Key nature reserve management bureaus in China have reported more birds, including some rare species, wintering across the country. Li Hongyang reports. 

Migratory birds are seen in Chenhu Lake Wetland Nature Reserve in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, Aug 4, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Climate change has posed a threat to the habitats of the Siberian crane, fueling the need to better protect the birds and their migratory channels, an expert said.

The eastern population of the species breeds in northeast Siberia in Russia and migrates to Poyang Lake for the winter in East China's Jiangxi province.

About 95 percent of the birds spend the season in Poyang.

Qian Fawen, a research professor from the National Bird Banding Center of China, part of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, said that Poyang's water levels determine whether it is suitable for the birds to nest there. However, climate change has caused the levels to fluctuate abnormally.

"In some years, the lake experiences floods, while in others, it experiences droughts. Both of these situations create food shortages in the cranes' habitat," he said.

The Siberian crane feeds on plants such as eelgrass. During periods of flooding or drought, the grass doesn't grow well, so the birds head for farmland to look for food.

To help solve this problem, the Jiangxi provincial government has built 70 hectares of lotus roots in Nanchang to provide sustenance during the winter for the cranes.

The Siberian crane is listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. Even so, the population of the birds has risen from about 3,000 to more than 5,000 over the past 20 years, according to Qian, who has been observing the birds around the lake since 1999.

"To protect them, we need to protect their habitat, which is mainly wetland," he said.

A photo shows black storks foraging for food along the banks of the Yangtze River in Yidu, Hubei province. (FENG JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Taking action

In the recently released National Action Plan for the Protection of Bird Migration Channels (2021-35), 1,140 sites in China were identified as important breeding grounds, wintering grounds and migratory stops, including Poyang and the Yellow River wetland in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

China has 804 species of migratory birds, accounting for 55.6 percent of all bird species, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

The plan said that relevant departments should monitor and assess migratory bird populations and compensate farmers for damages caused by the birds.

Since China joined the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, an intergovernmental treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1992, it has designated 202,600 hectares of wetland as Wetlands of International Importance, according to the administration.

Referred to as the "kidneys of the Earth" and as "species gene pools", wetlands conserve and clean water, maintain biodiversity, help contain floods and prevent droughts.

Wetlands include coastal areas with a water depth of no more than 6 meters at low tide, but exclude paddy fields and expanses of water used for aquaculture and artificial breeding, the administration said.

According to a plan released by the central government in October, by 2025, China will have protected 55 percent of its wetlands.

After the Wetlands Protection Law — the nation's first law to focus on protecting wetlands — was introduced on June 1, 2022, comprehensive protection was strengthened, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

The law clarified the division of management and introduced harsh punishment for people who damage wetland areas. It restricts construction at important national wetlands and bans harmful activities, including land reclamation, overgrazing, overharvesting and the discharging of wastewater.

(YAN DONGJIE / LI HONGYANG / YANG LIU / XIAOTIAN / CHINA DAILY)

Populations growing

Key nature reserve management bureaus in China have reported more birds wintering in the nation's wetlands, including some new rare species.

In February, the forestry bureau in Hunan province reported 72 species of waterbirds that were spending this past winter at Dongting Lake, which stretches across several counties and cities.

Mallards and Eurasian cranes are among the birds staying at the lake. Black-faced spoonbills, a rare and endangered species, were also spotted at Dongting after an absence of five years.

The number of the spoonbills has increased from 300 in the 1980s to more than 5,000 now, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

In December, staff members at the Shanghai Chongming Dongtan Bird National Nature Reserve recorded more than 2,900 tundra swans during a special monitoring session, up from some 1,000 seen during the winter in 2021.

Data from the Shanghai Forestry Bureau showed that in the 1980s, more than 3,000 of the swans wintered at the reserve. The number of the birds decreased for a time — eat one point, only dozens of them were seen — but thanks to restoration efforts, the migration population has rebounded.

The black stork, a national first-class protected bird, has wintered at the Qinglong River National Nature Reserve in Liaoning province for four years.

According to monitoring data at the reserve, as many as nine of the birds have been seen during that period. Last year, four of the birds were spotted.

Contact the writer at lihongyang@chinadaily.com.cn