A new documentary Fly, Kite, Fly (老鷹想飛) made by Taiwanese nature photographer Liang Chieh-te (梁皆得) depicts a bird-watcher who spent 20 years recording the behavior of black kites in Taiwan.
In 1991, Liang began accompanying Shen Chen-chung (沈振中) on his trips to observe the medium-sized raptor, and documented his activities for more than two decades, resulting in the 76-minute movie, that is to be released nationwide on Nov. 20.
In 1992, Shen, then 38, pledged to make a detailed account of the birds over the following 20 years, after he witnessed the 1991 disappearance of a group of black kites from Waimushan (外木山) in Keelung, according to the the producer of the documentary, the Taipei-based Raptor Research Group of Taiwan (RRGT).
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Since then, Shen has traveled anywhere in Taiwan there were signs of black kites, from Keelung to Pingtung County. Choosing to keep his distance from the birds to avoid disturbing them, he carefully and quietly and faithfully wrote down his observations.
“Instead of saying I discovered them, it would be more appropriate to say they captured me and wanted me to record everything that happened to them,” Shen wrote in one of three of his books on black kites.
To further devote himself to his passion, Shen quit his job as a high-school teacher several years after he starting observing black kites.
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Shen “would watch the sky through binoculars as the sun began to sink, counting each black kite one by one. He seemed to be taking an evening roll call of the raptor that belongs to the sky,” wrote Chiu Chun (邱惇) in a July 22 article on Shen published on news Web site CrowdWatch.
Chiu participated in fundraising efforts to support the documentary.
Writer, poet and conservationist Liu Ke-hsiang (劉克襄) compared Shen’s dedication and efforts to “conduct deep dialogues with the kites” to Jane Goodall’s long-term observation of chimpanzees in Africa.
Goodall’s “surprising experience of being treated as part of their [the chimps’] community also happened to Shen,” Liu wrote in an article published in August about his encounter with the bird-watcher.
According to the RRGT, black kites have flourished in neighboring countries, but not in Taiwan, where their total numbers have declined to about 300. The raptors were seen nationwide before the 1980s, but now they only inhabit the northern and southern tips of the island in small flocks, the RRGT said.
Shen’s observations inspired the government and the Institute of Wildlife Conservation at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology to launch a study in 2010 on what had caused the decline of black kites in Taiwan.
During the study, a group of field investigators, students at the institute and RRGT members led by researcher Lin Hui-shan (林惠珊) found that the improper use of pesticides by farmers might have been one of the major culprits, the RRGT said.
Having filmed the documentary over 23 years, Liang aims to allow the audience access to the bird’s primitive mind and encourage awareness of the warning delivered by its dwindling numbers, the group said.
Wu Nien-jen (吳念真), a well-known scriptwriter, director and author, narrated the film, while the score was composed by Lim Giong (林強), a popular songwriter and pop singer.
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