GUANGZHOU, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- The love bird in Chinese culture has heralded family affection on the Qixi Festival, or Chinese Valentine's Day, which was celebrated on Tuesday. Researchers in Guangdong Province took the opportunity to announce that a pair of wild mandarin ducks have bred three ducklings, the first breeding on record in the South China province.

In March, a pair of mandarin ducks were sighted in Chebaling National Nature Reserve in Guangdong. Two months later, infrared cameras recorded a female mandarin duck playing with three ducklings, according to the Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province.

The three young ducks were seen learning to swim, eat and groom. The monitoring of this special family lasted till the end of June.

"It was the first breeding on record of wild mandarin ducks in Guangdong," said Zhang Qiang, an ornithologist at the institute of zoology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences.

Zhang said mandarin ducks mainly breed in northeast China and fly to southern China in winter. In recent years, the breeding habitats of the species showed signs of moving further southward.

The mandarin duck is a national second-class protected species in China. It needs a quality living environment and is one of the key index species for environmental quality evaluation of wetlands, rivers and lakes.

A pair of mandarin ducks playing in water are usually featured as a symbol of love in traditional Chinese poems and art.