Yellow-breasted bunting songbird in danger of extinction, warns Hong Kong wildlife group
Unchecked poaching in China could push a songbird that was once one of the most abundant in northern Eurasia to extinction within 20 years as it falls victim to diners and traders, a Hong Kong wildlife concern group said.
Unchecked poaching in southern China could push a songbird that was once one of the most abundant in northern Eurasia to extinction within 20 years as it falls victim to diners and traders, a Hong Kong wildlife concern group said today.
The yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola), which is about the size of the palm of a human hand, migrates south in flocks to Southeast Asia during the winter.
But stopping in southern China to rest along the way, the birds are trapped by farmers with nets and end up on the plates of wealthy customers who pay up to HK$80 each for them in a display of status.
The result is that many of the birds fail to return to their breeding grounds across eastern Europe, Siberia and Japan.
Research manager of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Yu Yat-tung, said: “What is shocking is that recent research published by [scientific journal] Conservation Biology, shows the number of yellow-breasted bunting rapidly fell by nearly 90 per cent from 1980 to 2013.
