Bird Research News

Vol.2 No.7

2005. 7.13.

Black-faced Spoonbill

Kurotsura-Herasagi (Jpn) Platalea minor

Morphology and classification

Egg: The clutch size is 2-3 eggs

Incubation and chick-rearing periods:

Classification: Falconiformes, Falconidae
Total length: 688-777mm
Wing length: 362mm (346-371)
Tail length: 109mm (101-116) Culmen length: 183mm (163-207)
Tarsus length: 139mm (129-152)
Weight:1660g (1470-1900)
The total length after Enomoto (1941), others based on the 13 individuals captured in
Hong Kong. .

Appearance:
Black-faced Spoonbills
are white except for thebill, feet and the areaaround eyes, which areblack in adult birds, butthe bill has a tint of flesh
color in young ones. A
spatula-shaped bill istheir trademark. Theneck, bill and feet are
long. In the breeding
season adult birds develop long crest feathers, Photo 1. Young Black-faced Spoonbill(Photo. N. Mita). The bill is smoothand the crest and breastand has no wrinkles.
feathers become tinged
with yellow. The bill of adult birds has wrinkles, while that ofyoung birds, in contrast, has no wrinkles. In addition, the wings ofyoung birds are black at the tip.

Distribution and Habitat
Distribution:
The distribution of Black-faced Spoonbills is restricted to a part ofeastern Asia. They breed primarily on uninhabited islands along
the western coast in the vicinity of the border between North andSouth Koreas. In addition, this species breeds on the uninhabitedislands between the West Coast of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Liaodong Peninsula, China (Chong & Pak
1999, Ueta et al. 2002). Most of the spoonbills winter in Taiwan,
Hong Kong, Japan (Kyushu to Ryukyu Islands), Macau and northern Vietnam, with some on the Jeju Island of Korea, the east coastof China and in Thailand (Yu 2005).

Habitat :The incubation and chick-rearing periods are approximately 26
days and about 40 days, respectively.

Age of first breeding:It takes 5-6 years for a young bird to acquire adult plumage incaptivity. Females are sexually mature at age 3, compared to males
at the age of 4-5 (Chong et al. 1999).
Migration:
The individuals wintering in Hong Kong and Taiwan head northfor the Korean Peninsula along the coast of China. A study conducted by the Ministry of the Environment in 2003 showed thatthe spoonbills wintering in Okinawa, southern Japan flew to theKorean Peninsula through Kyushu.

Diet and foraging behavior
The species thrusts its open bill into the water and moves forward
shaking his head from side to side to capture aquatic organismsthat enter the beak. This method is profitable in the murky waterwhere the prey is not visible but the prey density is very high.

Topics of ecology, behavior and conservation● Lazy young are increasing?
The satellite-tracking of migrating Black-faced Spoonbills showedthat adults left earlier the wintering grounds for the breeding sites
and spent a shorter period of time at stopover sites than youngbirds (Ueta et. al. 2002, Ueta &Higuchi 2002). Some of theyoung birds that do not breed
spend the summer in the winter?
ing grounds or at stopover sites?
without migrating to the breeding grounds. Although noyoung birds spent the summer
in Japan up to 2002, they havebeen observed in summer since2003. The cause of such behavior is not known.

The breeding grounds of the Black-faced Spoonbills are limited touninhabited islands, which they share with other seabird species.
They move to the estuaries and tidal flats of the coastal areas ofthe mainland more than 10km away from the breeding sites toforage for aquatic animals, such as fish and crustaceans (Zheng etal. 1996). They also frequently use rice paddies as a feeding site inKorea. In the wintering season, on the other hand, most of themrange in limited areas, such as mud flats, estuaries, ponds and fishfarms.

TaiwanHong Kong0Photo 2. Adult Black-faced Spoonbill with a satellite transmitter.

Life history

500

1000 kmFig. 1. Migration routes of Blackfaced Spoonbills revealed bysatellite-tracking.

Breeding system:
Monogamous. The incubation is performed both by the male andfemale. Both sexes also take care of the chicks.
Nest : A nest of dead branches is built on a ledge or the ground in
an uninhabited island. Old nests of other bird species such as Gray
Herons are also used.

4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
wintering migration breeding

89 10 11 12
migration wintering● Population of the worldSince 1994, simultaneous censuses have been conducted for thisspecies in all the known wintering grounds of the world in midJanuary every year (Yu 2005). The recorded population increased
rapidly from 351 birds in 1994 to 1475 birds in 2005. It is possible, however, that this increase does not reflect the true increase of

Bird Research News

Vol.2 No.7

2005. 7.13.

