New Record Count for Black-faced Spoonbills at Mai Po
WWF Hong Kong (7 December 2006)
http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/pressreleases/20061207.phpA record high number of 359 Black-faced Spoonbills was recorded at the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site on 5 Dec 2006. This has been the third successive winter that over 300 Black-faced Spoonbills have been seen.
The Spoonbills were recorded from several locations within Mai Po Nature Reserve including their main roosting site and another pond within the reserve, which was being slowly drained to provide small fish and shrimps for Spoonbills and other waterbirds to eat.
Mr. Bena Smith, Reserve Officer of WWF Hong Kong, who recorded the high count, said "The recent run of counts over 300 individuals is definitely encouraging news for such an endangered bird species as there were no more than 35 individuals recorded in Hong Kong prior to 1987. We do not fully understand the reasons for the continuing success of Black-faced Spoonbill in Hong Kong, but it may be related to better protection at their breeding grounds, migration sites such as the wetland reserve in Fujian Province and key wintering areas such as Mai Po and Chi-ku, near Tainan in southern Taiwan."
He added, "At Mai Po Nature Reserve the Black-faced Spoonbill clearly benefit from WWF's setting up of a special Spoonbill management zone in the northern part of the Reserve. Within the zone, water levels are lowered and bund vegetation cut to create a secure roosting area. Other key management for Spoonbills includes the slow draindown of gei wai, which provides a continuos and sustainable food source throughout their winter stay."
The estimated world population of Black-faced Spoonbill is nearly 1,700 and today's count at Mai Po represents 21% of the world's known population. The previous high counts of Black-faced Spoonbills were recorded at 305 in November 2004 and 340 in December 2005.
The endangered Black-faced Spoonbill spend their winters on coastal wetlands between South Korea and Thailand, mainly resting and feeding in preparation for the breeding summer season. Their wintering sites include the Macau wetlands between the islands of Taipa and Coloane which supported 51 Black-faced Spoonbills (3% of the estimated world population) during the winter of 2005/06. However the ongoing disturbance from construction and reclamation activities close to the main roosting site for the birds is of concern. Black-faced Spoonbill breed on small rocky islands mainly along the west coast of the De-militarised Zone between North and South Korea, and a smaller number breed on similar islands off the coast of Liaoning Province, Mainland China.
Today's high count adds to the good news earlier this year that eleven Black-faced Spoonbill juveniles remained in Hong Kong throughout the 2006 summer months. This was much to the surprise of ornithologists because normally in April birds fly north towards their breeding grounds in Korea. Previously a maximum of only 4 individuals had been known to stay in Hong Kong for the summer.