Did You Know? Most of the World’s Black-Faced Spoonbills Spend Winter in Taiwan

Right about now, a very particular bird is flying in to Taiwan’s southwest coast. It’s white, it has a bare black face, and its bill looks like someone glued a spoon to the end of it. Taiwanese birders call it 黑琵 (hēi pí), short for 黑面琵鷺, the black-faced spoonbill, and Taiwan is where most of the world’s population spends the winter.

Six in ten of the world’s spoonbills winter in Taiwan

Every January, birders across East Asia count every spoonbill they can find on the same weekend. The 2026 census found 7,746 birds worldwide, and 4,719 of them were in Taiwan. That’s about 61% of the species, and a record for Taiwan. Tainan alone had 2,034.

That’s a big comeback. Around 1990, the first proper global count found fewer than 300 of them. In 2025, the IUCN moved the species from Endangered down to Vulnerable. You’ll still see “endangered” in a lot of older articles (including our own Tainan guide), but the birds have earned the upgrade.

Where they go, and why Tainan

Spoonbills breed in summer on small rocky islands off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula and up toward Liaoning in China. From about October to April they fly south to winter. Their favorite stop is the Zengwen River estuary in Cigu (七股), Tainan: wide, shallow mudflats packed with fish and shrimp, with old fish ponds and salt pans all around. A protected area was set up there in 2002, and in 2009 it became part of Taijiang National Park.

Watch them feed and you’ll see where the spoon comes in. A spoonbill walks through ankle-deep water sweeping its half-open bill from side to side, and when it touches a fish or shrimp the bill snaps shut. Locals have a nicer name for that slow sweep: 黑面舞者, “the black-faced dancer.”

How to see them

• Go between November and March. They start arriving in October, and the numbers build through winter.
• Use the official viewing spots. Taijiang National Park runs a spoonbill viewing shelter next to the Zengwen River mouth wetland. Bring binoculars, because the birds keep their distance.
• Time it with the tide and the light. They often doze through the middle of the day, so early morning and late afternoon are your best shot at seeing the dance.
• Make a day of it. The Cigu salt mountain and Taijiang mangroves are close by. And if you’re riding the High Speed Rail south, look out over the wetlands between Chiayi and Tainan (our HSR guide tells you when).

They’re the latest addition to our running list of Taiwan’s wild residents, after the pangolin. This one only comes for the winter, which makes it worth the trip. If Tainan’s slow, sunny coast is your happy place, our Tainan City Emblem tee is a good thing to wear while you wait for the birds to wake up.