• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.478-485
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• 2018

With the total population of 3,356 worldwide as of 2016, the black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) is designated as "endangered (EN)" species by IUCN. About 70% of population breeds on the uninhabited islands near the west coast of Korea and wintering area is Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, etc. However, there is few detail research in Korea and East Asia on black-faced spoonbill's long range migration and its habitat when migrating southward. We studied black-faced spoonbill's migration route, distribution, stopover, wintering sites, and timing of migration movements using a wild-tracker (WT-200, GPS-Mobile phone based telemetry, KoEco). We caught the black-faced spoonbills in the breeding sites (Gugi island, Bi island, Sangyeobawi, Chilsan island) in Korea in late June 2014. We attached the wild-tracker to 10 juvenile black-faced spoonbills. The tracking showed that the black-faced spoonbills started southward migration between late October and early November. The traveling distance to wintering site was maximum at 1,820 km, minimum at 746 km, the average at 1,201km. The maximum daily traveling distance was 1,479 km with an average of 782 km. The average days it took from breeding site to wintering site was 10 days (SD=10.7). The shortest duration was 2 days, and the longest duration was 34 days. Most individuals used 2-3 stopover sites between the breeding sites to the wintering sites and stayed almost 1-2 days (maximum 31 days). Stopover sites were wetlands such as rivers, streams, reservoir, and mud flat. The wintering sites were coastal areas (five individuals) in China, inland (one individual) in China, Taiwan (three individuals), and Japan (one individual). In conclusion, it is necessary to preserve the stopover sites and wintering site of the black-faced spoonbills through consultation and protection policy between countries and establish the systematic preservation measures and activity plans through continued moniting and additional studies.