Pictures taken on October 11 show dozens of red-billed gulls in the Dianchi Lake area in Kunming, Yunnan province.

Around 1,000 red-billed sea gulls arrived in central Yunnan’s Dianchi Lake area for wintering on October 6, kicking off the annual bird migration between Southwest China and Siberia in east Russia. 

Since they first landed in the Spring City in 1985, the birds seem to have fallen in love with the mild climate here, as well as the generous citizens and tourists who offered them food for leisure. 

In recent years, Yunnan has put effort in eco-conservation and wild-animal protection. As a result, the number of the red-billed sea gulls wintering in Kunming is on the rise. 

Reporting by Yang Zheng (Yunnan Daily); trans-editing by Wang Shixue