© Japan Bird Research Association
Sumiyoshi 1-29-9, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan

バードリサーチ生態図鑑

the population but the influx of the spoonbills from 1400
so far unknown wintering
1200
sites which have disappeared due to development 1000
and other causes. Similartpopulation increase was 800
recorded in the wintering
Total
populations of Common 600
Shelducks and Saunders'
Gulls in Kyushu, southern 400
anaiwin TJapan. As is the case withringet
WinBlack-facedSpoonbills, 200
panng in Ja
Winterithese species are distributed
0in a limited area of eastern
1990 94
9698
2000
02
04
Asia and winter in the tidalflats. I had the opportunity Figure 2. Changes in the population ofto visit the east coast ofBlack-faced Spoonbills. The recordChina, a possible wintering
ed population increased rapidly, butthat phenomena is suspected toground for the spoonbills,indicate concentration of individuals
as a part of the study comfrom the other sites that is lost ormissioned by the Ministrydegraded.
of the Environment in February 2003. However, the tidal flats represented on the map had
disappeared due to reclamation or turned to seashell culture sites,
which are not suitable for wintering Black-faced Spoonbills. The
satellite image shows the obvious changes of the tidal flats(Figure; Hasegawa 2005). Thus, it is assumed that the Black-faced
Spoonbills have concentrated in some of the wintering grounds
due to the loss of their former wintering sites.

birds while on migration, it is extremely important to conservefavorable tidal-flats even if the spoonbills are not currently confirmed to winter.

● Intra- and internatonal cooperation for the necessaryconservation
The distribution of Black-faced Spoonbills is restricted to the Far
East Asia. While on migration, however, they use many countries
and regions from the Korean Peninsula to Vietnam. Intra- andinternational cooperation is essential to promote the conservationof such species. The "Japan Black-faced Spoonbill Working
Group" was founded in Japan in 2002 and BirdLife International
is formulating conservation programs at the international level.
Conservation efforts of this type will have a great influence on thefuture of Black-faced Spoonbills.

Literature
Chong J., Pak U., Rim C. & Kim T. 1996. Breeding ecology of the Black-faced
Spoonbill. Strix 14: 1-10. [J+E]
Chong J. & Pak U. 1999. The breeding sites and distribution of Black-faced Spoonbills in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Conservation andresearch of Black-faced Spoonbills and their habitats. Pp.5-9. Wild Bird Societyof Japan (WBSJ).
Chong J., Tsuchiya I. & Sugita H. 1999. Captive breeding of Black-faced Spoonbills. Conservation and research of Black-faced Spoonbills and their habitats. Pp.
47-53. WBSJ.
Enomoto Y. 1941. Handbook of birds (Vol. 2). Osaka Branch, Wild Bird Societyof Japan, Osaka. [J]Hasegawa I. 2005. Habitat survey of black-faced spoonbills using satellite data.
Tsukuba Environmental Studies master's thesis. [J+E]
Ueta M. & Higuchi H. 2002. Difference in migration pattern between adult andimmature birds using satellites. Auk 119: 832-835.
Ueta M., Melville D.S., Wang Y., Ozaki K., Kanai Y., Leader,P.J., Wang C. & Kuo
C. 2002. Discovery of the breeding sites and migration routes of Black-faced
Spoonbills Platalea minor. Ibis 144: 340-343.
Yu Y.T. 2005. The International Black-faced Spoonbill Census: 21-23 January
2005. The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society.
Languages of literature cited other than English: [J] in Japanese, [J+E] in Japanesewith English summary.

Aquaculture
養殖池
pond1998

Aquaculture
養殖池
pond
2004

Figure 3. Changes in the wetlands in Wenzhou Bay, China. The tidal flats
have been changed to aquaculture ponds (Hasegawa 2005) .

● Risk of mass mortality
In Tainan County of Taiwan which is the world's largest wintering
ground for Black-Faced Spoonbills, 757 birds that account for
more than half of the world population wintered in 2005. Between
December 2002 and January 2003, 73 spoonbills died in this sitefrom Clostridium botulinum poisoning. It was the first mass mortality of Black-faced Spoonbills, but it is conceivable that it may
be repeated in the future because the mass mortalities of ducks
occurred several times before that time. Although the first-aid
measures against the mass mortality need to be worked out, it ismore urgent to take steps to control the concentration of wintering
spoonbills to reduce the risk of mass mortality. In addition of conserving the known wintering sites of the spoonbills, it is important
to determine and conserve their wintering grounds in the east coastof China swept over by a wave of development. Since this area isused as a stopover site by Black-faced Spoonbills and other water

AuthorMutsuyuki UETA Japan Bird Research Association
I have been involved in the study of the Blackfaced Spoonbill since the first satellite tracking
study of migration routes from Hong Kong. Eventhough I do not follow this species closely sincethen, I still am involved somewhat. I remember theyear that we tried to capture them for the first time.
I felt sorry for the staff of NTT that had developed
the world's lightest transmitter of that time, because we could not capture them as planned. The
photo was taken in Okinawa.

mj-ueta@bird-research.jp

5