• Special achievement award to the Chinese Crested Tern team

    Nesting Chinese Crested Tern on Tiedun Dao of Jiushan Islands next to decoys for social attraction © Simba Chan At the Pacific Seabird Group banquet held at the Birch Aquarium, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, 17 February 2023, a Special Achievement Award was presented to three persons who contributed to the recovery of the critically endangered Chinese Crested Tern: Dr Shuihua Chen of the Zhejiang Museum, Prof. Hsiao-wei Yuan of the National University of Taiwan, and Simba Chan of the Japan Bird Research Association/Wild Bird Society of Japan. This is the third time the Pacific Seabird Group presented a Special Achievement Award to Asian seabird researchers. Previous awardees were Prof Hiroshi Hasegawa of Toho University (2001) and Prof Yutaka Watanuki of Hokkaido University (2009).   Special Achievement Award presented to Mr. Simba Chan (left), Prof. Hsiao-wei Yuan (middle) and Dr Shuihua Chen (right) at the Pacific Seabird Group meeting © Simba Chan The works of the three awardees were linked to the compilation of the International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Chinese Crested Tern (Sterna bernsteini) under the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS). After the publication of “Threatened Birds of Asia: The BirdLife International Red Data Book” in 2001, BirdLife International and the CMS have chosen three species for follow-up conservation actions: Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Black-faced Spoonbill and Chinese Crested Tern. These action plans were launched at the 4th Meeting of Partners of EAAFP (MOP4) held in Incheon, Ro Korea, and the International Black-faced Spoonbill Workshop in Fukuoka, Japan, in early 2010 respectively. Simba Chan was the editor-in-chief of the Chinese Crested Tern Action Plan. When he started to work on the action plan in 2005 he contacted Shuihua Chen, who discovered the second breeding ground of Chinese Crested Tern at Jiushan Islands in Zhejiang Province in China in 2004, and Hsiao-wei Yuan who was a tern expert recommended by Dr Lucia Liu Severinghaus of Academia Sinica in Taiwan, who identified the Chinese Crested Tern from photos taken by wildlife documentarist Chieh-te Liang from Matsu in 2000. The trio met at Zhejiang Museum of Natural History in Hangzhou on May 2006 and that should be the start of the Chinese Crested Tern saga. Meeting on the Chinese Crested Tern Action Plan in Hangzhou on 22 May 2006. © Simba Chan In the 2000s the biggest threat known to Chinese Crested Terns was illegal egg collection. The BirdLife/Hong Kong Bird Watching Society China Programme worked with bird conservation organizations in Zhejiang and Fujian on promotion of local awareness in seabird conservation. For this purpose an international seabird symposium was convened in Xiangshan in July 2010. Prof Daniel Roby of Oregan State University was invited and he made a presentation on social attraction project of Caspian Tern in northwest USA. The talk initiated the interest of breeding site restoration and workshops on the feasibility of using social attraction at Jiushan Islands in Zhejiang Province of China were held in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The first attempt of social attraction in 2013 was a late success (no terns were attracted to the site until the playback system was fixed in mid-July, then terns started to breed despite it was very late in the season) and monitoring on the island in 2014 and 2015 confirmed the method worked. Since then, Jiushan became the main breeding site of the Chinese Crested Tern and 20 or more chicks fledged every year (expect 2016). The global population of Chinese Crested Tern in 2013 was less than 50 birds. In 2023 its number increased to around 200 birds. Chan, Chen, Yuan on Tiedun Dao for restoration of the Chinese Crested Tern colony at Jiusha Islan, Zhejiang, China on 17 July 2015. © Simba Chan This is not the end of the story, in late 2022, Simba Chan and Yat-tung Yu, Director of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, convened a virtual workshop for Korean and Chinese researchers on planning of restoration of breeding sites of Chinese Crested Terns in Korea and northern China (especially in the vicinity of Qingdao, where the last colony was recorded in 1937). Chan and Yu have also been working with colleagues from Indonesia and the USA on researching and protecting Chinese Crested Tern wintering sites in eastern Indonesia. We hope more people can support us and join the team. The success of the Chinese Crested Tern conservation was a result of team work, the three awardees are representing those who work hard in the field in mainland China, Taiwan and other countries. The secret of the success was a combination of good planning (the action plan and beyond), a good and dedicated team, and the spirit of international cooperation. Recently the EAAFP Black-faced Spoonbill Working Group worked with the IUCN Stork, Spoonbill, and Ibis Specialist Group on a paper (link) on the success of conservation of the once (prior to 2000) critically endangered Black-faced Spoonbill. The essence of success was the same as we listed above. And we believe this is also a lesson to learn for many other migratory species and species groups in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.   Read also: How Plastic Birds Are Bringing Crested Terns Back From the Brink (published  on 2015, available at link)  


