Look out for collared crows in Hong Kong: new study says numbers are dwindling
Research suggests city has second largest population of the birds in the world, as hunting and pesticide use cause dip in mainland numbers
A Hong Kong-native wetland bird is much less numerous than had been thought, with its global population down to under 2,000 from an estimate of up to 30,000 just over a decade ago, according to a new study.
The research, published in the Asian ornithology journal Forktail, highlighted the plight of the collared crow, which faces multiple threats on the mainland, and which has its second largest population in Hong Kong.
It revealed that the bird’s global numbers had dwindled to 1,850, of which 362 were spotted in Hong Kong and 1,350 in mainland China.
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“In my 70 birdwatching trips to China, I only saw them once,” Paul Leader, director of a Hong Kong-based ecological consultancy AEC, who led the research, said.
Leader said the species had been persecuted on the mainland by hunting, the wildlife trade and the use of pesticides. He called for the species’ global risk status, as listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, to be boosted from “near threatened” to “vulnerable”, to promote better conservation.
The birds are black with white feathers around their necks extending to the breasts. They live in wetlands in East Asia, including mainland China and Vietnam.