Birds and flowers seem to go hand in hand in the public mind – wonders of the natural world.

Therefore, some visitors to the 10th China Flower Expo which opens tomorrow on Chongming Island may want to take a detour to the nearby Dongtan National Nature Reserve to hear a variety of bird songs found nowhere. elsewhere in Shanghai.

The island neighborhood in the city’s backyard is home to around 120 species of birds, including rare species like the greater white-fronted goose, striated heron, and black-faced spoonbill.

The 265 square kilometer wetland bird area in Dongtan Reserve is a stopover point for around 3 million birds on the Asia-Pacific migratory route each year.

A group of dedicated people on the island study the flight paths and lifestyles of birds as part of an overall program to protect the wildlife and the ecosystem in which they thrive.

One of them is Yin Hongchao, 41, a former factory worker and now a “bird keeper”. His mentor is Jin Weiguo, a longtime local bird specialist.

Hu Jun / SHINE

Yin gets up around 3:30 am and half an hour later goes to the reserve not far from his home.

His morning job is to help catch waders to take to island scientists for examination and tagging before they are released.

In the wetland, Yin, Jin, and two other colleagues split into two groups. At first they walk on a plank trail but when it ends they get into the wet areas. Their galoshes sink into the mud. Progress is slow.

When they reach what they think is a great place, they spread a net. While the birds are flying, Jin recognizes their calls and mimics them by mouth or bird whistle to get their attention. If one of the birds lands on the net, it is captured.

Captured birds are taken to a wooden shelter where scientific staff measure wings and beaks, collect saliva and droppings samples, check for diseases like bird flu, and attach identification rings to their feet .

Yin learned to gently hold the birds so that they don’t panic during the process. Once completed, the birds are returned to the wild.

Hu Jun / SHINE

In the afternoon, Yin goes to another protection post, a base for his motorcycle patrols.

His job is to check if there is anything wrong with the reserve and to keep an eye out for illegal hunting and fishing.

Yin is originally from Chongming Island and has always loved wildlife. He had no experience with protective tactics, but he was a fast learner. The hard part was recognizing all the different breeds of birds.

“Sometimes two different types of birds look a lot alike,” he told the Shanghai Daily. “When we go to a site and see a bird, we have to record what it is. Even on the same site, different birds appear in different seasons. “

He often wandered around the reserve during his off hours to familiarize himself with bird calls. He estimates that he can now recognize around 80 of them, but learning to imitate them was more difficult.

“Bird calls require special skills,” Yin said. “My mentor Jin showed me how to use the uvula to make bird sounds.

He says he has now mastered some basic bird songs.

Yin said the bird sanctuary has really improved after efforts to push back the invading Cordillera Smooth from an area of ​​24 square kilometers in the reserve. The reed was first introduced years ago to protect wetlands from marine erosion, but quickly took over, suffocating other plants. The number of birds is now increasing.

Hu Jun / SHINE

Jin, 60, was once a wild bird hunter, like his father and grandfather before him. He followed his father’s hunting trips and learned from him the calls of birds.

At the age of 10, he was able to use a bamboo whistle to mimic the birdsong of more than 20 species of birds. He became a famous bird hunter in Dongtan area.

But in the 1990s, the number of migratory birds declined in Chongming as the region’s ecological balance deteriorated, and Jin recognized how much worse the hunt was. So he gave up hunting and became a protector of birds.

In 1998, Shanghai Chongming Dongtan National Nature Reserve was established and became a bird research center. To study the birds, the reserve needed someone to catch the birds first. Jin volunteered to do it. He later became an official member of the staff.

“Dongtan is one of the stopover sites on the migratory routes between Australia and their breeding ground in the Arctic,” said Jin. “The birds stop here to rest and find food to recharge their batteries. About 80 percent of migratory birds stop and stay there for perhaps two weeks.

Hu Jun / SHINE

In November 2008, Jin was invited to attend a bird seminar in Australia. As a man who speaks an excellent Chongming dialect but a poor Mandarin, let alone English, he didn’t have much to say at the conference. But when he whistled birdsong for the participants, he was applauded.

Wu Wei is a scientist who works with “bird keepers”. After obtaining his doctorate in zoological ecology, he joined the reserve in 2008.

Wu said it was very gratifying to see birds that were once raised in small numbers now turn into large flocks.

“Previously, for example, we only saw several tundra swans each year in the reserve,” he said. “But now, with much better protection, the number of tundra swans keeps increasing. Last winter we had a record of over 600 Tundra Swans here.

“Hooded cranes overwinter in Dongtan every year,” Wu explained. “They spend some 150 days here, then leave again in the spring. So, every October, we look forward to their return. “

The nature reserve attracts an ever increasing number of bird watchers. Wu warns them to keep a safe distance from the birds and never disturb them.

Hu Jun / SHINE

Another contributor to Chongming’s ecology and bird protection is the World Wide Fund for Nature, which opened an office in Dongtan years ago.

“The waterbird population is a key indicator of biodiversity in a wetland ecosystem,” said Zhang Yimo, project coordinator of the wetland management fund in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

“From the WWF and nature reserve waterbird counts,” he said, “we are seeing a clear increase in bird numbers and species. It’s encouraging. “

He told the Shanghai Daily that the fund’s earliest work in Chongming dates back to 2007, when it launched a volunteer project and launched a “network of protected areas” along the Yangtze River. In 2011, based on data collected by the network, an international training center for wetland professionals in China was established in Chongming.

“We jointly designed habitats in a 3 square kilometer wetland in Dongtan,” said Zhang. “We are proud to report that he has been successful in increasing both bird populations and species. Up to 14 endangered species have been recorded in this small habitat, including the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper.

He said plans are underway to develop a comprehensive toolkit on wetland management in China, including manuals, lectures and other resources.