Global warming is bringing ecological changes in its wake. Birdwatchers have noticed four or five kinds of migratory birds breeding in Guandu Nature Park, thus changing from migratory to resident. This year, for the first time, spotted-billed ducks have been seen breeding in the park. Park staff explain that migratory birds go wherever they can find food. It could be that there is now less food in their habitats in China, or just that the Guandu wetlands are suitable for them.
David Ho, head of Guandu Nature Park’s management office, says about 50,000 migratory birds pass through Taiwan each month, which is about 30 percent fewer than 30 years ago, as migratory bird numbers fall around the world. It’s a sign of the times that 20 years ago about 3,000 dunlins could be seen in Taipei, but now the number is down to 1,000 or so.
Ho judges that possible reasons for the drop in migratory bird numbers include climate change and habitat destruction. Climbing temperatures have caused many wetlands on which birds depend for their survival to dry up or disappear. Birds then have to migrate over greater distances, making migration more risky and so challenging their survival.
Despite the fall in numbers, Guandu Nature Park is now seeing the phenomenon of migratory birds becoming resident. Ho says the park’s first known nest of black-winged stilts hatched in 2005. The stilts have kept breeding in the five years since then, and this year there are nine nests with 24 hatchlings.
Today there are more than 12,000 birds belonging to over 120 species living and foraging in Guandu Nature Park, among which there are flocks of 80 to 90 species of winter resident migratory birds and waterfowl.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG)
氣候暖化，自然生態生變。賞鳥人士觀察，台北市關渡自然公園已有三至四種候鳥於園內繁殖，「候鳥成留鳥」，今年首度發現花嘴鴨繁殖後代。園方日前表示，候鳥逐食物而居，可能是中國的棲息地食物減少，也可能關渡濕地適合牠們。
關渡自然公園管理處處長何一先說，台灣每個月約有五萬隻候鳥過境，較三十年前減少三成，全球候鳥數量也下降；二十年前北部可看到約三千隻黑腹濱鷸，現在剩下到千隻。
何一先分析，候鳥減少可能原因包括環境變遷、棲地破壞。而氣溫升高使得許多鳥類仰賴的濕地乾涸或消失，候鳥遷徙旅途延長，增加遷移風險，生存受到挑戰。
儘管數量減少，關渡自然公園卻出現「候鳥成留鳥」的現象，何一先說，九十四年首度發現第一巢高蹺行鳥於園區誕生，持續五年有高蹺行鳥繁殖，今年也有九巢二十四隻小高蹺行鳥報到。
目前關渡公園約有一百二十多種鳥類、逾一萬兩千隻鳥類活動覓食，冬候鳥水鳥族群約有八十至九十種。
（自由時報記者林相美）
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