Oriental white storks “settle down” in Jiangxi

In recent years, some Oriental white storks have changed from “migratory birds” to “resident birds”, nesting and breeding on the shores of Poyang Lake. At present, more than 200 Oriental white storks have been confirmed to have survived natural reproduction in counties along the lake. Among them, nearly 100 wild Oriental white storks nest and breed in the waters of the lake.

At the end of May this year, the reporter followed the scientific researchers of the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Provincial Academy of Forestry to find 21 bird nests on the top of high-voltage towers in Baishazhou Wetland, Poyang Lake, Nanchang County, Yugan County, Dongxiang County, Poyang County, Wannian County, Duchang County, Yongxiu County, Chaisang District, Lushan City, etc., where the Oriental white stork parents in the nests were hatching their babies. When we visited again at the end of June, Oriental white stork chicks were found in each bird nest, with at least 3 chicks in each nest.

The Oriental white stork is the top animal in the food chain of the wetland ecosystem. It has very high requirements for the environmental quality of its habitat and reproduction, and is an “environmental monitoring bird”. The fact that it can choose the area around Poyang Lake as its breeding ground just shows that the ecological environment system of the local area and even the whole Jiangxi Province is good.

The Oriental White Stork is an endangered species in the world, with only more than 3,000 left in the world. It is known as the “bird giant panda”. The Oriental White Stork mainly breeds in the southeastern part of the Russian Far East and the northeast region of my country. From the end of September to March of the following year, nearly 95% of the world’s Oriental White Storks overwinter in the Poyang Lake area of ​​Jiangxi Province. Since May 2002, when researchers from the Poyang Lake Nature Reserve discovered that 13 Oriental White Storks were stranded in Poyang Lake, as of now, more than 200 Oriental White Storks have successfully bred in the Poyang Lake area, attracting great attention from the international community.

Wang Zhiru, director of the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Provincial Academy of Forestry, told reporters that the Oriental White Stork has become a resident bird in our province during the summer, and even “settled” in Jiangxi for a long time. This is of great significance for studying the migration patterns of migratory birds and how to protect the habitats of the Oriental White Stork.