The Kenting National Park Management Office plans to plant five more trackers on Chinese sparrowhawks to gather more data on their migratory routes and habits.
The office early this month commissioned the Raptor Research Group of Taiwan to conduct a study of the migratory birds of prey that pass through southern Taiwan with the northeastern monsoon.
So far, the group has sighted more than 200,000 of the birds.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
For the first nine days, fewer than 100 sparrowhawks per day passed through Taiwan, but from Saturday last week to Monday, 2,000 came through daily, the group said.
On Wednesday, the group counted more than 6,800 sparrowhawks.
Only two of the previously placed beacons — Kenting No. 4 and Kenting No. 7 — are still functioning, the office said.
It said it hopes that the two sparrowhawks with functioning tracers would pass over Taiwan, adding that both have been active on the Chinese coast.
While the beacons are solar-powered, the technology is still limited, researchers at the office said, adding that they believe the beacons that went dark were either unable to recharge due to the birds’ choice of wintering grounds or might have become damaged when they took off.
Although the five beacons have stopped functioning, they have at least provided researchers with information on the birds’ flight paths.
The office plans to plant five more beacons this autumn, office director Liu Pei-tung (劉培東) said, adding that they would provide researchers with an accurate enough sample for research on 12 migratory paths.
As the Ryuku Islands are still under the influence of Typhoon Talim, the population of migrating sparrowhawks flying over Taiwan is expected to dramatically
increase next week, birdwatcher Tsai Yi-jung (蔡乙榮) said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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