Two spoon-billed sandpipers were spotted in Jinjiang, southeast China’s Fujian Province, with one of them wearing a “7L” marked foot flag for three consecutive years (Photos: Xinhua).

There are only about 600 spoon-billed sandpipers in the world, who are known as the “pandas of birds” and listed on the first class of “List of key protected wild animals in China”.

The bird is a critically endangered species that breeds in the world’s few permafrost areas and winter in the coastal wetlands of Asia.

According to Chen Hao, director of the Xiamen Birdwatching Association, the “7L” spoon-billed sandpiper was born in the summer of 2019 at the breeding site in Russia, and has been wintered in Jinjiang in 2019 and 2020. Previously, the “7L” sandpiper was spotted in Jiangsu Province in October of 2020 and 2021.