The first confirmation of the migratory route of the Black-faced spoonbill family in Chilsando Island, Yeonggwang

The Cultural Heritage Administration's National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (Kim Yeonsoo, General Director) attached location trackers to the adult and juvenile of a Natural Monument the Black-faced spoonbill that successfully breed in Chilsando islet, Yeonggwang last year, and confirmed the migration route of the three families for the first time.

In the past, the Black-faced spoonbill migration route studies have been conducted on breeding juvenile individuals, but this is the first time that it has been conducted in a family unit to compare migration routes between parents and offspring. As a result of analyzing the paths of three families (8 individuals), it was feeding in the tidal flat of the southwest coast and confirmed that adult and juvenile migrated to China and Taiwan by different for overwintering. In the case of male individuals (nhc2202, nhc2205, nhc2208) among the adult, they flew about 1,624km at an average speed of 50km per hour and finally arrived in Taiwan. In the case of the juvenile (nhc2204, nhc2206, nhc2207, nhc2210), they flew about 967km at an average speed of 47km per hour and arrived in China, and the other one (nhc2203) flew about 1,379km at an average speed of 51km per hour and arrived in Taiwan.

Through this, it was found that juvenile individuals do not education or learn a specific route of movement from adults, but rather learn a route specialized for long-distance travel.

Research information on the migration route of Black-faced spoonbills can be found at the ‘Natural Monument Ecological Map Service (http://gis-heritage.go.kr)’, the website of the Cultural Heritage Administration (www.cha.go.kr) linked with the cultural heritage GIS system.

The Black-faced Spoonbill is a species that desperately needs protection as there are only 3,940 surviving in the world. Accordingly, the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage plans to carry out restoration of breeding grounds to conserve the Black-faced Spoonbill and breeding grounds together. In addition to Chilsando islet breeding sites, we will organize an on-site investigation team to establish efficient management plans for wintering sites in China and Taiwan, where the Black-faced Spoonbill during the winter season, in cooperation with related organizations.

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