HEFEI, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- A record number of waterbirds have been seen wintering in east China's Anhui Province, according to a survey conducted by local forestry and wetlands departments.

The provincial forestry department said Wednesday that the number of waterfowl arriving in Anhui's wetlands for winter exceeded 200,000 for the first time.

The survey was carried out by the local forestry department, wetlands protection center and Anhui University, aiming at evaluating the condition of waterfowl in the winter, as well as the ecological environment protection of wetlands across the province, according to Zhou Xiaochun, director of the provincial wetlands protection center.

The survey showed that a total of 60 species including species under top national protection were spotted this winter.

Anhui's Shengjin Lake National Nature Reserve, listed on the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, also saw a record number of nearly 64,000 waterbirds in the winter, the survey said.

An increasing number of waterfowl have arrived in Anhui in the winter since the province promulgated a plan to protect and restore wetlands in 2017 and started to remove bird netting and traps in 2018. The degradation of lakes has also been stopped.