BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- A total of 265,000 wild birds were spotted in Beijing in February as the migration season arrived, authorities said Sunday.

Sunday coincided with UN World Wildlife Day. This year's World Wildlife Day was celebrated with the theme of "Life below water: for people and planet."

According to Beijing Municipal Gardening and Greening Bureau, these migratory birds were spotted in the city's nine national-level and 34 city-level monitoring stations from Feb. 1 to 26, including whooper swans, cygnets, white-tailed eagles, saker, white spoonbills and herons.

Beijing has been strengthening wildlife protection efforts in recent years and the types of wild animals and plants have been increasing with the ecological environment improving in the national capital.

In October last year, 343 kinds of wild birds appeared at Beijing Wild Duck Lake National Wetland Park in Yanqing district, an increase of 48 kinds compared with the same period in 2015.

According to the bureau, Beijing will launch a research on wildlife habitats in 2019 and make a protection list based on the research to better protect wildlife and improve bio-diversity in the city.