An adult black stork feeds its chicks. ZHAO HAI / FOR CHINA DAILY

Shen Yang, a transmission-line patrol worker with State Grid Zhangye Power Supply Company, has spent years inspecting power lines around the wetlands. He has noticed more bird species and greater numbers of some birds over the past decade. In his experience, birds that were once rarely seen in Zhangye, he said, have become common.

As bird numbers increased, a transmission line running through the wetland was relocated to its outskirts before 2015 as part of the wetland's overall planning, Shen said.

For Shen, protecting birds has become part of his daily patrols. When he finds an injured or flightless bird, he sends it to a wildlife protection station for care.

If a nest is empty, he still goes back to check it. "Even though the birds have flown away, I still come to take a look. They will come back next year," he said.