TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Birdwatchers in Tainan discovered a rare winter migratory whooper swan appearing in a fish pond in Tainan’s Qigu District.
The whooper swan sighting was noteworthy as it appeared alongside three smaller tundra swans. Birdwatchers rushed to capture the scene with their cameras, per CNA.
Tainan Ecological Conservation Society Secretary-General Chiu Ren-wu (邱仁武) said he was conducting a bird monitoring survey in Qigu District at about 8 a.m. on Sunday (Dec. 17) when he suddenly found a whooper swan next to three smaller tundra swans.
Whooper swan appears with tundra swans in Tainan. (CNA photo)
Whooper swans are larger than tundra swans and have more yellow on their bills. When two different swans appear at the same time, it is easy to distinguish the different body shapes and identify characteristics such as the color of the upper beak.
Chiu said researchers from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Biodiversity Research Institute’s Qigu Research Center discovered the three tundra swans on a fish pond next to the Sangu River in Qigu District on Nov. 21. After a period of observation, they found the swans did not seem to be disturbed by human activity, with many birdwatchers rushing to take photos.
Chiu said tundra swans are winter migratory birds rarely seen in Taiwan. However, this year they have appeared in wetlands in central, northern, and eastern Taiwan, including New Taipei, Miaoli, Taichung, and Hualien, and now Tainan’s Qigu District.
Whooper swans breed in Siberia and typically winter in Japan, Korea, or central China, according to Chiu.
