Abstract: To study the effects of bird droppings on the total amount and form of the heavy metals in river sediments, samples were collected from regions with and without bird droppings in the Tongli wetland national park, respectively. The contents of C, N, H and S were determined by elemental analyzer. The concentrations of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn and Co were measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICPOES). The chemical forms of heavy metals were determined by Tessier’s five step shape extraction method (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5). The method proposed by Hankanson for evaluating PER index was applied to the ecological risk assessments. The results showed that: the contents of C, N, H and S in river sediments display no significant differences between these two regions, but the variation coefficients in the region with bird droppings are higher than those in the region without bird droppings. Moreover, the Cr, Ni and Co in the region with bird droppings show significantly higher contents than those in the region without bird droppings (P = 0017, 0004, 0001< 005). The forms of heavy metal in Tongli wetland are dominated by the residue state. However, the effective state form of heavy metal in the sediments with bird droppings is higher than that in the sediments without bird droppings. And the potential ecological risk assessments in the region without bird droppings showed that the single factor potential ecological risk and the comprehensive potential ecological risks (RI) of these 5 heavy metals were low, while as regards to the region with bird droppings the risks are relatively higher. In sum, the heavy metal contents and ecological risks of the sediments in the region with bird droppings are higher than those of the region without bird droppings, and thus it is necessary to clean the bird droppings in the Tongli wetland