Approximately one million migratory birds are now spending the winter on Chongming Island, Shanghai, according to a recent survey.
These birds, of more than 100 species, include some 100 hooded cranes, one of the world’s most endangered crane species.
Experts say Chongming Island, China’s third largest at the mouth of the Yangtze River, is very important for the survival of birds migrating between northeast Asia and Australia.
Every year large numbers of migratory birds arrive on the island, residing mostly on its eastern end in a wetland area of some 220 square km, about one-fifth of the island’s land mass.
In 1998, the municipal government set up a nature reserve on the island to better protect the habitat of rare birds.
The reserve, covering more than 326 square km, has since become home to an increasing number of bird species during the winter, including cranes and storks from northeast China and Siberia.
(Xinhua 01/15/2001)
