Due to their flight ability and strong geographic dispersal, birds play important roles in the transmission and dissemination of infectous diseases. Since last century, a variety of infectious diseases such as avian cholera, avian tuberculosis, West Nile fever, avian influenza, and so on, have emerged and reemerged, and consequently have resulted in the death of numerous wild birds and poultry and as well as humans, and caused huge economic loss and serious social impact that have raised considerable concern. In this paper, the ecological character of infectious diseases and their impact on wild birds and humans, transmission of bird diseases, surveillance, early warning, prevention, and control of bird diseases, status and prospect of wildlife diseases surveillance, and prevention and control in China are reviewed. Bird diseases can be caused by an array of bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and other pathogens. Different diseases are highly variable in the magnitude of losses, species affected, frequency of recurrence, and geographic spread following initial events. Diseases have been one of the seven biggest threats to global biodiversity since last century. They are causative of physical and physiological dysfunction as well as problems in breeding, behavior, and other aspects that influence the health of birds and reduce their survival ability. Diseases could cause mass death of individuals, resulting in serious impact on bird populations, especially those of endangered species. Some diseases may also impact on habitat selection and geographic distribution of birds. Moreover, birds are also involved in the dissemination of zoonoses that could infect livestock and humans, and affected birds may even be employed in biowarfare and bioterrorism deliberately. Because wild birds act as vectors for various diseases, their movement plays important roles in transmission of diseases. For example, wild birds are the natural vectors for low pathogenic avian influenza. Through direct contact or shedding dropping into soil, water, food, or other taints affected birds could transmit the virus to other birds and poultry periodically, and result in quick geographic dispersal of avian influenza. Birds can also make migrations carrying a variety of pathogens; bird migrations are closely related with outbreaks of many infectious diseases. Therefore the establishment of full-scale surveillance and early warning systems are of great importance for prevention and control of bird diseases. Passive surveillance is aimed at investigation of morbidity and mortality events and monitoring of sentinel species; active surveillance is aimed at early detection of diseases through sampling and testing of animal and environment. Based on these surveillance data, the OIE standard for risk assessment is a widely used method for risk analysis of animal diseases. The State Forestry Administration of China has established an epidemic diseases surveillance network since 2004; 717 cases of animal diseases involving 36,538 individuals have been detected as of 2008, including the HPAI outbreak of wild birds at Qinghai Lake in 2005. However, we advocate establishment of more surveillance stations in Qinghai-Tibet area, development of related regulations and rules, enhancement of scientific support to the surveillance activities, and improvement of the capacities of local surveillance stations.