Birds of the world call Taiwan home

One of the most overlooked aspects of Taiwan's natural environment is its astounding number of bird species.

Taiwan lies at the midpoint of the migration routes for many birds flying sometimes as far south as Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand during the winter season or as far north as Siberia during the summer season. As a result, a great number of migrating birds land in Taiwan, including the outlying islands of Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, Orchid Island, as well as dozens of small surrounding islets, for breeding during spring and summer.

One of the most important recent discoveries in bird watching was made in June last year, when a Chinese crested tern, once thought extinct, was spotted on an uninhabited island near Matsu. A year later, on June 6, the global organization Bird Life International sent Richard Thomas, an acclaimed expert in bird watching, to conduct a field survey of these birds in Taiwan.

The discovery made Taiwan the spotlight of the international conservation community, as it had been following the discovery of 130 black-faced spoonbills (黑面琵鷺) in 1985. Partly in response to the discovery of the Chinese crested tern, an international conference on endangered wild bird species will be held in Taipei and Matsu next year.

According to local bird-watching experts Wu Chun-shien (吳尊賢) and Hsu Wei-pin (徐偉斌), at least 450 bird species inhabit Taiwan, either permanently or temporarily. The number represents about one 20th of the more than 9,700 known bird species, which translates to the world's second-highest concentration of bird species per square kilometer after Madagascar. In contrast, China, which is 260 times larger than Taiwan, has only 1,200 bird species.

Varied topography attracts many birds

Taiwan's diverse topography provides the island with vast climatic differences, ranging from tropical and sub-tropical to temperate and cold zones on the more than 200 mountains over 3,000m. The temperature range provides ample food and nesting area for some 158 species of birds. Of these, 14 are Taiwan's so-called endemic species, or species found only in Taiwan.

Each year, Taiwan and its outlying islands offer food and temporary shelter to millions of an additional 290 wild bird species, which come to breed, or transit, or even arrive inadvertently during their seasonal migrations.

Lee Jiannan (李建安) and Lai Po-hsin (賴柏欣) of the Wild Bird Federation Taiwan (中華野鳥學會) told the Taipei Times that the 158 bird species found year-round in Taiwan, called resident birds, account for 39 percent of the total wild bird species. They can be spotted locally throughout the year, and include the Swinhoe's pheasant (藍腹鷳), Formosan blue magpie (台灣藍鵲), white-eared sibia (白耳畫眉), Chinese bulbul (白頭翁),crested serpent eagle (大冠鷲), Steere's liocichla (藪鳥) and the brown booby (白腹鰹鳥). Steere's liocichla are the dominant bird species residing at elevations over 1,000m.

The winter-migratory birds total 104 species and account for 23 percent of the total number of birds species in Taiwan. Frequently-sighted birds of this kind include the wood sandpiper (鷹斑鷸), daurian redstart (黃尾鴝), grey heron (蒼鷺), green-winged teal (小水鴨) and black-faced spoonbill. These birds arrive in Taiwan in late September to November for winter shelter and return to northern China, Siberia or Alaska to breed in February or March as spring arrives. The black-faced spoonbills stay in the southwest coastal area of Taiwan for the entire winter and their number seems to be growing, to the relief of the international conservation community.