URUMQI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- An army of birds launched rounds of "air raids" to crop-destroying locusts in a grassland in Tacheng Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

　　Every summer, around 430,000 migrating rosy starlings, a bird that preys on locusts and grasshoppers, settle down in the prefecture, guarding more than 53,000 hectares of pasture in the prefecture.

　　"Thanks to the rosy starling, the locusts on the pasture have gradually disappeared," said Liu Chengcai, head of the locust and rodent control station in the prefecture.

　　Combating locusts has long been a key task of grassland environment protection. Xinjiang once sprayed insecticides to eradicate locusts, which is both costly and environment-damaging.

　　Since the 1980s, Xinjiang started encouraging the use of biological measures, such as birds. Local governments set up artificial nests in mountainous areas and grasslands to attract pest-eating birds.

　　Every May, rosy starlings migrate to Xinjiang for breeding. One rosy starling can eat 120 to 180 locusts a day, experts say.

　　To better protect these birds, many places in Xinjiang including Tacheng and Hami have set up bird nests and protection bases in grasslands.

　　The construction of a 76.5-km highway linking Barkol and Hami in Xinjiang has been postponed to protect the birds that are building nests and hatching in the cracks of the rocks laid on the roadbed.