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  • Webinar on Chinese Crested Tern in the Yellow Sea and Seabird Conservation in China

    Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN’s Red List, the Chinese Crested Tern’s global…


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  • Chinese Crested Tern banded in Republic of Korea sighted in China

    The connection between RoK-breeding Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern and…


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  • Chinese Crested Tern

    ©Simba Chan   Common name: Chinese Crested Tern Scientific name: Thalasseus bernsteini Local names: 中华凤头燕鸥 (Simplified Chinese), 中華鳳頭燕鷗/黑嘴端鳳頭燕鷗(Traditional Chinese), 뿔제비갈매기 (Korean), ヒガシシナアジサシ(Japanese), Dara-laut Cina (Indonesian), Camar Cina Berjambul (Malayu), Nhàn mào Trung Quốc (Vietnamese). Conservation status: IUCN - Critically Endangered, CMS - Appendix I The Chinese Crested Tern (Thalasseus bernsteini) is one of the rarest seabirds in the world. It seemed it had always been rare. It was not described until 1861, when the type specimen was collected at Kao, Halmahera, Indonesia. Since the last 21 specimens were collected at Qingdao, China in 1937, there was no confirmed record of the species. In 2000, the bird was resighted on Matsu Islands off the coast of Fujian. In 2004 another breeding colony was discovered at Jiushan Islands in Zhejiang Province. With international cooperation using social attraction restored the breeding colony, Chinese Crested Tern is estimated to be about 150 birds in population and is stable or slowly increasing. Identification Size: around 45 cm; wingspan 94 cm. Head: Short crested, Breeding: entire cap turned black with crest; Non-breeding: forehead turned white Beak: bright orange-yellow bill with a black tip and almost invisible white tip at the end of the beak Light grayish from the mantle to upperwing, rump, uppertail-coverts and tail forked tail; black legs Distribution range Breeding range: Since the rediscovery of the species in 2000, there are only five breeding locations: Jiushan Islands, Wuzhishan Islands (Zhejiang, China), Matsu Islands (Fujian, China), Penghu Islands (Taiwan, China) and Chilsando Islands in the Republic of Korea.  Non-breeding range: The bird is believed to breed off Shandong formerly, but is now only sighted in coastal areas in Shandong after breeding season. Non-breeding records were from South China, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and eastern Malaysia.  Confirmed recent wintering grounds include Seram, Maluku of Indonesia and Mindanao of the Philippines. Eastern Indonesia and the Philippines are likely to be the major wintering areas for this species. Habitat Breeding habitat of Chinese Crested Tern, Tiedun Dao, Zhejiang, China © Simba Chan Chinese Crested Tern breeds only on offshore uninhabited islets, non-breeding habitat is of little information. Non-breeding ground in Indonesia © Ken Fung Behavior During the breeding season, Chinese Crested Tern usually congregate with Greater Crested Tern nesting areas, but in Ro Korea they nest in colony of Black-tailed Gulls. They can move between different colonies in the breeding season and are very nervous at disturbance. They are very little known during the non-breeding season but are likely to stay in flocks with Greater Crested Terns. However, these two species may not migrate together as previously assumed. Breeding Chinese and Greater Crested Terns in Tiedun Dao, China © Simba Chan Population estimate About 150 individuals of all ages (prior to 2012, only less than 50 individuals). Main threats Human disturbance (people reaching too close to the breeding colonies) Egg collection Other threats: Pollution (water pollution, plastic pollution) Overfishing Natural threats: Typhoons Natural predators (e.g. Peregrine Falcon, snakes, rats) Conservation Work Social attraction setting to restore Chinese Crested Tern in China © Vivian Fu International collaboration to use social attraction technique to restore breeding population Since 2011, an