I opened the windows to the hide and was greeted by a mass of birds. Hundreds of cormorants, gulls, herons, egrets, ducks and waders, all feeding frantically as the rising tide covered up the fertile mud. Overhead, black kites patrolled half-heartedly, occasionally provoking the other birds to take to the wing in short-lived panic, before settling back down to feed or rest.
I witnessed this spectacle at the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Mai Po nature reserve in Hong Kong, justly celebrated as one of the most important wetlands in the world. Either side of high tide, birds gather here in vast numbers against the backdrop of Shenzhen, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, just across the border in mainland China.
Among the commoner species I spotted a spoonbill, but not the version I am familiar with. As it fed, sweeping its curious, spatulate bill from side to side in the shallow waters, I could see a distinctive dark face, contrasting with its white plumage, which marked this bird out as something different.
The black-faced spoonbill is by far the rarest member of its family, with fewer than 6,000 individuals on the planet. Soon it will head back north to the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea where it can breed undisturbed. Hopefully, next autumn, it will return to Mai Po, a welcome haven in a world where wetland habitats are under constant threat.
