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A black-faced spoonbill

Black-faced spoonbill evades count, conservation

HA NOI —Over the last month, experts have put the number of black-faced spoonbills, an endangered migratory water bird related to the ibis found along the East Asian coast, in Viet Nam at between 15 and 65.

Nguyen Viet Cach, director of Xuan Thuy National Park in Nam Dinh Province said his staff counted 65 birds in the park during their annual winter census, on Sunday.

BirdLife International Vietnam, a non-profit environmental organisation, said they estimated the number of birds in the park at 61 in a count conducted the day before.

BirdLife conducted counts in four areas in Viet Nam during the international black-faced spoonbills census from January 16-18. At that time only 15 birds were found in Xuan Thuy National Park and none were spotted in Thai Thuy Nature Reserve, Nghia Hung District or Ha Nam Island.

Last year, Ha Nam Island was recognised as the first wintering site for the species in Viet Nam to be identified outside the coastal zone of the Red River Delta, after fledglings were discovered during a joint BirdLife and Institute of Ecology and Biology Research survey.

The number of birds wintering in Viet Nam reflects changes in weather and tidal patterns as well as the increasing encroachment of humans in nesting areas said BirdLife experts.

Since 1993 conservationists have co-ordinated synchronised global winter population counts in the Republic of Korea, Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Viet Nam, said BirdLife.

From 1988-90, the global wintering population of black-faced spoonbills was estimated at 294, last year’s count in January put the number at 1020.

The number of black-faced spoonbills has increased in the last ten years through their winter range except in Viet Nam, said BirdLife. The highest number of birds recorded in Viet Nam was 104 in 1996, accounting for 19.2 per cent of the known world population. —VNS