HARBIN－Honghe national nature reserve in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province has built 100 new artificial nests for endangered Oriental white storks.

The Oriental white stork, a migratory bird species under first-class national protection, has been listed as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

At the beginning of this year, the reserve added 100 artificial iron bird nests instead of the wooden ones installed previously, as they are believed to be more secure and resistant to decay, thereby having a longer service life and the ability to attract wildlife.

The reserve will gradually replace all of the wooden nests with the iron ones, says Zhu Baoguang from the reserve's administration bureau.

With a total area of 21,835 hectares, the reserve is considered to be China's home to Oriental white storks, and it is also a major breeding habitat for many other, rare migratory birds.

To restore the population of the endangered stork, the nature reserve has, since 1993, built 389 artificial nests. By the end of last year, it had successfully helped the Oriental white stork breed 1,748 fledglings.

Xinhua