HK Wetland Park prepares for bird-watching festival

A Hong Kong Wetland Park staff member introduces basic features of a bird nest to visitors in the park. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

Scenery of the Hong Kong Wetland Park [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

Bird lovers in Hong Kong now have the opportunity to observe thousands of migrant birds as the Hong Kong Wetland Park started its Bird-Watching Festival, a five-month-long annual winter highlight, on Tuesday.

Hong Kong, which is located in the world's largest flyway, the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, is visited by hundreds of thousands of migratory birds every year. The Bird-Watching Festival, which has adopted "Home for Birds" as this year's theme, will introduce visitors to the interesting daily habits and living environments of birds in Wetland Park.

Located next to the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site, Wetland Park is an ideal place for bird-watching. The park is home to diverse habitats, including mudflats, freshwater marshes, ponds, streams, paddy fields, reed beds, mangroves and woodlands, which provide suitable living environments for more than 240 bird species, accounting for over 45 percent of the animal species recorded in Hong Kong.

Most birds only build nests for laying eggs and raising chicks during the breeding season. They make use of both natural and artificial materials available in their surroundings to build nests in an intricate and creative way.

At the festival's themed exhibition, visitors can see a range of bird nests built at various nesting sites including the tree canopy, marsh reeds, muddy shores, tree cavities, the eaves of buildings and even electricity transmission towers. The nests demonstrate how birds integrate their lives with humans and the human environment in addition to displaying the birds' magnificent nest-building craftsmanship.

Visitors who like bird-watching can take part in the Experiencing Waterbirds Survey to gain hands-on experience in the ecological monitoring of birds. Participants who have completed the training workshop for the survey will be invited to assist Wetland Park's professional waterbird surveyors in the International Black-faced Spoonbill Census 2015, a global bird conservation program.

In addition, Wetland Park has arranged an array of activities during the Bird-Watching Festival, including guided tours, orienteering games, public lectures, nature-in-art classes, binoculars-making classes and more, to help visitors learn more about birds.