(Photo/Zhang Qi)

A growing number of migratory birds in some 20 species have stopped over at Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing City during their southward migration in November.

Nanjing is an important stopover on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway and a key wintering ground for some waterbirds. In the early 1980s, there were nearly 100 species and tens of thousands of waterbirds on Xuanwu Lake. However, the number dropped sharply in the 1990s, to about 800 birds and then only some 100 birds in early 2001.

In recent years, the city has adopted measures to improve ecological environment, such as dredging of the lake, expansion of the capacity and construction of wetlands. The lake now boasts 130,000-square-meter wetland and a 7-km shoreline renovated for ecological conservation.

A report released by the Nanjing Landscaping Bureau in September this year identified 154 species of birds, including some endangered ones.

The number of migratory birds in winter reached over 10,000, said Liu Maosong, associate professor at Nanjing University's School of Life Sciences.