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Avian Research 2021, 12(1): 70 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00302-4
Research | Open Access | Issue | Published: 04 December 2021

Migration routes, behavior and protection status of Eurasian Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia) wintering in China

Show Author's Information Jire Xi1,2,  Xueqin Deng2,3,  Gerelt Zhao1,  Nyambayar Batbayar4,  Iderbat Damba9,  Qingshan Zhao2,3,  Shoubin Cui5,  Chao Jiang5,  Yiwen Chen2,6,  Yat-tung Yu7,  Lei Cao2,3( ),  Anthony David Fox8
Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, 010000, Inner Mongolia, China
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 101408, China
Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia, Undram Plaza 404 toot, Ulaanbaatar, 210351, Mongolia
Heilongjiang Baoqing Qixinhe National Nature Reserve Administration, Baoqing, Heilongjiang, 155600, China
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Hong Kong SAR, China
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Grenåvej 14, 8410, Kalø, Denmark
Institute of Biology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, 13330, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Keywords:
Habitat use, Biogeographical subpopulations, GPS/GSM loggers, Migration routes, Open water habitats, Site safeguard
Cite this article:
Xi J, Deng X, Zhao G, et al. Migration routes, behavior and protection status of Eurasian Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia) wintering in China. Avian Research, 2021, 12(1): 70. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-021-00302-4
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Abstract Full text About this article
Background

The Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) occurs throughout Eurasia and North and sub-Saharan Africa, with three recognized subspecies and six geographically distributed populations. However, in China, we knew almost nothing about migration routes, habitat use and effectiveness of current site protection measures for this species.

Methods

We deployed Global Positioning System/Global System for Mobile Communications (GPS/GSM) satellite trackers on 29 Eurasian Spoonbills captured in summer in Mongolia and northeastern China, to obtain complete migration routes data from 10 individuals from 19 complete migration episodes.

Results

Tracking data showed no geographical overlap during the annual cycle in Eurasian Spoonbills marked in the two main summering areas. Birds marked in the Naoli River Basin in Heilongjiang Province, China, wintered along the Jiangsu coastline in China, while Eurasian Spoonbills from two discrete summering areas (in Inner and western Mongolia) overwintered inland in the Yangtze River floodplain of China. Excluding the single Inner Mongolian bird, spring migration was significantly faster than autumn migration in the other two groups of birds. Eurasian Spoonbills mainly used water, wetland and grassland habitats in summer, but almost exclusively water in winter. Lack of protection of staging sites used by all the birds in spring and poor levels of protection throughout the annual cycle for western Mongolian birds (5–22%) gives considerable cause for concern, although sites used in other time by East Mongolian and Naoli River birds in the rest of their annual life cycle enjoyed good levels of protection (49–95%).

Conclusions

These results revealed previously unknown relationships between summering and wintering areas, migration routes and stopover sites for Eurasian Spoonbills wintering in China, suggesting the existence of discrete biogeographical population units. They also identified winter habitat use of Eurasian Spoonbills in China, confirming open water habitats as being critical throughout the annual cycle, although based on small sample size, gaps in current site safeguard networks for these populations.


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About this article

Migration routes, behavior and protection status of Eurasian Spoonbills (Platalea leucorodia) wintering in China

Show Author's information Jire Xi1,2, Xueqin Deng2,3, Gerelt Zhao1, Nyambayar Batbayar4, Iderbat Damba9, Qingshan Zhao2,3, Shoubin Cui5, Chao Jiang5, Yiwen Chen2,6, Yat-tung Yu7, Lei Cao2,3( ), Anthony David Fox8
Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, 010000, Inner Mongolia, China
State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 101408, China
Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia, Undram Plaza 404 toot, Ulaanbaatar, 210351, Mongolia
Heilongjiang Baoqing Qixinhe National Nature Reserve Administration, Baoqing, Heilongjiang, 155600, China
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Hong Kong SAR, China
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Grenåvej 14, 8410, Kalø, Denmark
Institute of Biology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, 13330, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Abstract

Background

The Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) occurs throughout Eurasia and North and sub-Saharan Africa, with three recognized subspecies and six geographically distributed populations. However, in China, we knew almost nothing about migration routes, habitat use and effectiveness of current site protection measures for this species.

Methods

We deployed Global Positioning System/Global System for Mobile Communications (GPS/GSM) satellite trackers on 29 Eurasian Spoonbills captured in summer in Mongolia and northeastern China, to obtain complete migration routes data from 10 individuals from 19 complete migration episodes.

Results

Tracking data showed no geographical overlap during the annual cycle in Eurasian Spoonbills marked in the two main summering areas. Birds marked in the Naoli River Basin in Heilongjiang Province, China, wintered along the Jiangsu coastline in China, while Eurasian Spoonbills from two discrete summering areas (in Inner and western Mongolia) overwintered inland in the Yangtze River floodplain of China. Excluding the single Inner Mongolian bird, spring migration was significantly faster than autumn migration in the other two groups of birds. Eurasian Spoonbills mainly used water, wetland and grassland habitats in summer, but almost exclusively water in winter. Lack of protection of staging sites used by all the birds in spring and poor levels of protection throughout the annual cycle for western Mongolian birds (5–22%) gives considerable cause for concern, although sites used in other time by East Mongolian and Naoli River birds in the rest of their annual life cycle enjoyed good levels of protection (49–95%).

Conclusions

These results revealed previously unknown relationships between summering and wintering areas, migration routes and stopover sites for Eurasian Spoonbills wintering in China, suggesting the existence of discrete biogeographical population units. They also identified winter habitat use of Eurasian Spoonbills in China, confirming open water habitats as being critical throughout the annual cycle, although based on small sample size, gaps in current site safeguard networks for these populations.

Keywords: Habitat use, Biogeographical subpopulations, GPS/GSM loggers, Migration routes, Open water habitats, Site safeguard

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Publication history

Received: 28 February 2021
Accepted: 10 November 2021
Published: 04 December 2021
Issue date: January 2021

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2021.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the capture teams for their work in the field, and thanks to the reserve staff for assisting in the capture work.

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