Taiwan is home to 675 bird species, of which 27 are endemic, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday at the opening of the 20th Taipei International Birdwatching Fair, calling on people to protect wildlife habitats.
The opening of the two-day fair, hosted by the Taipei Animal Protection Office and the Wild Bird Society of Taipei, brought bird protection groups from Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines to the city’s Guandu Nature Park.
As migratory birds can travel thousands of kilometers across different countries, destruction of one bird species’ habitat could affect up to 200 other species, Forestry Bureau Secretary-General Chiu Li-wen (邱立文) said, urging people to pay more attention to environmental protection.
To collect more information about domestic birds, the council’s Endemic Species Research Institute has been working closely with non-governmental groups to promote public participation in bird surveys, institute assistant researcher Fan Meng-wen (范孟雯) said.
Their breeding bird survey project, which started in 2009, sees more than 300 volunteers document birds’ living conditions from March to June every year at designated spots nationwide, she said.
One of their key findings from 2009 to 2015 was that the number of tree sparrows changed significantly: Their number in northern regions declined by 50 percent and in western regions by 4 percent, but populations in the east grew by 20 percent, she said.
The cause of the changes has not been confirmed, but it might be due to habitat changes, shortage of food, competition with exotic species or environmental pollution, Fan added.
Some Taiwanese bird species, such as kingfishers, winter in Singapore and return to Taiwan in March every year, Nature Society Singapore Bird Group Committee member Tan Gim-cheong (陳錦昌) said, adding that the birds cross China, Thailand and the Malay Peninsula on the way to the city-state.
Nearly 400 bird species can be seen in Singapore, despite the country’s relatively small area, especially in the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Central Catchment Nature Reserve and forested areas, Tan said.
Kanagawa Institute of Technology researcher Hiroyuki Fujita said he was on his first trip to Taiwan, and while he was on business, he also came to watch birds.
He said he spotted many beautiful birds in the mountains of New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來) yesterday morning.
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