"I was wearing a helmet while working on the nets that day," Nie said.

"My outfit and behavior made me look like a gangster. So, they had a verbal confrontation with me until the police came 15 minutes later and told them that setting up the nets was illegal."

In addition to the farmers who treated the birds as a nuisance, Nie said there were two other groups of people killing the birds. The elderly in rural areas hunted the birds for money and idle young people killed the birds to eat or out of fun.

"Farmers account for about 70 percent of the hunters, so I've been trying to educate them to properly deter the birds, not kill them," he said.

"As for other people, I have to stop them one by one. I am not afraid of confrontation because protecting birds is protecting our living environment."

Nie embarked on his volunteer work in 2006 when he happened to find hundreds of birds stuck to mist nets near his home in Changde. He waited nearly a whole day until the people who erected the nets appeared.

"The poacher from Kaili was stationed in Changde with his partners to hunt and sell wild birds. He thought I was a buyer and wanted to sell me a sparrow for 5 jiao (7 cents), but I reported them to the city government immediately," he said. Kaili is located in Guizhou province.

The professional bird poachers escaped, but all the nets were removed.