Photo of the Week: Migratory Birds, Lijiang, China

Lily Zhang (photo and Text)
28 November 2010

IN JANUARY 2012, THIS IMAGE WAS SELECTED AS A JUDGES’ FAVOURITE IN THE TRAVEL WORD’S PHOTO OF THE YEAR 2011.

This is a picture of the bar-headed goose, a migratory bird that spends part of its year in and around the Lashi Lake nature reserve to the west of Lijiang city in the Yunnan Province of China.

During winter time, from November to March, thousands of migratory birds from northern China and Siberia flock to Lashi Lake for the winter. The lake provides a very nice, warm, safe environment with enough food for all the birds. The Naxi people, who live in the area around the lake, really like to have so many birds and grow crops specially for the birds to eat.

The same birds return to the lake every year and these geese are some of the most recognisable. The bar-headed goose is known for being able to fly at extreme altitude. As part of its migration, it has to cross the Himalayas, meaning that it has to soar incredibly high to clear the snowy peaks.

From November to March, but especially between December and February, members of the local community in the Lashi Lake area provide birdwatching tours that give visitors a chance to observe these mighty creatures out in the wild.