bird of a feather flock to Hong Kong
By Icy Chen
The sky had not yet become light, just shimmering darkness on the eve of sunrise. But Matthew Kwan has already packed his backpack, including a pair of binoculars, a digital camera with a telephoto lens, a tripod, and the obligatory large water bottle.
At 5 a.m., this birding enthusiast and photographer, who has been watching birds since he was 6, heads to his destination for the day, the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site. He was wearing a light blue shirt, and his goal for the day was to take a picture of a Black-faced Spoonbill.
The Black-faced Spoonbill, scientific name Platalea Minor, is a species of wading bird only found in East Asia, with an estimated global population of about 3,941. It is listed as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List. According to WWF, only about 30 pairs of Black-faced Spoonbills breed each year.
"We are very blessed that we have hundreds of them wintering in Hong Kong every year," said Kwan.
Black-faced Spoonbill, scientific name Platalea Minor
Photo by Project Crow
"Sometimes one can find them so easily that people kind of forget how endangered and rare they are global."
Matthew Kwan
Hong Kong is a fantastic place for birdwatching. Although there are no endemic species, its location in southern China is a major route for birds migrating between East and Southeast Asia, especially waterfowl using the East Asian-Oceania flight path. It is an exciting place for birdwatchers and bird photographers who live here, as well as those visiting or traveling long distances for overseas birdwatchers.
With a land area of just over 1,100 square kilometers, Hong Kong's list now contains nearly 570 species, a staggering number for such a densely populated region. The majority of them are spring and fall passage migrants, as well as winter tourists.
"For China, the size of Hong Kong is just like a dot. But the total number of birds ever recorded in Hong Kong is equivalent to about 35% of the entire wild bird population of China, showing the high diversity level of birds in the region," said Yu Yat-tung, Director of The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society.
The key reason behind the great number of birds is Hong Kong's geographical location on a major migration route close to the equator, says Yu.
Also, the diversity of habitats found within the territory is crucial. With a traditional image of skyscrapers and crowded cities, visitors are sometimes surprised by how green Hong Kong is. In addition to the steel and concrete city of Kowloon and the new city of the New Territories, Hong Kong has mudflats, ponds, marshes, farms, hillside shrubs, and woodlands that form a diverse ecosystem.
Of just over 1100 square kilometres, 75 percent of Hong Kong’s territory is green, according to government's figure.
Existing Green and Blue Assets in Hong Kong (Source: Planning Department HKSARG)
Turn up the volume!
Audio collect at Central Ferry Pier No.4 on Mar. 24
"Bird watching in Hong Kong is really easy," said Yu. "Just go on a random morning walk in the field, and it's easy to see at least 30 or 40 species of birds, sometimes 50 species, which is incredible."
In Hong Kong, all wild birds are protected wild animals as listed in the Wildlife Protection Ordinance.
Protecting all birds is very important in Yu's view. He said that it's easy to find cases of hunters mistakenly killing the wrong bird in some Southeast Asian countries, especially if the protected birds are similar in appearance to the unprotected ones.
"Even though hunters have binoculars, sometimes the similar appearance makes it hard for them to tell the difference. Even if one then realizes that a particular bird is a protected animal, the bird is dead and can't turn back," he added.
Yu also believes that migratory birds have memory and when they know that Hong Kong is safer, they will return the next year with that memory.
Kwan, the birding enthusiast with over 25 years of experience and one of the founders of Project CROW, a local nature tour provider, recommends three excellent birding locations, Mai Po Nature Reserve, Long Valley and Tai Po.
Mai Po Nature Reserve, on the border with mainland China in the northwest New Territories, is the crown treasure supporting a large variety of species. According to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation, 389 species of birds have been reported here, accounting for almost 77% of all bird species found in Hong Kong. It attracts large gatherings of waterfowl each year during the spring and fall transboundary migrations. Among these wetland bird species, 35 of them are listed as globally threatened or near-threatened, including Asian Dowitchers, Nordmann's Greenshank as well as the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper.
The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve, a woodland region between Tai Po and Sha Tin, is one of Hong Kong's oldest planted forests. There are around 170 bird species documented here, the majority of which are woodland birds. Autumn to spring is the best time to visit Tai Po Kau for bird watching, but many summer migratory birds come here to breed, such as the jewel-blue Hainan Blue Flycatcher.