international cooperation project using social attraction (using decoys and playback) restored the breeding colony at Jiushan. The population increased from less than 50 to about 150 in 10 years. Subsequently, Social attraction was also done in breeding grounds of Matsu, Wuzhishan and Chilsando. Remove human-induced threats Through education and advocacy to promote law enforcement to prevent exploitation (egg collection) and disturbance, such as regulated tourism, allocation of park rangers for monitoring, as well as fishing communities and public engagement. Fun Fact Chinese Crested Tern was once thought extinct, so when it was rediscovered after 63 years in 2000, the bird was called “Bird of Legend”. Prior to 1975, the Chinese Crested Tern was known as Sterna zimmermanni Reichenow 1903 and the type locality was thought to be Qingdao of Shandong Province, China (when the team from Fan Memorial Institute of Biology collected 21 specimens from Qingdao area in 1937 all of them were labeled as Thalasseus zimmermanni). It was later on corrected that the type specimen should be the one collected near Halmahera, Indonesia in 1861, which had been misplaced as a population of Greater Crested Tern. Interestingly, when Dr. Nagamichi Kuroda obtained his specimen of Chinese Crested Tern from Korea in 1917 he also regarded it as a Greater Crested Tern. Luckily he left a detailed description of this long-lost specimen for verification to be a Chinese Crested Tern. Reference IUCN Red List: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22694585/131118818 Birds of the World: https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/chcter2/cur/introduction Simba Chan, 2022, Chinese Crested Tern (Thalasseus bernsteini). Editor(s): Dominick A. DellaSala, Michael I. Goldstein, Imperiled: The Encyclopedia of Conservation, Elsevier: Pages 19-28 (link Gochang Big Bird Race 2023 brought birdwatchers to contribute bird data to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Special achievement award to the Chinese Crested Tern team Webinar on Chinese Crested Tern in the Yellow Sea and Seabird Conservation in China Chinese Crested Tern banded in Republic of Korea sighted in China Restoration of the Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern using social attraction technique A Conservation Success in Minjiang River Estuary A tern for the better Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Terns appear on a deserted island in South Korea The First Ever Banded Chinese Crested Tern Chick has Fledged EAAFP Seabird Working Group Update


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  • Restoration of the Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern using social attraction technique

    The Chinese Crested Tern (Thalasseus bernsteini) is one of the most endangered seabird species, whose breeding range is restricted to the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. [caption id=”attachment_52524″…


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  • A Conservation Success in Minjiang River Estuary

    Co-operation by WWF and The People’s Government of Changle City, Fujian Province, China 7 July 2017 Fion Cheung, WWF-Hong Kong


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  • A tern for the better

    6 January 2017 Shaun Hurrell, BirdLife International – Asia


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  • Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Terns appear on a deserted island in South Korea

    Spike Millington, Chief Executive, EAAFP Secretariat The Critically Endangered Chinese Crested Tern, thought to number only a hundred individuals nested in 2016 on a small, uninhabited island off…


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  • The First Ever Banded Chinese Crested Tern Chick has Fledged

    By Chung-Hang Hung (chrancor@gmail.com), Le-Ning Chang and Hsiao-Wei Yuan School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University It was not until June 2000 that the first…


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