The number of documented black-faced spoonbills globally has reached a record high of 4,463 this year, the Chinese Wild Bird Federation said Thursday, but added that certain planned development projects in southern Taiwan might damage the species’ habitats.
The spoonbills, which are listed as endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources’ Red List of Threatened Species, are found in coastal regions in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and often spend the winter in Taiwan, the group said.
Taiwanese conservationists started surveying the birds in the 1990s, when they were campaigning against the proposed Pinnan Industrial Complex (濱南工業區) project in Tainan, federation research director Allen Lyu (呂翊維) said.
Photo: CNA
The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society has since 2003 been collecting data about the birds from different groups in East Asian nations, and also announced findings from a January survey yesterday, Lyu said.
The total number of spoonbills has reached 4,463, up from 3,941 last year and only 294 in 1990, the federation said.
Up to 53.9 percent, or 2,407, were recorded in Taiwan — more than the 2,195 documented last year, but lower than the peak of 2,601 in 2017, it added.
Among the birds in Taiwan, 65.3 percent were seen in the wetlands in Tainan, 20.3 percent in Chiayi County, 10.2 percent in Kaohsiung and 2.2 percent in Yunlin County, it said.
However, the number of spoonbills seen in Tainan has been fluctuating over the past years, suggesting that their growth might be slowing, even though their total number across the world is rising, the group said.
Several development projects planned on their habitats in southern municipalities have menaced the birds’ existence, it said.
A road development project near Kaohsiung’s Cieding Wetlands (茄萣濕地), an expansion project of the city’s Singda Power Plant (興達電廠) near the Yongan Wetlands (永安濕地) and photovoltaic installations planned near Tainan’s wetlands would curtail the species’ habitats, it said.
The existence of black-faced spoonbills is an indicator of environmental health, the federation said, urging authorities not to step back conservation efforts just because their numbers have increased.
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