30 scarlet finches gathering in a tree for food were spotted by a villager living in Gaoligong Mountain, Yunnan province recently, which was quite rare and caused a stir in the world of bird watching and photography. 

“I arrived at Baihua village as early as 5:00 a.m., but when I finally reached the spot after driving and climbing, it had been surrounded by large number of shutterbugs, ” Mao San, a witness, said. 

The scarlet finch (Carpodacus sipahi) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is found in the Himalayas from Uttarakhand state in the Indian Himalayas eastwards across Nepal, stretching further east to the adjacent hills of Northeast India and Southeast Asia as far south as Thailand. It generally has a length of 15-19cm and a weight of 36-49g. The male has bright red feathers. Scarlet finches tend to live in small groups of five to six birds and mainly feed on tree seeds, grass seeds and a variety of insects and their larvae. 

It is the best time to watch scarlet finch from January to March of each year. “At this time of year, the birds usually migrate from the mountains to forage in small groups or individually, but more than 30 in a group is rare,” a local people said. 

Scarlet finches which stand in groups on the branches of a tree look like a string of red lanterns, symbolizing happy and auspicious. 

Although it is not listed as the endangered bird, scarlet finch is highly popular in birdwatching, because it is seldom to be seen. 

With the domestic boom in bird watching, Galigong Mountain as one of the regions with the richest bird diversity in China has become the preferred place for birders, helping the locals get rid of poverty. To further improve their life, villagers there have raised their awareness of birds protection and tried to improve the ecological environment. 

Click here to view Chinese report

(Editors: Alison, Rachel)