Black-faced Spoonbills sighted in the Philippines

15-12-2001

A group of three Black-faced Spoonbills Platalea minor, an Endangered species, has been sighted on one of the Batanes islands, the Philippines, about 200 south of Taiwan. The birds were observed between the last week of October and the second week of December, frequenting a freshwater pool.

They were tracked down as a result of posters featuring pictures of Black-faced Spoonbills that were produced by Wild Bird Federation Taiwan (WBFT, BirdLife in Taiwan), with financial support from Taiwan's Council of Agriculture. The posters were sent to the Philippines by WBSJ (BirdLife in Japan), who are co-ordinating the conservation of Black-faced Spoonbills in Asia. They were then distributed in Batanes by the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and a few days later, reports were received from local people of spoonbills on the island of Sabtang. World-wide, about 870 Black-faced Spoonbills are believed to exist and their main wintering sites are in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam. The Batanes sighting is the first confirmed record of the species from the Philippines.