OVER 400 residents attended the opening ceremony of the city’s “Bird-Loving Week,” which was held in Shenzhen Bay Park on Sunday morning, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.
The 10 best locations for watching birds in Shenzhen were revealed during the ceremony. The locations include Shenzhen Bay Park, Guangdong Neilingding Futian National Nature Reserve, OCT Wetland Park, Wutong Mountain Scenic Area, Bijia Hill Park, Honghu Park, Zhongshan Park, Yuanshan Scenic Area, Futian Mangrove Ecological Park and Dapeng Agriculture and Science Center.
The 10 locations were selected by the Shenzhen Bird Watching Society, after it analyzed the monitoring data of bird species in Shenzhen from the past 10 years and collected opinions from many bird watchers.
According to the society, 336 kinds of birds had been recorded in Shenzhen as of last December, up by 280 since 2000.
The best seasons for residents to watch birds in Shenzhen Bay Park are winter and spring, when the tide at the park is lower than 1.2 meters. Over 200 kinds of birds, such as black-faced spoonbills, herons, egrets and black-headed gulls, have been recorded in the park. Nearly one-tenth of the black-faced spoonbills in the world fly to the park to stay the winter.
Residents are advised to watch birds on the mudflats in the south of the mangrove ecological park, the south of Shenzhen Bay Metro Station and at the estuary of Shahe River.
A bird-watching competition will be held April 21 and 22. Participating teams will be divided into two groups — a professional group and an amateur group. Each team will consist of two to four contestants, and they will have to identify and record different species of birds in several parks in Shenzhen within 24 hours, according to the rules.
Residents who are interested in joining the competition can sign up on the city’s urban management supervision and command center’s WeChat account, (WeChat ID: mlszgzh), or the Shenzhen Mangrove Wetlands Conservation Foundation’s WeChat account, (WeChat ID: sz_mcf). (Zhang Yang)
