Spoonbills, storks and falcons brave smog and poor visibility
Rare birds have returned to the city despite the smog and poor visibility. About 100 globally threatened black-faced spoonbills have arrived in Mai Po, along with hundreds of shore and migratory birds, jamming the nature reserve.
Among these new arrivals is the rare black stork, which travelled thousands of kilometres from its breeding places in northern China.
Listed as threatened in China, only 20,000 remain in the world - and just 500 on the mainland.
In Hong Kong, the highest count was 15, but sightings dropped to around five in the 1980s and not one has been spotted in recent years.
'Its rare sighting could be due to habitat degradation as it demands extremely clear and shallow water,' said Carrie Ma Ka-wai, project officer of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society.
Apart from the stork, a mature and a young Amur falcon were found in Tsim Bei Tsui this month. The bird is rarely spotted in Hong Kong even though it normally passes through on its 13,000km journey from Siberia via India to Africa for wintering. The last sighting was in 1999.
Mai Po Nature Reserve manager Lew Young said it was still too early to say if more rare species would spend time in Hong Kong this winter and whether climate change had played a role in disrupting the birds' wintering schedules. 'We need to look at these sightings scientifically before we come to any conclusion if any changes are due to climate changes,' he said.
Continued: http://www.scmp.com/article/476346/rare-birds-flocking-back-city
Rare birds have returned to the city despite the smog and poor visibility. About 100 globally threatened black-faced spoonbills have arrived in Mai Po, along with hundreds of shore and migratory birds, jamming the nature reserve.
Among these new arrivals is the rare black stork, which travelled thousands of kilometres from its breeding places in northern China.
Listed as threatened in China, only 20,000 remain in the world - and just 500 on the mainland.
In Hong Kong, the highest count was 15, but sightings dropped to around five in the 1980s and not one has been spotted in recent years.
'Its rare sighting could be due to habitat degradation as it demands extremely clear and shallow water,' said Carrie Ma Ka-wai, project officer of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society.
Apart from the stork, a mature and a young Amur falcon were found in Tsim Bei Tsui this month. The bird is rarely spotted in Hong Kong even though it normally passes through on its 13,000km journey from Siberia via India to Africa for wintering. The last sighting was in 1999.
Mai Po Nature Reserve manager Lew Young said it was still too early to say if more rare species would spend time in Hong Kong this winter and whether climate change had played a role in disrupting the birds' wintering schedules. 'We need to look at these sightings scientifically before we come to any conclusion if any changes are due to climate changes,' he said.
Continued: http://www.scmp.com/article/476346/rare-birds-flocking-back-city
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!