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| Spoon-billed Sandpipers Discovered in Myanmar |
| Indian Nations Audubon Society Eastern Oklahoma Muskogee, Tahlequah, Wagoner Fort Gibson & Tenkiller Lakes |
| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
| Mon, Feb. 18, 2008 Rare-bird find turns up hopes for survival By Michael Casey Associated Press BANGKOK, Thailand Eighty-four spoon-billed sandpipers have been discovered wintering in a coastal stretch of Myanmar, offering hope for saving the endangered birds. The early-February find, made public last week, comes only months after Russian researchers reported that numbers of the tiny birds - with speckled brow feathers and a distinctive spoon-shaped bill - had dropped 70 percent in the last few years in their breeding sites in Siberia and none had been seen this year in their traditional wintering locations in Bangladesh. The World Conservation Union lists it as endangered with only 200 to 300 pairs left in the wild. The discovery of the 84 birds in Myanmar - only one of which appears to have come from Siberia - raises the prospect of breeding grounds elsewhere, said the Britain-based conservation group BirdLife International, which reported the find. The birds' migration route takes them from Siberia down through Japan, North Korea, South Korea, China and Taiwan, to their main wintering grounds in South Asia. "This is an important piece of the jigsaw," said Simba Chan, senior conservation manager of BirdLife in Asia. "If present trends continue, the spoon-billed sandpiper faces extinction in the next few years. If we are to save the species, we need to identify and conserve not only its breeding sites, but its migration stopover sites and wintering grounds, too." |
| “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” Chinese Proverb |
