On August 9, members of the Yancheng Birdwatching Association, Xu Xing and Cheng Wei, accidentally observed a rare heron species foraging during a bird survey along the Dafang Seawall Forest Belt.

Through photographic documentation and expert verification, the bird was confirmed to be the ‌black-crowned night heron (Gorsachius melanolophus)‌, a ‌national second-class protected animal‌—marking the ‌first recorded sighting of this species in Yancheng‌.

Zhou Chenxi, president of the Yancheng Birdwatching Association, highlighted that this discovery underscores the ‌significance of the Yellow Sea Wetlands‌ as a critical stopover point along the ‌East Asian-Australasian Flyway‌. The finding also reflects ‌ongoing improvements in the local ecological environment.