The bird is included in Vietnam's Red Book of species vulnerable to extinction. The species is listed in category 1B of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a group of animals which are threatened with extinction and whose trade is only permitted in exceptional circumstances.

This is the first time such a large flock of darters have come to the area, probably for food and shelter, Le Viet Dung, deputy head of the Dong Nai Forest Protection Department, said Wednesday.

A flock of Oriental darters on a tree in the Buu Long tourism site in Dong Nai Province,
November 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Phuoc Tuan.

Local forest rangers are monitoring the birds, while protecting them and providing them food, he added.

Darters are mainly tropical waterbirds in the Anhingidae family, with only four living species remaining today. One of them, the Oriental darter (Anhinga melanogaster), is classified as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.