Wang Guitao, a deliveryman with the takeaway-ordering app Eleme, received an order to deliver food to black-headed gulls on March 11, the eighth order of such a kind he had received in the week, www.chinanews.com reported.

A deliveryman feeds the black-headed gulls. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

For 35 years, the black-headed gulls have migrated from Siberia to Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan province during winter months. Yet due to the epidemic this year, many netizens who have not been able to feed the birds in person have decided to order take-out food so that deliverymen could feed the birds on their behalf.

After the Haigeng Dam, an excellent spot to view the gulls reopened on March 3, many Kunming deliverymen have been receiving orders to deliver food to the birds.

“I once got as many as five orders to feed the birds in one day and, in some cases, have to feed the birds about 17 or 18 bags of food during one delivery,” said Wang.

A deliveryman feeds the black-headed gulls. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

The head feathers of many gulls have recently become black, which suggests that they have become mature sexually and will soon fly back to Siberia for breeding, as pointed out by Wang Zhibin, deputy secretary-general of the Kunming Birdwatching Association.