More than 430 species of birds, about one-third of the total bird population in China, can be seen in Shanghai. The majority of birds in the city are migratory, passing by the southeastern tip of the city's Nanhui and Chongming districts.

The eastern shoals of Nanhui and Chongming, where the Yangtze River joins the East China Sea is of strategic importance for migrating birds, where they stop to feed in spring and autumn while traveling between North and East Asia and Australia or Southeast Asia, says expert Yang Gang from the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.