Jiangsu birds surpass 470 species – World Migratory Bird Day

International Business News  –  May 13 this year is the World Migratory Bird Day, the reporter learned from the Wildlife Protection Station of the Jiangsu Provincial Forestry Bureau, according to the field habitat bird observation identification, Jiangsu Province has exceeded 470 species of birds, new birds by the preliminary identification of yellow-bellied mountain wren warbler and so on.

Compared with the 468 species of birds published in 2022, only two species of birds have been added this year, but the data is the result of strict identification by bird experts in Jiangsu Province. The author of the Bird List of Jiangsu Province, Professor Lu Changhu of Nanjing Forestry University, told reporters that the bird list is adjusted very carefully, taking into account factors such as the number of discoveries, time and location, and by academic publication and peer review. In the list published in 2022, the Great Bustard, a national-level protected animal in Hongze Lake that had not been found for nearly 30 years, was removed, while the Yangtze Rooster was adjusted to two Yangtze Rooster subspecies.

The data show that in recent years, the species and number of birds in the wild in Jiangsu have been increasing, and the ecological structure tends to be complete and stable. The Bird List of Jiangsu Province recorded 447 species of birds in 2015, an increase of 23 species in 8 years. The number of observable migratory birds and resident birds throughout the province has been increasing.Yancheng Yellow Sea Wetland is an important station connecting migratory birds from more than 20 countries on the migration route from East Asia to Australasia. It is also the world’s largest wintering ground for red-crowned cranes. More than ten thousand pied faced ducks were recorded in the Lushui Bay wetland of Nanjing, the largest number of overwintering groups ever recorded in the local area. A large number of “distant visitors” such as migratory birds and travelers were left behind as resident birds, such as Oriental white stork and spoon-billed snipe. The yellow-breasted bunting, which is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is found in Tianfu Wetland and Suqian in Kunshan. In January this year, red-crowned cranes were found wintering in Shijiu Lake for the first time in the south of the Yangtze River. White-headed crane, a rare and globally endangered bird found on Taizhou’s Mazhou Island…

Jiangsu’s growing ecological civilization and large-scale wetland protection and woodland construction, among other things, are providing more and more good habitats for birds. “Jiangsu has a large number of lakes and wetlands, and the species and number of birds in Jiangsu are solidly elevated, inseparable from the province’s forest city construction, wetland renovation and restoration initiatives.” Lu Changhu introduced. “Jiangsu has the highest wetland rate among the provinces in the country, with a wetland area of over 3 million hectares, accounting for about a quarter of the province’s land area. So far, a total area of 324,800 mu of wetlands has been restored and reconstructed, and the next step is to connect the coastal wetlands along the rivers into a surface.” Wang Guochen, director of the Forestry Bureau of Jiangsu Province, said. Suzhou City Wetland Protection Station Director Feng Yuqing introduced, at present, Suzhou alone has 15 wetlands to meet the standard of internationally important wetlands.

Provincial bird experts said, “As the ecological environment in Jiangsu Province continues to improve and the improvement of bird-watching equipment and bird identification technology, it can be expected that the province will continue to refresh bird distribution records in the coming years, and the population and number of birds will increase.”

The reporter noted that in April this year, a department released the news through the media that “47 new species of birds were found in Jiangsu in two years, and a total of 358 species of birds were surveyed. Some experts pointed out to the reporter that the above data should be the results of the department’s survey in the past two years, and the actual situation of birds in the wild in our province at present is a big gap, it is necessary to clarify.