Aborigines in the sky of Matsu - wild bird paradise

In silent forests, birds blare. For people live in metropolitans for a long time, this is the music from heaven. The priceless sounds of nature,

In the morning, birds sing on the roof or outside of the windows, for those who have lived in a city for long time, to hearing the birds’ singing is a luxury wish. They have to drive to the country sides and to stay in the mountains where they can find the music of heaven.

At Matsu, it is easy to explore birds tracks or listen to birds' singings, yet people live in Matsu don’t pay attention on this, or maybe forget about the gift from nature.

You may be surprised that there are 234 kinds of birds live in Matsu islands; they accompany with you and sing for you...

For geographical position, Matsu is located on the northwest west of Taiwan, an islet of river Ming near Fujian province of mainland China. Northern latitudes 25.55-26.44, east longitude 119.51-120.31. Belong to subtropics and monsoon zone , monsoons from southwest in summer northeast in winter. Area 28.8 square kilometers of the whole island that is formed by several islets and reef rocks. the geology of the islands are most granites ,lacking of high mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes, to provided environments for birds to dwell. But the islands is located on the routes when migratory bird move from the south to north and to return, therefore every autumn, there are thousands of birds in Matsu region which come from northeast of mainland China, Korea and Japan and Siberia to pass the winter or to transit; when the migratory birds return to the north in spring, which is also an amazing scene. Numerous summer migratory bird tern, will come to Matsu from equator neighborhood in every April, which is also a feature.

The birds record data of Matsu is quite poor, only one or two records are recorded by the military service in Matsu to make a few investigations. The county cooperated with the wild bird academic association of R.O.C. from July, 1996, started to work on the study of birds in the region. The investigation suggests within two years, the birds of Matsu region are 234 kinds which stay birds among them are 20 kinds, about 8.6%, migratory bird: The winter migratory birds are 54 kinds, about 23%, the summer migratory birds are 14 kinds about 6%, and the transit birds are 146 kinds, about 62.4%, the result shows the constituting of birds in Matsu, the migratory bird s are the main category.

The environment and situation for birds to dwell in Matsu are like this：

1. waterfowl：

Because each island lacks the environment for migratory birds to look for food and dwell, such as marsh grounds, rivers, lakes, reservoirs etc., so the dwelling areas and amounts are limited. The waterfowls most live around Tong Yuong reservoir, small ponds nearby and the sandy beach near Bei Gan Tan, plum stone area and the shore of Chin Shuei, and victory reservoir. The curlews are main birds among them.

2. sea birds：

Fish in Matsu used to be abundant, which attracts numerous of sea birds. However, regularly suffering from gunning, fish bombing and shocking, or artificial interference, makes the amount of sea birds reduces year after year. Currently in every winter, there is still a big amount of black tail gull, black ridge gull and Dan Suen Sin bird. In summer there are even thousands of conservated tern multiplying greatly island reef , among them, the iron sharp island, in island, white temple, three connect the reef of the island, reef spring and double son reef , snake mountain, enter an island have the most quantities of sea birds. The environment for these birds is precious that we should protect continuously.

3. birds of prey：

Most birds of preys only transit in the region, among them the blackface spoonbill, red stomach eagle, red bid amount is the most. The winter migratory birds, red and burnt, pine eagle of Japan, visit birds are four kinds of migratory birds more often to be seen. In winter, the monsoon of northeast is powerful, hollow places and face easily form high current of air, the red birds flap their wings in the sky, or hover around or roam and sometimes to be seen to grab animals at a glance , act agile, smooth and clean, The red bird is the most special in the bird of prey, there are around ten staying bird in this region, this is the situation that doesn’t appear in Taiwan.

4.land birds：

The forestation in Matsu for several decades provides the best environment for land birds to dwell. Among the land birds, the oriole second section, the ridge bird section, are the most abundant, which some of them are rare to be seen in Taiwan. White crest river bird , hat bird , red chest bird, brown head bird, also the life bring bird, Huang Tou Ji bird, white cheek mountain bird, hair hat winding the tail, red tail chop down bird, stomach and blue stomach blue bird , skylark, Buddhist doctrine monk, white spot purple roar bird, magpies bird , ground bird wood, black-naped oriole, and Huang Yao Liu oriole...etc., which are all precious.

The activities of birds in Matsu, from January to April is the peak, the categories and amount of winter migratory bird reach to the peak of the whole year, after April, the winter migratory birds return to north, the amount then reduces gradually. From June to July in summer, it is the least season of birds categories, and from September to November, the migratory birds start to move to south, which is the second best season of the categories of birds. Except the staying birds dwell in the region, migratory birds come and leave of the transformation of season, again and again in every year.

Birds are faithful friends of mankind, also a necessary wreath of nature, and the precious source for us to develop sightseeing, we own such good geography condition and environment, it would be regrettable if we cherish this gift and allow its depopulation.

Promoting the natural ecosystem is important nowadays, we hope by this introduction of birds can increase your recognition to wild birds in this region ,and we hope every one join to make efforts, protecting this precious gift. 

Published by：Lienchiang County Government

Modify Date：108/09/20