The International Black-faced Spoonbill Census Report 2014

The full report of the 2014 International Black-faced Spoonbill Census is now available, provided by the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, and the BirdLife International Asia Division. Below is the abstract, and you can download the full report here

Abstract: The annual International Black-faced Spoonbill Census was conducted on 17-19 January 2014. This is an important project to acquire comparable figures to assess the health and the distribution range of the wintering population of Black-faced Spoonbill on an annual basis. The census in 2014 recorded a total of 2,726 Black-faced Spoonbills, embracing a mild increase by one individual from 2013. The count in 2014 reached a record high since the inception of this census in the early 1990s. As in the past censuses, Tsengwen River estuary of Tainan as well as Deep Bay between Hong Kong and Shenzhen are the two largest wintering sites of Black-faced Spoonbill. Apart from these two sites, in 2014, 215 individuals and 157 individuals were recorded at Chiayi and Kaoshiung respectively, probably an expansion from the nearby wintering flock at Tsengwen estuary area; 128 and 68 individuals were also observed respectively at Haifeng in Guangdong and Fuqing Bay in Fujian. These sites have become more important in recent years for the wintering of the globally endangered Black-faced Spoonbill.

Source: Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, and the Birdlife International Asia Division
Click to go to the page of Black-faced Spoonbill Working Group
(Please note that the next year’s census date will be 16-18 Jan 2015)

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