A record 3,132 black-faced spoonbills, or almost 60 percent of the global population of 5,222, were sighted in Taiwan this winter, an annual census by the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society showed.
An international census coordinated by the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society in January documented a record 5,222 black-faced spoonbills, the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation said in a news release on Friday.
Among them, 3,132 were found in Taiwan — an increase of 347 from a year earlier, the federation said.
Photo courtesy of a photographer surnamed Lai
The federation cited the census as saying that 2,114 black-faced spoonbills were documented in Tainan, followed by 408 in Kaohsiung, 321 in Chiayi County and 218 in Yunlin County, with the remainder recorded in Kinmen, Yilan, Pingtung and Penghu counties.
An increase in the number of black-faced spoonbills was recorded in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Yunlin, which recorded annual increases of 275, 167 and 116 respectively, it said.
The overall increase shows that Taiwan maintains good environmental conditions for the birds, federation secretary-general Allen Lyu (呂翊維) said, but added that black-faced spoonbills are facing other challenges.
For example, Chiayi reported a drop of 229 black-faced spoonbills, which the federation said might have been caused by a reduction in salt pan areas or bodies of water due to decreased rainfall.
Meanwhile, from December last year to last month, nearly 40 birds were rescued in Tainan, Chiayi and Kaohsiung, mainly due to botulism, the federation said, adding that at least 12 have already recovered and been released into the wild.
The cases of botulism are related to degradation of the birds’ foraging areas, Lyu said.
Low rainfall might reduce foraging areas for black-faced spoonbills and worsen the trend, he added.
The census showed that the birds’ habitats are expanding north, with Yunlin ranked the No. 4 hot spot for black-faced spoonbills after Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi, the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau said.
Yunlin’s Chenglong Wetlands (成龍溼地) has become a new hot spot for the species thanks to conservation efforts over the past few years, the bureau said.
However, the waters off Yunlin’s coast are where several offshore wind farms are planned, and the government is also promoting floating solar farms in ponds, Lyu said.
Whether the energy installations would affect the living conditions of the black-faced spoonbills and other species would require continuous monitoring, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues