On a high-voltage iron tower, Oriental storks, China's national first-class protected wild animals, are raising their young. Beneath the tower, builders of Hefei-Chizhou Railway are waiting for the fledglings to grow up.

It takes 50 days for these precious rare birds to gain the ability to live independently, which is exactly the period that the No.1 Bid Project Department of Hefei-Chizhou Railway Relocation Project under China TIESIJU Civil Engineering Group voluntarily suspended the power line reconstruction construction.

The oriental stork is a national first-class protected wild animal in China, known as the "giant panda among birds". Due to its narrow breeding distribution range and scarce quantity, there are only about 9,000 effective individuals worldwide, and it has been listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

According to records of the power transmission operation and maintenance department of State Grid Anhui Electric Power Company Chizhou Power Supply Company, in early February, a pair of oriental storks started building nests on the top of a 220-kilovolt high-voltage iron tower in Jiangkou Subdistrict, Guichi District, Chizhou City. The female stork laid five eggs on February 11. On April 1, volunteers confirmed there were four fledglings aged about 15 days in the nest via long-distance UAV observation.

"We found this bird nest along the construction section of Hefei-Chizhou Railway this year," said Tian Weihua, person in charge of the project. Construction in accordance with the original plan would interfere with the normal brooding process of the storks and hinder the young birds from leaving the nest to learn flying.

The relocation construction was drawing close to the nest. On April 27, the project department held a meeting and decided to postpone the construction for 50 days until the fledglings mature. The delay required rearrangement of the subsequent construction schedule, and the department adjusted seven major types of working procedures. "We will balance environmental protection and project progress on the premise of ensuring overall construction efficiency without delaying the final scheduled completion date."

Zuo Yali, deputy site manager of the project, was also curious when he first saw oriental storks. "None of our workers knew what kind of birds they were at first. We immediately looked up relevant information online and conducted extensive research."

All relevant parties joined hands in the protection work. State Grid Anhui Electric Power Company Chizhou Power Supply Company hung protection notice boards on the tower marking nesting time, egg-laying quantity, hatching period and expected fledging time, designated a temporary special protected area with a radius of 500 meters, and organized local villagers to set up patrol teams for stork protection.

In recent years, an increasing number of regions and construction projects have made way for wild lives. The 50-day construction suspension of Hefei-Chizhou Railway project protects the survival of rare birds, striking a perfect balance between key infrastructure construction and wild animal protection.