Birds, with their attractive plumage and their variegated colours add to the beauty of our natural surroundings. Birds tend to migrate seasonally to more hospitable habitats, of which Myanmar, with its ecological diversity and richness of its natural forests constitutes one of their most attractive destinations. Accordingly it has become necessary for wild bird sanctuaries to be set up all over the country to ensure that systematic steps be undertaken to conserve its wild bird population.

Myanmar’s many lakes offer sanctuary not only to domestic species of birds but to rare migratory species as well. Siberian wild birds migrate annually along the Australasim Flyway to escape the intense Siberian cold, and some of them take a well-earned rest on the waters of Innlay Lake. This immense lake, which geologists estimate was formed about 400 million years ago, currently extends over the lowest part of the Nyaung Shwe Basin in the northern Shan State.

Among the migratory wild birds found at Innlay are rare speices such as the crane, the purple swamp moorhen, the black winged stilt, and the open bill. The Lake is also frequented by local species such as the whistling teal or lesser treee duck, the bronze winged jacana, the cattle egret, the plumed egret, the little egret, the Indian Pond Heron, the eastern gray heron, the comorant, the water cock, the gull, the Brahminy Duck or Shelduck and many others.

The Innlay Wetland Bird Sanctuary, which covers an area of 23.42 square miles may be likened to a “Bird Resting Site” or a “Bird Rest”. The most rewarding time to visit the Innlay “Bird’s Rest” is at sunset, when you are most likely to see whole flocks of wild birds returning to their nests for the night, at the sight of which you will find your cares and worries slipping away and your heart lightening with joy at the beauty of the spectacle.