The Honghe Nature Reserve in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province is home to the oriental white stork, a class-I protected bird species in China.
At one time, the oriental white stork could be found in Japan, China, Korea, and Russia. But due to habitat loss and over hunting, it is now extinct in Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Presently, there are only about 4,000 oriental white storks in the world.
An oriental white stork in flight with blue skies in the background /VCG photo
"The breeding of the oriental white stork requires three conditions. First, a place for building nests, that is to say, there must be tall trees. Second, enough food to feed the chicks. Third, less human interference," said Li Xiaomin, professor of Wildlife Resources at the Northeast Forestry University.
Normally, the oriental white storks build their nests roughly 8 to 20 meters up in thick trees. However, the are a limited number of these trees in the Reserve despite its good ecological environment, therefore the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Forestry decided to build artificial nests for this rare bird.
In 2018, the Honghe Nature Reserve built 42 artificial nests for the oriental white stork, a move that has increased their population from 53 in the 1990s to more than 300 in 150 nests in 2018.