Conservation and Monitoring of Water Birds in West Dongting Lake

In 2010,the monitoring records showed that there were 81 species,35264 individuals of water birds in West Dongting Lake Nature Reserve.They belong to 6 orders and 16 families,and the majority of them were shorebirds and waterfowls.Charadriiformes and Ciconiiformes were the dominant orders of the shorebird and Anseriformes in waterfowl,respectively accounting for 38.27%,19.75% and 29.63% of the bird community.In view of seasonal forms,there were 78 species of migrating birds accounting for 96.29% of the total number of water bird species,2 species of resident birds accounting for 2.47% and one species of scarce bird accounting for 1.23% of the total number of water bird species.We recorded 12 species of endangered water birds with a total of 2023 individuals,of which two species with a total of four individuals were new records.Population sizes of the water birds increased more or less overall compared to those recorded in last few years,but the number of waterfowls decreased somehow while the number of shorebirds revealed an increase.Climate change,insufficient water in wetlands and human activities were the main factors influencing migrating water birds.Restoration and improvement of the wetlands and strengthening of management and conservation will be future priorities for the West Dongting Lake Natural Reserve.