Jewel-Blue Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Male, taken in Tate's Cairn, Hong Kong by Matthew Kwan
Asian paradise flycatcher (Photo from Hong Kong Bird Watching Society's forum)
“I remember going to Tai Po Kau and seeing a bird called the Asian paradise flycatcher once. It's a beautiful bird with a really long tail," said Josh Arnold, a birding enthusiast who has been bird-watching all over southeast Asia, South Africa, and North America.
"It's a really cool moment," he said, adding that looking back on the moment ten years ago, Arnold is still thrilled.
"It is exciting that you see some really beautifully colored birds when you don't know what to expect and then all of a sudden you see something," Arnold added.
Long Valley is a 25-hectare farmland area in Sheung Shui that contains a freshwater marsh. There are almost 250 bird species recorded here. During migratory, the critically endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting, like many other wetland species, can be observed eating on rice fields, according to local nature tour provider Project Crow.
"It's mixed of forest, gardens, and farms, so you can see a lot of interesting birds there," said Arnold with Long Valley being his favorite site.
Birds can also be found in cities, where any green space is worth exploring, especially during migration seasons. According to AFCD, Shatin Park, Kowloon Park, and Hong Kong Park are all good options where you can see birds including Red-whiskered Bulbul, Black-crowned Night Heron, and Sulpher-crested Cockatoo.
The Yellow-breasted Bunting Emberiza auerola (YBB), which breeds over the northern Palearctic, used to have a fairly extensive global distribution. However, over-exploitation caused the population to plummet. In 2017, the IUCN Red List designated it as Critically Endangered.
However, the life of birds in Hong Kong is not smooth sailing. Currently, the biggest threat to the survival of birds in Hong Kong is the issue of development. Flatlands that facilitate infrastructure are at risk of being expropriated, including wetlands and farmland, resulting in the situation of the two types of birds that depend on water and fields for their survival becoming dangerous, as Yu from HKBWS said.
"What worries me most is that our records have documented a decline in the number of waterfowl in Mai Po over the last 10 years," he added.
The Hong Kong government is pursuing the ambitious Lantau Island Tomorrow Vision development plan, which was first proposed in 2018. The plan is to build housing on 1,000 hectares of reclaimed land around Peng Chau, which is about one-third the size of Lantau Island, located not far from the coast.
According to the Civil Engineering and Development Department's announcement last June, the investigation study for the artificial island in the central waters of tomorrow's Lantau began in June 2021 and is expected to be completed within 42 months.
The Senior Conservation Officer of HKBWS, Woo Ming Chuan, said in November 2021, that the Sunshine Island near the Lantau Vision Reclamation is a breeding site for the White-bellied Sea Eagle, a national first-class protected animal.
The artificial island project is estimated to seriously interfere with the breeding and feeding of the birds, which will eventually affect their breeding success rate.
As the term of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor who proposed the vision is coming to an end, it has not been determined whether her proposed land policy will be carried over to the new government. But the city has far more plans for expansion than that, making it impossible to end Yu's worries.
"Hong Kong is a very blessed place that we can see so many birds in such a small place," said Yu. " That feeling also drives my determination to protect this place."
GUIDELINES FOR BIRD WATCHING
The number of birdwatchers in Hong Kong has risen in recent years. According to HKBWS membership records, the number of members has grown from a few hundred 20 to 30 years ago to nearly 2,000 at present.
Based on the recommendations of AFCD and the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, the following summarizes the guidelines for birding in Hong Kong.
Bring binoculars
On discovering a bird, stop walking and keep looking at the bird. Hold the binoculars to your eyes and adjust the focus. Slightly move the binoculars to refine the view.
Get familiar with birds
Get familiar with the surrounding birds of your daily life
Dress
Dress in colors that match the natural environment, such as green, brown and blue
Do your research
Do your research to get familiar with your destination and the common birds there
Respect Others
Respect and avoid causing disturbance to others
Take a field guide
help you identify the bird
Carry a notebook and pen
When you encounter a bird that you cannot identify, immediately take notes and write down the morphology and characteristics
Take a triple and camera
Take a triple and camera if you want to take pictures of the birds
Take away your litter
Take away your litter after you go
Don't get too close
Don't get too close to the wild birds or flush them
Don't feed
Don't feed or bait wild birds or lure them with sounds
Don't approach bird nests
Don't approach any bird nests or chicks. Disturbance may cause the parent birds to abandon their nests, resulting in the death of the chicks
Don't shine strong light
Don't shine strong light on wild birds
Don't disturb
Don't disturb the vegetation in the area
Don't go to islands
Don't go to islands where seabirds breed