Carrie Ma
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BirdLife news release (10 Jun 2005)
« on: Jun 12th, 2005, 9:03am » |
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BirdLife International news release 10 June 2005
New Black-faced Spoonbill wintering sites, as numbers rise again
10-06-2005
This year's International Black-faced Spoonbill Census recorded 1,475 individuals, a 22 percent increase over 2004. The figure includes two previously unknown wintering sites, but numbers on the main wintering grounds in Taiwan and Hong Kong increased by 20 percent.
In the winter of 1989-1990, the known population of endangered Black-faced Spoonbills Platalea minor was just 294 birds. The species recovered slowly during the 1990s. More than 1000 were recorded in January 2003,and the trend has shown a steady improvement (a 9.3 percent increase in 2003, 13 percent in 2004, and now 22 percent).
More than half the world population (757 birds) winters in Taiwan, 632 of them in the Chiku-Tsengwen Estuary. Hong Kong𠏋 Deep Bay is next in importance, with 311 birds. A record 187 birds were seen on China𠏋 mainland and Hainan Island. This figure includes two new sites, but excludes one regular wintering site which was not surveyed this year.
"It's amazing that the number of Black-faced Spoonbill could go over 1,400 just after passing the boundary of 1,200 birds last year." —Yat-tung Yu, Census Coordinator, HKBWS
56 birds were recorded in Vietnam, 103 in Japan and 21 in Korea. One bird was reported from the Gulf of Thailand, which with other sightings indicates that small numbers may visit this area in winter.
The global population may actually be higher than the census indicates. A further 79 individuals were not included in the overall total, to avoid the possibility of double counting. (Sites within one day's flight of one another were surveyed simultaneously.)
But Yat-tung Yu, Census Coordinator of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (BirdLife in Hong Kong), warns that the tendency of Black-faced Spoonbill to concentrate in a few wintering sites makes them vulnerable to threats such as habitat degradation and disease. There was no increase in Vietnam𠏋 Red River Delta, where conditions in the Xuan Thuy National Park have been deteriorating. In 2002-2003, 71 Black-faced Spoonbills died of avian botulism at the Chiku-Tsengwen Estuary in Taiwan.
He also urges more effort to protect the breeding grounds, if the future of the species is to be secure.
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