Are Taiwan's birds doing well? Taiwan releases its first "National Bird Report," revealing the full picture of bird status with 8.2 million records

Taiwan's first "National Bird Report" is about to be completed! Countries around the world that prioritize conservation regularly publish national bird reports. Today, the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute and the Chinese Wild Bird Federation officially released the "2020 Taiwan National Bird Report," assembling more than 8.2 million records from 1972 to 2019. Produced through citizen participation and official cooperation, it is highly significant and has attracted international attention.

The report shows that there are currently 674 species of wild birds definitively recorded in Taiwan, of which 52 species are under threat, and 29 breeding bird species (mainly resident birds) and 15 wintering waterbird species are declining in number, highlighting warning signs of environmental degradation in Taiwan.

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Citizens and officials pool information together, citizen participation mainstreams conservation

Birds are important indicator organisms reflecting the state of habitat environments. Many countries that value environmental health and bird conservation, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, regularly compile bird survey records and publish "national bird reports" as important basic information on environmental conditions, and also as an early-warning mechanism for environmental degradation.

Yang Chia-tung, director of the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute, said bird data is currently the most completely accumulated of all ecosystem data, and he hopes that in the future other biological groups, such as plants and fish, can also have national-level reports, so that the challenges facing living things can be presented in full. "Conservation does not rely on the authorities; it takes the whole public working together. Only citizen participation can mainstream conservation."

Fang Wei-hung, chairman of the Chinese Wild Bird Federation, said the federation has worked closely with the Endemic Species Research Institute in recent years, and especially after the citizen-science eBird interface was localized into Chinese, the number of domestic birdwatching records has advanced by leaps and bounds. As an amateur bird lover, being able to provide energy to academia and the conservation community and contribute to society, he feels, is extraordinarily meaningful.