One of Hong Kong’s most iconic migratory birds, the black-faced spoonbill, could be removed from a list of endangered animals in two years, following decades-long conservation efforts.

The species of migratory waterbird, currently classified as endangered, plays an important role in Hong Kong’s conservation efforts, serving as an indicator of the healthiness of local wetlands.

The waterbird is also a mascot of the World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong, which restores and manages the internationally significant Mai Po nature reserve.

But the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS) attributed the wading bird’s robust growth in its population to Taiwan’s vast area of fish ponds that created important feeding grounds.

According to the wildlife survey, 3,824 birds had selected the island as their wintering ground, a 22 per cent increase from last year and accounting for nearly two-thirds of the species’ population.

Yu Yat-tung, the HKBWS director said: -

“Its extinction crisis is decreasing year by year…It was really down to the increase in Taiwan.”

Over the past eight years, about 370 animals have chosen Hong Kong as their winter habitat, with 369 birds reportedly staying in Deep Bay in the New Territories this year, a 10 per cent rise from 2021.

The mosaic of mangrove forests, wetlands and fish ponds around the Mai Po nature reserve had created an “ideal” habitat for the birds to forage, Yu said.

Yu added the government’s move to establish wetland parks as part of its Northern Metropolis plan might have a “proactive” effect on the city’s conservation efforts, but he warned that authorities must ensure conservation areas were extensive enough to reduce human disturbance.

Discussions about removing the animal from the endangered species list first started in 2019 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a statutory entity under the United Nations, Yu noted, adding the entire process could take a total of five years to complete.

According to the IUCN, a species is categorised as endangered when over half of its population has been reduced and the situation is irreversible. A species is deemed “vulnerable” when more than 30 per cent of its population has been wiped out.