We surveyed the birds by line transects and point counts methods in the lakeside and shore habitats in Chaohu Lake in February,July 2008 and from November 2008 to July 2009. A total of 103 bird species belonging to 33 families,15 orders were counted,of those 3 species are in national grade two protection list and 33 species in Anhui provincial protection list. These birds included 33 residents,37 summer,27 winter and 9 passing migrants. With respect to the breeding birds,23,30 and 16 species accounting for 33. 3% ,43. 5% and 23. 2% of the total species are Palaearctic,Oriental and cosmopolitan species respectively. There were 33 waterbirds found in the offshore areas within 500 meters,of those only 10 species were swimming birds. Only 5 birds were dominant and 15 birds widely distributed in the lake areas. Among five shore habitats,the bosket and abandon field habitat held the high diversity indices,and the shore habitats had the lowest diversity indices. The lake habitat degradation resulted from pollution and indiscriminately exploitation and then had great impacts on bird diversity. So some vigorous efforts should be made to control the lake pollution and restore the wetland habitats so as to encourage the rich bird biodiversity in Chaohu Lake ecosystem.