AP PHOTOS: Beijingers play fetch with migratory birds in traditional game

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Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, throws a bird up as he shoots a bead through a tube for it to catch in mid-air, practising a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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A man prepares to throw a bird up as he shoots a bead through a tube for it to catch in mid-air, practising a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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A man prepares a bird before tossing it into the air to catch a bead shot out of a tube, practising a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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A man smokes near Wutong birds waiting for their turn to catch beads blown out of tubes, a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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A man throws a bird up as he shoots a bead through a tube for it to catch in mid-air, practising a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, opens his hand for a bird to return after throwing it into the air to catch a bead shot up, as they practise a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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A wutong bird catches beads in its beak, training for a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. The ancient practice involves training birds to catch beads in mid-air shot out of a tube. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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Wutong birds rest between turns catching beads shot out of a tube in mid-air, a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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A man looks over at a bird he keeps and trains to fly around him outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Locals train birds of various types to perform different acts including catching beads shot out of a tube or opening boxes. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, trains a bird using a whistle outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. Locals train birds of various types to perform different acts including catching beads shot out of a tube or opening boxes. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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A man blows a bead out of a tube for a bird to catch in mid-air, practising a Beijing tradition that dates back to the Qing Dynasty, outside a stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Today, only about 50-60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

By HAN GUAN NG and SIMINA MISTREANU

BEIJING (AP) — Passersby in Beijing during winter or early spring might happen upon groups of residents playing fetch with birds. The players blow plastic beads into the air through carbon tubes for the birds — often from the migratory wutong species — to catch and return, in exchange for a treat.

It’s a Beijing tradition dating back to the Qing Dynasty, which ruled between the 17th century and early 20th century. Today, only about 50 to 60 people in Beijing are believed to still practice it.

Xie Yufeng, a 39-year-old cook, is one of them. Late Tuesday afternoon, Xie gathered with a few friends near Workers’ Stadium, where residents often congregate in the evenings to dance in tandem, practice tai chi or play the Chinese yo-yo.

Xie and his friends brought along their winged playmates — most of them wutong birds, with their distinctive yellow beaks and which fly southward from China’s northeast to Beijing every fall to escape the bitter winter.

Domesticating the birds and training them for the bead-catching game may take four to five months, Xie said. Players teach the birds to fetch by first throwing seeds into the air, and later replacing them with plastic beads. Every time the birds retrieve the beads, they are rewarded with a snack. In the past, the beads were made of bone.

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“In order to do this well, patience is the most important quality for a player,” Xie said.

The tradition is said to have taken root in the capital with the arrival of the Qing Dynasty, a Manchu group that took control of Beijing in the mid-1600s.

Manchu nobles, living around the Forbidden City, are believed to have popularized catching and training birds as a pastime.

Today, residents of Beijing’s traditional alleyways, called hutong in Chinese, often still raise birds in cages and may even take the whole birdcages out for walks.

The wutong bird owners usually release them in late spring and allow them to migrate back to the northeast — only to catch or purchase new ones the following fall.

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Mistreanu reported from Taipei, Taiwan. AP researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report.