Ha Quoc Quy, a local in HCM City has transferred a protected bird to Saigon Zoo on June 29.

Rare bird transferred to the zoo

Lam Quoc Cuong, an employee from the zoo arrived at Ha Quoc Quy's house to check the darter bird's health and bring it to the zoo.

The bird looks like an Oriental darter, a species of the Anhingidae family. They are also called snake birds for their long thin neck which looks like a snake when they swim with their bodies submerged under water. 

They generally live near estuaries, rivers and hunt small prey like frogs and fish with their long beak.

The Anhingidae family is on the rare and protected animal and plants list of Vietnam and the Oriental darter listed as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Quy caught the bird while spreading a net around the lake right in front of his home in Binh Thanh District on June 28. Thinking that the bird had such strange appearance, Quy googled it, suspecting that this could be a rare bird. He then called the zoo.

"It seemed to have an injured wing so I didn't release it into the wild," he said.

dtinews