According to the latest report, 229 species of birds were recorded in 2022 in the Dongzhai Port National Reserve in southern China’s island province of Hainan, including 10 new species added since the previous year.

Egrets spotted at the Dongzhai Port National Reserve in Haikou, Hainan. (Photo / Liu Sunmou)

The currently recorded birds include one species (the Yellow-breasted Bunting) listed as critically endangered, and three listed as endangered (the Far Eastern Curlew, Great Knot, and Black-faced Spoonbill) in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Additionally, four species (the Saunders's Gull, Black-faced Spoonbill, Chinese Egret, and Yellow-breasted Bunting) are under China’s national first-class protection, while 39 of the recorded species in the reserve are under national second-class protection.

“With a large area of well-protected mangrove forests, mud flats, shoals, and marsh wetlands, the Dongzhai Port Reserve offers a great habitat for a wide variety of birds,” said Feng Erhui, a forestry engineer from the reserve administration, adding that the bird species recorded in the reserve accounted for 76% of the total birds recorded in the city of Haikou and 51% of the island’s total recorded bird species.

Flocks of egrets stop over at the mud flats in the Dongzhai Port National Reserve in Haikou, Hainan. (Photo / Liu Sunmou)

According to Feng, the Black-faced Spoonbill — the globally endangered species — is also regarded as an indicator species, showing the status of the wetlands in tropical and subtropical regions. These birds have been spotted wintering in the Dongzhai Port Reserve for the past three years running, which means that this is one the of most important habitats for waterbirds spending the winter on the tropical island of Hainan.

The Dongzhai Port Reserve is located along the bird migration pathway from East Asia to Australasia. Thanks to ecological restoration and mangrove conservation, the ecological environment here is improving, attracting an increasing number of rare and endangered birds.