Taiwan is home to 675 bird species, of which 27 are endemic, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday at the opening of the 20th Taipei International Birdwatching Fair, calling on people to protect wildlife habitats.
The opening of the two-day fair, hosted by the Taipei Animal Protection Office and the Wild Bird Society of Taipei, brought bird protection groups from Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines to the city’s Guandu Nature Park.
As migratory birds can travel thousands of kilometers across different countries, destruction of one bird species’ habitat could affect up to 200 other species, Forestry Bureau Secretary-General Chiu Li-wen (邱立文) said, urging people to pay more attention to environmental protection.
To collect more information about domestic birds, the council’s Endemic Species Research Institute has been working closely with non-governmental groups to promote public participation in bird surveys, institute assistant researcher Fan Meng-wen (范孟雯) said.
Their breeding bird survey project, which started in 2009, sees more than 300 volunteers document birds’ living conditions from March to June every year at designated spots nationwide, she said.
One of their key findings from 2009 to 2015 was that the number of tree sparrows changed significantly: Their number in northern regions declined by 50 percent and in western regions by 4 percent, but populations in the east grew by 20 percent, she said.
The cause of the changes has not been confirmed, but it might be due to habitat changes, shortage of food, competition with exotic species or environmental pollution, Fan added.
Some Taiwanese bird species, such as kingfishers, winter in Singapore and return to Taiwan in March every year, Nature Society Singapore Bird Group Committee member Tan Gim-cheong (陳錦昌) said, adding that the birds cross China, Thailand and the Malay Peninsula on the way to the city-state.
Nearly 400 bird species can be seen in Singapore, despite the country’s relatively small area, especially in the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Central Catchment Nature Reserve and forested areas, Tan said.
Kanagawa Institute of Technology researcher Hiroyuki Fujita said he was on his first trip to Taiwan, and while he was on business, he also came to watch birds.
He said he spotted many beautiful birds in the mountains of New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來) yesterday morning.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard