Situated at the north end of Shandong Peninsula, the Changdao Nature Reserve was set up in 1982 with an area of 5,015 hectares. Famous as "a migrant hotel" ,the Changdao Nature Reserve consists of 32 islands including north/ south Changshan Mountains, north/south Huang Cities, small/large Heishan Mountains, small/large Qin Islands and Miao Islands, Tuoji Island, etc, with 140 km length of seashore and 95 km length of north—south distance.

Locating at the Huanghai and Bohai Seas rendezvous, the Changdao Nature Reserve belongs to the sub—Huanghuai area of the ancient North China zone, and houses an extreme variety of wild animal and plant resources, of which more than 230 species are migrants, including 41 species such as red—crowned crane, white stork, swan, golden eagle and cinereous vulture are under the key national protection, and 164 species are listed into the Sino—Japan Migrant Agreement, in which a total of 227 species of migrants are concluded for protection. There is the most important one of the three major ways, along which the migrants are coming in spring and leaving in autumn. The fine natural environment and plentiful wild animal and plant resources make the Changdao Nature Reserve a rare base for studying the migrating law of migrants in China's eastern seashores.

Since 1984, the Changdao Nature Reserve began to make registration of birds and put ring marks on more than 30 kinds of birds.