菲律宾的莱特岛发现卷羽鹈鹕

菲律宾的莱特岛发现卷羽鹈鹕

在今年的隆冬水鸟调查里，菲律宾在莱特岛找到一只鹈鹕，最初都以为是斑嘴鹈鹕（班嘴鹈鹕的模式差地就是菲律宾，所以学名的意思是“菲律宾鹈鹕”），要是如此，那是自20世纪40年代之后的第一个记录，一般相信斑嘴鹈鹕在菲律宾早已绝迹。大家在兴奋之余，菲律宾的环境与自然资源部的克斯都迪奥先生（十几年的老朋友了，以前一起在菲律宾的偏远地区作过研究的）给我发了些照片，因为Tim Fisher说那一只是卷羽鹈鹕，一看之下，果然是卷羽。这应该是菲律宾的第一个记录，相信是华南越冬的卷羽鹈鹕中，比较冒失或者大胆的一只，飞到菲律宾中部去了。

Dear OBers,

News on 18 January 2009. Carlo Custodio has kindly sent me a photo of the

bird - without any doubt it was a Dalmatian Pelican.

Simba Chan

BirdLife Asia Division

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090118-184025/E

xtinct-pelican-rediscovered-in-Leyte

‘Extinct’ pelican rediscovered in Leyte

By Vicente Labro

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 03:12:00 01/18/2009

Filed Under: Animals, Nature

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines?A rare pelican species has been sighted in Leyte

by a team from the regional office of the Department of Environment and

Natural Resources (DENR-8).

Arnulito Viojan of the DENR’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Division said

they discovered what could be the Spot-billed Pelican (Pelecanus

philippensis) at Lake Bito, Barangay Imelda, MacArthur, Leyte, on

Wednesday, while they were conducting a monitoring of water birds in the area.

The lone pelican was sighted Wednesday morning resting on a floating bamboo

raft inside a fish pen on the lake. But before Viojan and his team could go

near and take close-up pictures, the bird swam away.

“Residents in the area told us they first noticed the big bird on the lake

on Tuesday,” Viojan told the Inquirer on Thursday.

Citing information from the “A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines,” by

Robert S. Kennedy, et. al., Viojan said the the Spot-billed Pelican is

believed to have been extinct “probably since the 1940s.”

A Spot-billed Pelican has white feathers, dark feet, weighs from 4.1 to 6

kilos and has a flying range that reaches up to Southern China. The bird’s

beak is pinkish yellow but has black spots on the upper mandible, according

to the Philippine field guide.

Violan said the Spot-billed Pelican once inhabited Laguna de Bay, the

Candaba swamp, the coastal areas of Bulacan and some parts of Mindanao.

Dalmatian pelican

However, Tim Fisher, one of the authors of “A Guide to the Birds of the

Philippines,” said he believes the bird sighted in Leyte could be a

Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus), based on pictures sent to him

yesterday by a biodiversity conservation group based in Cebu

“There is a yellow wash of color on the pelican’s chest. The only pelican

likely to end up in the Philippines is the Dalmatian pelican which is found

in China and moves to Hong Kong during migration season. Because of the

cold front we’ve been experiencing, the pelican must have flown out to the

Philippines,” Briton Fisher said in a phone interview on Friday.

Stressing that the pelican species needs to be reconfirmed, he said the

Spot-billed Pelican is found in India and Sri-Lanka and is not likely to

turn up in these parts.

He also said the Dalmatian pelican is a rare bird “and if we could

reconfirm it, this would be the very first time it has been sighted in the

Philippines,” said Fisher, who was in Mt. Kitanglad, Cagayan de Oro,

heading a team of birders at the time of the phone interview.

Waterfowl census

Viojan, meanwhile, said they were at Lake Bito conducting a waterfowl

census in line with the annual Asian Waterbird Census from Jan. 10 to 25.

The census, he said, is a regional program to promote public participation

to monitor the distribution and population of water birds and the status of

wetlands.

According to Viojan, Lake Bito in MacArthur, Leyte, is one of the 12

wetlands in the region that they are monitoring.