The first flocks of rare black-faced spoonbills are expected to arrive in Tainan County by the end of this month, formally starting the black-faced spoonbill season in Taiwan, an ornithology group said yesterday.
Every autumn, black-faced spoonbills — a rare and endangered species whose population is no more than 3,000 worldwide — migrate from northern China and the border between North and South Korea to winter in Taiwan, mainly on the wetlands near the Zengwun River (曾文溪) estuary in Cigu Township (七股), Tainan County.
Over the past month, both winter and summer migratory bird species have been sighted in Tainan because of the coming change of seasons, a spokesman for the Wild Bird Society of Tainan said.
“September to October is the best time for wild bird watching in Tainan,” the spokesman said.
He said the arrival of the black-faced spoonbills is quite late this year. In past years, he said, the birds have usually arrived close to the Moon Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar.
The group will begin a census next month to determine how many black-faced spoonbills are in Tainan and where they are basing their temporary habitat until April, he said.
In 2002, the Council of Agriculture designated a protection zone in the Cigu wetlands for the conservation of the species. The Tainan County Government also established the Black-Faced Spoonbill Conservation and Management Center near the wetlands four years ago to carry out research on the endangered species, which is viewed as an environmental indicator.
The number of migrating spoonbills in Tainan County increased from nearly 300 in 1997 to 1,013 in January last year.
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