Nanniwan Town in Yan'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province has become an agreeable home for more birds to stay after continuous efforts in improving the ecology and environment of the area that used to suffer from serious soil erosion.

One of the signs that shows its improvement is the increasing number of migratory birds including some endangered and rare species such as the oriental white stork and great bustard that have never been seen before 2021. Birds like black storks, herons, egrets, coots, mallards and others chose to spend the winter here for two consecutive years, which was impossible to imagine ten years ago.

"In the past, hardly could I see any birds around here to film. Now is a different view. You are able to capture the sightings of birds all year round, so far I have already recorded 60 or 70 species of birds." said Ren Yanhong, a photographer.

Nanniwan is located in the core area of the Loess Plateau, which earlier had serious soil erosion and fragile natural ecological conditions. To restore the damaged environment, great attention was given to expanding the forest and constructing a wetland park.

6,000 plants of thirteen species were introduced for the building of the south-to-north bamboo planting trail field. The forest coverage rate of Nanniwan has reached 87.4 percent, and the greening rate has reached 93 percent.

"At present, our tree stock has increased from 1.05 million cubic meters ten years ago to 1.51 million cubic meters now, which will greatly improve the diversity of animals and species." said Wen Runquan, director of Nanniwan Forest Farm.

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