Hongze Lake is China’s fourth largest freshwater lake and is also an important habitat for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds on the East Asian-Australian Flyway (EAAF). Sihong Hongze Lake Wetlands National Nature Reserve is located on the northwest of Hongze Lake, Sihong County, Jiangsu Province. The Reserve is a protected large area of natural lake wetlands, marsh wetlands and riverine wetlands and used as a stopover and wintering habitats for migratory birds. Previous studies have conducted bird diversity and temporal-spatial variation in this Reserve, but only for species of Anseriformes. There is still a lack of a comprehensive dataset on the number of bird species and individuals in this Reserve throughout the year. Our study was conducted from July 2020 to June 2021 to observe bird species composition and individual numbers at Sihong Hongze Lake Wetlands National Nature Reserve and provides an occurrence dataset with detailed species and geographic information.

This occurrence dataset is the first public record of birds in Sihong Hongze Lake Wetlands National Nature Reserve for a whole year, which includes the taxonomic information, location information, number, investigation date and endangered level for each species. All data have been published on GBIF.