed for the first time this year are both feathered in the first winter. It can be said that they are the first time to migrate for the winter."

"Discovery and recording have well guided the subsequent protection strategy." Li Weiwei said that through the AI ? ? system, the team has increased the number of bird records in Cuihu from more than 20 to more than 90 in four years, and collected a lot of biological data.

"I come here to watch birds every year, and I can feel that the water is clearer and the trees are greener. I hope that more birds will appear in Kunming in the future. " Bird watching enthusiast Yu Jieren said. (Participating in writing: You Yang)