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

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.

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)

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.

“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.

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Wall Street’s lull threatened to stretch into a second day Thursday as more corporate earnings are released ahead of the government's weekly layoffs data.

Futures for the S&P 500 ticked down 0.1% and futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell less than 0.2%.

Airbnb tumbled 9.6% in premarket Thursday after the online rental gave a cautious second-quarter forecast despite easily beating Wall Street's first quarter targets.

Beyond Meat, the maker of plant-based meat substitutes, fell 12.9% after it posted a much wider loss than analysts expected as demand continued to crater.

Stock trading and personal finance app Robinhood jumped 5% after it tripled per-share profit expectations on strong subscriber growth.

Companies have been broadly reporting stronger profits for the first three months of 2024 than analysts expected. That, and newly-revived hopes for cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, have helped the U.S. stock market to recover from its rough April.

Treasury yields have largely been easing since Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank remains closer to cutting its main interest rate than hiking it, despite a string of stubbornly high readings on inflation this year. A cooler-than-expected jobs report on Friday, meanwhile, suggested the U.S. economy could pull off the balancing act of staying solid enough to avoid a bad recession without being so strong that it keeps inflation too high.

Later Thursday, the government issues its weekly tally of U.S. layoffs, which have remained historically low in the face of high interest rates and still-elevated inflation. On Friday, economists will pore over the latest consumer sentiment survey from the University of Michigan to gauge how Americans feel about their finances.

In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 reversed course to a 0.4% gain at midday after the Bank of England maintained its key interest rate at a 16-year high of 5.25% but hinted that a rate reduction could come soon with inflation forecast to fall below its target.

Germany’s DAX rose 0.5% and the CAC 40 in Paris inched up 0.1%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index was down 0.3% at 38,073.98.

Automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s shares dropped 4.9% after the company forecasted a 7% lower net profit in the fiscal year that will end in March 2025.

Toyota Motor slipped 0.4% after it reported Wednesday that it doubled its net profit in the fiscal year that ended in March.

The U.S. dollar rose to 155.86 Japanese yen from 155.52 yen, as reports in Tokyo speculated on the likelihood of further intervention by the Finance Ministry to curb the yen's slide.

“We're always prepared to do so if necessary. We might do it today. We might do it tomorrow,” Masato Kanda, the Finance Vice Minister for International Affairs.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.1% to 18,511.26 and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.8% to 3,154.32.

China reported that its exports rose 1.5% in April from a year earlier, while imports jumped 8.4%. The renewed growth suggests a stronger recovery in demand than earlier data had suggested.

In South Korea, the Kospi lost 1.2% to 2,712.14. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.1% to 7,721.60.

In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 59 cents to $79.58 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude oil, the international standard, was up 58 cents to $84.16 per barrel.

The euro dropped to $1.0731 from $1.0745.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 finished virtually unchanged after flipping between modest gains and losses through the day. It edged down by 0.03 to 5,187.67, coming off a very slight gain on Tuesday, which followed a big three-day winning streak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to 39,056.39, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2% to 16,302.76.

People look at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person rides bicycle past an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 and New York Dow indexes at a securities firm Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person stands near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)