SHENZHEN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- At a high school in Shenzhen, a tech hub in south China's Guangdong Province, students stressed over the upcoming college entrance exam recently petitioned to remove a nest of noisy birds from campus, but their principal refused and instead offered them something more valuable than silence.
The noise has gone on for weeks since March at Shenzhen Bao'an Middle School, beginning before dawn and continuing into the evening, usually starting with a sharp shriek, then another, before swelling into a chorus.
The noisemakers are koels, a species of black, red-eyed birds protected under China's wildlife law. In Chinese, the creature is named "Zaojuan," meaning "noisy cuckoo." As the name suggests, its piercing call can reach up to 80 decibels, as loud as a vacuum cleaner.
Scientists say the birds sing most in the early morning and at night, when people are most sensitive to rest and sleep. During the breeding season, from March to May, their calls grow louder, more relentless and more repetitive as they seek to attract mates.
Some students can endure the noises and treat them as wake-up alarms, but for most, these sounds are irritating.
It feels like torture, one student complained. "Once, my teacher paused during class and said, 'Listen, they are fighting again.'"
A courageous student surnamed Le penned a letter to the principal, describing the disturbance. "My classmates and I are under pressure due to the college entrance exams, but the noisy birds in the treetops outside our window have been full of vitality, singing passionately. Please remove their nest and let these free spirits fly back to nature," Le wrote.
He added, "I know removing the nest is not easy, but I can't think of a better solution."
However, the request was denied. Principal Yuan Weixing later responded with a public letter, saying the nest would stay.
In his letter, Yuan explained that birds have their own rhythm and should not be disturbed. They are also an integral part of the school, sharing an ecosystem with the students. He added that, piercing as the calls may be, they could one day become unique campus memories worth recalling after graduation.
"I know your urgency, but I cannot grant your request. It is not because I don't sympathize with your hard school work, but I want you to understand that the ultimate goal of education is not to make the world adapt to us, but to teach us how to get along with the world," the principal said in the letter.
Refusing the request, however, did not mean doing nothing.
The principal bought earplugs online for the students. He also asked the campus staff to set up artificial bird nests farther from the teaching areas. Since koels do not build their own nests but instead occupy those of other birds, the idea was to provide alternative nesting sites to lure them away from the dormitory and classroom buildings.
In addition, the school has invited university researchers to give science lessons about the birds.
Liu Yang, a professor from the School of Ecology at Sun Yat-sen University, recently received an invitation to deliver a lecture. The bird expert praised the approach, saying that teaching young people how to coexist with animals is essential.
He added that as people place greater value on biodiversity and green conservation, urban wildlife is on the rise, and human-bird conflicts are likely to become more common.
Shenzhen is a key stopover along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. According to the latest survey by the local ecological environment department, the city is home to more than 450 species of wild birds, about one-third of the total bird species in China.
Liu noted that similar human-bird conflicts also occur in residential areas. In the past, solutions largely relied on raising public awareness to ease frustration. But in recent years, more scientific and advanced methods have emerged, striving to bring greater rationality and inclusiveness to urban governance.
For example, since 2023, Liu and his colleagues have deployed around 100 passive acoustic monitoring devices across the Greater Bay Area, using AI-based recognition algorithms to track bird sounds and map their spatial and temporal distribution patterns. They are now preparing a study to predict the detection rate of koel calls across Shenzhen, based on factors such as vegetation, water bodies and building density, to enhance the early warning system.
The human-bird conflict on the school campus has drawn widespread attention. After local media reports, the principal's letter went viral online. One line, in particular, was shared the most: "The exam matters, but it is just one wave in the long river of life. Learning to respect life, understand all creatures and coexist with discomfort, these are the treasures that will stay with you forever."
Now, the birds' songs still linger, but most students on campus have gradually adapted to the singing, including the teenage boy who wrote the letter.
Speaking to Xinhua, Le said the bird calls no longer bother him. He now focuses on his studies and thanked the school for the "lesson" that taught him how to manage his emotions.
"It's not so much about making peace with the bird as it is about making peace with yourself, and ultimately, with the world," he said. "Learning to adapt and to coexist with the world is the best form of growing up." ■
