Students at Shenzhen Bao'an Middle School in southern China were so disturbed by the piercing calls of a koel nest that they petitioned Principal Yuan Weixing to have it removed ahead of college entrance exams. Instead of complying, Yuan denied the request and turned the conflict into a learning exercise, buying earplugs,setting up artificial nests, and inviting university researchers to teach about bird science, according to a report on the incident.

The 80-decibel koels that pushed students to petition

The noise began in March 2025 and persisted for weeks, with koels — a protected species known in Chinese as 'Zaojuan,' meaning 'noisy cuckoo' — producing calls that reached 80 decibels, as loud as a vacuum cleaner, the report states. Scientists note that the birds sing most intensely during breeding season (March to May), especially at dawn and night, when humans are most sensitive. One student described the sonic bombardment as a form of torture, and a brave student named Le wrote to the principal: 'My classmates and I are under pressure due to the college entrance exams, but the noisy birds… have been full of vitality, singing passionately. Please remove their nest.'

Principal Yuan Weixing's open letter: 'The ultimate goal of education'

Principal Yuan refused the petition in an open letter, explaining that birds have their own natural rhythm and should not be disturbed. 'I know your urgency, but I cannot grant your request,' he wrote,according to the report. 'It is not because I don't sympathise with your hard school work, but because 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.' Rather than doing nothing, he purchased earplugs for students and instructed campus staff to set up artificial nesting sites away from classrooms, since koels occupy other birds' nests rather than building their own.

Professor Liu Yang's AI-based early warning system for bird noise

The school invited Liu Yang, a professor from the School of Ecology at Sun Yat-sen University, to deliver a lecture on bird science. Liu praised Yuan's approach, stating that teaching young people to coexist with animals is essential, the report says. He also noted that a greater focus on biodiversity and conservation has boosted urban wildlife, making human-animal conflicts more common. Liu has been working on a project since 2023 that installed 100 passive acoustic monitoring devices around the Greater Bay Area — a megalopolis of nine cities including Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macao. These devices use AI-based recognition algorithms to track bird sounds and map movements. His team is now preparing a study to predict where koel calls are most likely to be heard, factoring in vegetation, water bodies, and building density, with the goal of creating an early warning system for residents.

Shenzhen's role on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway

Shenzhen is a key stopover along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, one of the world's most important migratory bird routes. According to official figures cited in the report, the city is home to more than 450 species of wild birds — about one-third of China's total. The koel conflict illustrates a growing challenge: as urban areas expand into natural habitats and conservation efforts boost bird populations, such encounters are likely to increase, requiring both technological solutions and educational approaches like the one at Bao'an Middle School.