Zhang Guogang, a postdoctoral student at the Chinese Academy of Forestry Science, said he and his colleagues had spotted black-faced spoonbills twice during an investigation of the bird's habitat on the island.

"We had traveled almost everywhere in Hainan for a joint research conducted by the World Wildlife Fund and the Chinese Academy of Forestry Science early this year," Zhang said. "On Jan.12, we saw 11 black-faced spoonbills in a forest at Lingao County of Hainan. Another bird was spotted the following day at Dongzhaigang Nature Reserve."

The black-faced spoonbill, a large-sized migratory bird native to Asia, including China, Russia, the Democratic Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Vietnam, has been designated as one of the most valuable species in eastern Asia for both research and protection.

At present, there are only 800 of the birds worldwide, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Taiwan Province has the world's largest number with a total of 622 such rare migratory birds.

Hainan was once a major winter habitat for the black-faced spoonbill, but the bird began disappearing from the region in the early 1980s.

Wang Chundong, an official in charge of the Hainan Provincial Wildlife Protection Center, said Hainan will conduct a survey on the number and distribution of the black-faced spoonbills in Hainan and set up a nature reserve for the rare bird.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2003)