With early spring temperatures rising, the Changbai Mountain region in Jilin province recently welcomed increasing numbers of migratory birds returning from the South.

Photographers captured images of a group of Chinese mergansers on the Songhua River in Hexing village, Fusong county.

Listed as a national first-level protected animal and classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list, Chinese mergansers have been dubbed "living fossils".

As the ecological environment has improved in recent years, more Chinese mergansers have come to the region every spring.