The Aquaculture Breeding Institute Hualien in Hualien County’s Shoufeng Township (壽豐) has put a taxidermied black-faced spoonbill on display to provide a close-up view of the endangered species.
Staff are on hand to talk to visitors about the black-faced spoonbill and answer questions, the institute said, adding that it hoped to instill a conservationist mindset in the public.
The Chinese name for the black-faced spoonbill — heise pi lu (black-faced pipa heron, 黑面琵鷺) — comes from its beak, which resembles the Chinese stringed instrument, the institute said.
Photo courtesy of the Hualien County Government
Black-faced spoonbills spend their summers on the Korean Peninsula and northeastern China, and their winters in the south of Taiwan, where they can usually be seen near coastal marshes.
They feed mostly on smaller fish and shellfish, for which they forage in shallow water, the institute said.
About 2,000 of the birds spent the winter in Taiwan last year, it said, citing Council of Agriculture data.
“Although Hualien is not on the birds’ migratory path, there are still a few of them that gather in the county’s marshes every year looking for food. They attract bird lovers, who come to photograph them,” the institute said.
A total of 24 black-faced spoonbills are believed to have visited Hualien in May last year during the migratory season, the Hualien County Bureau of Agriculture said.
Two were injured when they landed in a marsh, and despite conservationists’ efforts to save them, they died two days later.
The bureau said it decided to have the bodies preserved by a taxidermist so they could be used for teaching purposes.
While the institute’s primary tasks are to help conserve fish species found in eastern Taiwan, research aquacultural techniques and breed black soldier flies as a source of protein for aquaculture, it is also tasked with educating the public on conservation, the county government said.
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