At first glance, birds and airports do not seem like a particularly harmonious combination. Our feathered friends generally don't feel too comfortable living between runways and the wings of their (very) distant giant relatives. But in China, this is about to change with the creation of the "Lingang Bird Sanctuary."
This "airport" will not have any of the usual aircraft noise, and it will not have barren tarmac runways. It will be solely for the use of migrating birds in the peace and quiet of nature.
McGregor Coxall, designers and landscape architects based in Australia, China, and England, came up with the plans. They won an international design competition that was initiated and co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA), which is located close to Tianjin, China. This port city is home to the project.
The idea behind the catchy "airport" project is actually to create a giant nature reserve. But since this pilot project is happening right on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), a key migration route for birds, the term "Bird Airport" seems appropriate. Fifty million migratory birds make use of this flyway every year - and they are very likely to use the planned oasis in Tianjin for a stopover, before they continue their journey. These birds cover huge distances. The EAAF crosses 22 countries, among them China, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, and the USA (Alaska). Some birds fly more than 11,000 kilometers, and go ten days without nourishment just to make it to Tianjin.
"Birds' migration routes are a wonder of the natural world," says Adrian McGregor, director and founder of McGregor Coxall. "The proposed Bird Airport will be a globally significant sanctuary for endangered migratory bird species."
