Bird conservation groups are to launch a census of birds next month ahead of the Lunar New Year to survey the winter bird populations and raise conservation awareness, as increasing development in coastal areas has threatened the survival of some bird species.
From Saturday next week through Jan. 10, this year’s Taiwan New Year Bird Count invites professional and amateur birdwatchers to investigate the diversity and populations of wintering birds in Taiwan, Chinese Wild Bird Federation president Tsai Shih-peng (蔡世鵬) said.
Tsai said that 967 volunteers recorded 319 species and 205,319 birds at 132 sites across the nation during the previous bird count, and the event this year is expected to attract more than a thousand participants to conduct the census at 160 selected birdwatching sites nationwide that cover 12 percent of the nation’s landmass, with each site measuring 6km in diameter, Tsai said.
Initiated last year, the event is a citizen science monitoring project to investigate migratory birds in Taiwan, with the Saunders’ gull, or the Chinese black-headed gull, chosen as this year’s principal subject of the survey, as its population size has decreased significantly, Tsai said.
Endemic to East Asia and listed as vulnerable in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the Saunders’ gull is found in South Korea, China and Southeastern Asian nations, with Taiwan being one of the bird’s major wintering sites, Tsai said.
The bird has a global population of fewer than 20,000 and it is decreasing due to China’s “seawall” — embankments and coastal infrastructure in southeastern China that has led to the loss of habitats of many migratory birds.
The populations of more than 28 bird species have decreased by more than 100 since last year, while the numbers of dunlin, Eurasian teal, sparrow, Pacific golden plover and cattle egret have diminished by more than 1,500, Wild Bird Society of Taiwan executive officer David Ho (何一先) said, adding the society has not been able to ascertain the cause of population decline so far, but the consensus could raise public awareness on protecting diminishing species and provide data for further research.
International efforts are required to conserve migratory birds, while national conservation can give rise to international endeavor, Forestry Bureau official Kuan Li-hao (管立豪) said, citing Taiwanese conservation efforts and media coverage of black-faced spoonbills, an endangered species, which prompted South Korea, where the birds breed, to make efforts to preserve the habitat of the species.
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