Bird lovers yesterday called on the public to pay close attention to numbers of migratory birds, especially black-faced spoonbills, after a cold front last month wreaked havoc in the endangered species’ major wintering habitats in central and southern Taiwan.
The Chinese Wild Bird Federation said the cold weather last month caused a mass die-off of fish in coastal areas, which not only hurt the fishery sector, but also the survival of wild animals, as birds living in shallow wetlands could die due to cold or reduced food sources.
Aquaculture has suffered record losses of NT$3.16 billion (US$93.47 million) as temperatures of below 5oC across the nation destroyed fish farm stocks, which are susceptible to water temperatures below 10oC, the Council of Agriculture said.
Federation conservation director Shen Yu-lin (沈育霖) said the black-faced spoonbill is an internationally recognized endangered species, with more than half of the bird’s global population wintering in coastal areas in Taiwan.
Spoonbills live in shallow wetlands and fish farms, which have small fish that the birds eat, but following the massive deaths of fish, harmful bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum took over ponds, affecting water quality and endangering the birds’ health, Shen said.
“We have seen birds that used to congregate around fishing ponds disperse to find food elsewhere after the fish die-off,” he said. “We are concerned about their survival, as they usually depend on the fish pond ecosystem to survive.”
“We highlight the conservation of black-faced spoonbill not only because it is a star species, but also because its survival is linked to fish ponds and wetlands,” he said. “We can guess the state other birds must be in according to what we observe with spoonbills.”
There is a system to track the spoonbill population, while bird watchers are encouraged to report spoonbill movements, with the data helpful in analyzing the effects of cold weather on the survival of large wading birds, he said.
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