IT’S a bird party in Shenzhen Bay and someone invited more than 50 black-faced spoonbills.

    Shenzhen Bay is the world’s second-largest habitat for black-faced spoonbills, with photos of over 50 black-faced spoonbills in Shenzhen Bay recently circulating on WeChat, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

    “There are only 3,000 to 4,000 black-faced spoonbills worldwide. Thanks to the tide and good weather, over 50 black-faced spoonbills showed up at Shenzhen Bay today — they are so rare,” said the resident who took the photos and posted them on WeChat.

    The black-faced spoonbill, an endangered species, has a long and flat beak that looks like a pipa, a Chinese musical instrument. Dong Jiangtian, head of the Shenzhen Bird Watching Society, said black-faced spoonbills that breed in North Korea usually fly to Shenzhen in October and return north in late March the next year.

    “Birds always choose their habitat based on three conditions, including food, safety and water,” said Dong, adding that black-faced spoonbills mainly feed on fish, which Shenzhen Bay has enough of.

    The intertidal zone in the area with a low water level also makes it a proper place for spoonbills to forage, she added.

    According to Dong, about 300 to 400 black-faced spoonbills migrate to Shenzhen and Hong Kong each year, and people can see 20 to 50 spoonbills in Shenzhen at a time. The number soared to over 100 from 2002 to 2004.

    She said illegal fishing caused a decline in black-faced spoonbill’s population in Shenzhen, but the government’s stepped-up inspections in recent years have contributed to the recovery of the fish population in Shenzhen Bay. “The number of black-faced spoonbills visiting Shenzhen has increased in recent years compared with that in 2012 and 2013,” she said.

    Xiong Yang, an expert from the China Association for Engineering Construction Standardization, said emergency pollution controls have been put in place at 16 sewage outlets that drain into Shenzhen Bay.

    She said the birds have lower requirements for water quality than human beings, and they would come to forage despite the sewage. Dong said clean water would be better for birds, but if the water is too clean, there may not be enough food for birds.

    “The mangrove forest is on a mudflat, making it a good foraging place for birds. The same thing goes for Shenzhen Bay… and when the water level declines it’s easy for birds to forage in the area,” she said.

    Xiong said birds can feed on fish in smelly water, as long as there isn’t any toxic substances in the water, while using chemicals to treat sewage may make the water smell better, it could hurt the fish the birds eat.

    He said people should consider the ecological influence before using chemicals to dispose of sewage, with side effects usually only appearing at least five year later.

    (Zhang Yang)