Ebinur Lake Birdwatching Area 艾比湖正规开放观鸟区

About Ebinur Lake Birdwatching Area

The lake surface once shrank from about 1,200 square kilometres to less than 400 — one regional report gives 362 square kilometres — and the dried lake bed became the largest source of dust in northern Xinjiang. The reserve was upgraded to national status in April 2007 and its management bureau was set up in 2008. In recent years the reserve has banned fish farming and brine-shrimp harvesting, returning the water to waterbirds and brine shrimp, and herders have moved off grassland beside the lake.

The county reports that the reserve now has 18 management stations, 5 ecological birdwatching pavilions and one national wildlife rescue centre, with 60 wardens on regular patrol. It records 687 species of wild plants and 329 vertebrate species, and says bird species have risen from 111 at the reserve's founding to 263, with more than 2 million birds observed. A 2024 regional report gives 267 bird species, including 91 rare or endangered and 54 nationally protected species, and records more than 200 species and 400,000 birds resting there each year; a 1,000-hectare bird habitat has been completed at the Jinghe river mouth.

The catalogue name 艾比湖正规开放观鸟区 is not a designation the cited pages use. The county page records five birdwatching pavilions inside the reserve while stating in the same passage that people and livestock are prohibited from entering the core zone, and no cited source designates a particular area of the reserve as open to birdwatchers.

What to look for

• The five ecological birdwatching pavilions the county records inside the reserve
• The reed beds taller than a person, with poplars, saxaul and tamarisk growing among them
• Migrating birds — the 2024 regional report records more than 200 species and 400,000 birds resting at the reserve each year
• The 1,000-hectare bird habitat completed at the Jinghe river mouth

Location & getting there

Getting to Ebinur Lake Birdwatching Area

Check the open visitor route and follow the site’s rules on distance, food and photography. Conservation areas may limit access beyond designated paths.

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