Range and population

Black-faced Spoonbill breeds on islets off the west coast of North Korea and South Korea, and Liaoning province in China.

The three major wintering sites are the Tsengwen estuary of Taiwan, Inner Deep Bay of Hong Kong, and the Red River delta in Vietnam. It also winters in Cheju, South Korea, Kyushu and Okinawa, Japan, and Yancheng and Hainan, China (BirdLife 2000), and there are also records from Thailand, the Philippines and Macau.

The International census in January 2002 resulted in 969 individuals (Dahmer and Felley 2002).

Ecology

It breeds in mixed colonies on small islands. Breeding success is low. It winters on tidal mudflats.

Satellite tracking and bird banding has shown that birds wintering in Hong Kong and Taiwan migrate along the coast of eastern China to northern Jiangsu, then over the Yellow Sea to the Korean peninsula.

Threats

Habitat destruction is probably the biggest threat.

The main winter grounds are threatened by industrial development and reclamation. Economic development in China has converted many coastal wetlands into aquaculture ponds and industrial estates. Pollution is a major threat to birds wintering in Hong Kong. Increasing levels of disturbance and also hunting are threats in China and Vietnam. Fishers in China collect waterbird eggs at a nesting site.

References

BirdLife International. 2000. Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International.

Dahmer, T.D. and Felley, M.L. 2002. Summary of 2002 Winter Census of Black-faced Spoonbill Platalea minor, Ecosystem Ltd. Unpublished Report.