![]() This winter, when the prodigal ducks returned, photos of them immediately began to pop up among this insular community of dedicated birders. There's also Nguyễn Thanh Sơn, an office worker and wildlife lover in Hanoi who, like me, relies on a network of bird and photography enthusiasts to let him know when incredible species like the mandarin duck are spotted. My search for the duck during the migratory season begins online, where Vietnamese birdwatchers share their photos, tips and secrets.īirdwatchers like Nguyễn Mạnh Hiệp, a senior official at the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, who keeps tabs on the ducks by staying in contact with national park rangers. Steep limestone cliffs and primary forest all around the lakeshore make Ba Bể a hidden haven for birds, including the too-beautiful-to-be-allowed mandarin duck. But it is not ignored, thank goodness, by the Vietnamese birdwatching community. While only four hours from Hanoi by car, this treasure of the northern mountains is often skipped by Sa Pa trekkers and Hà Giang road trippers. And every winter there is a single family group that decides to fly a little farther than the rest: about a thousand kilometers farther, to a hidden lake in northern Vietnam.īa Bể is the largest natural lake in the country, and the heart of Ba Bể National Park. During the winters they migrate southwards, fleeing the subarctic temperatures of their breeding grounds for the warmer swamps and flooded fields in central China. Mandarin ducks breed in the dense and isolated forests on the edge of rivers and lakes in far eastern Russia, China, and Hokkaido, Japan the total number tallies up to just a few thousand pairs. In actuality, "aix" is an Ancient Greek word first used by Aristotle to refer to an unknown diving bird while "galericulata" is the Latin for a wig, derived from galerum, a cap or bonnet. This is the kind of bird so utterly magnificent that you basically assume you’ll never see it. Its scientific name is Aix galericulata, which one assumes means “prettiest goddamn duck in the world.” I refresh Facebook over and over again, waiting for the arrival of the mandarin duck. ![]() I peer into rice paddies, fingers crossed for a cryptic snipe. ![]() I stare into breaks in the foliage for passing buttonquail. I scan the horizon above low hills for migratory hawks. Sometimes I don’t even realize that I’m doing it. Photos by Alexander Yates.Įverywhere I go in Vietnam, I keep my eyes peeled for the incredible birds that call this country home.
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