Nearly 1,000 kids participated in a festival called “Happy Black-faced Spoonbill Festival” at Bao’an Gymnasium on December 10.

The black-faced spoonbill is the most sparsely distributed of all spoonbills and it is the only one regarded as endangered.

During the event, which was spontaneously organized by children across Shenzhen, kids raised awareness for the beloved bird’s dire situation by reading picture books, painting pictures, visiting art exhibitions, acting out staries and making souvenirs, making sure to feature the black-faced spoonbill through each activity.

In addition, the youth initiated a campaign to make the endangered birds the “bird of Shenzhen,” with the help of adults.

At present, there are around 4,000 black-faced spoonbills on earth, and a number of them can be seen foraging and stalking on the water along Mangrove Nature Reserve at Shenzhen Bay. The spoonbill mainly propagates on a few small rocky islands off the west coast of North Korea, with wintering sites in Taiwan, Shenzhen and Hainan Province, where they have been observed in migration.

One young participant said the festival is an event not only for the birds, but also for all of Shenzhen’s residents, because they are all migrants who are elegant, honest and diligent, and love peace and the city.

According to the event sponsor Wukexing Art Training, an ecology and art course on black-faced spoonbills commenced during the summer vacation. Children of different age groups learned about black-faced spoonbills in classes, observing the migration route of the birds and studying the coastline that stretches thousands of kilometers from Shenzhen to Dalian in northeastern Liaoning Province.

On the day of the event, the sponsor also held a picture books fair featuring birds from all over the world, lectures by bird experts and art performances for children. The sponsor expects children to cultivate a love for the birds, and thus create a better and more beautiful future.

(Yang Mei)