Marine National Park Headquarters

“This would possibly be the once-in-a lifetime encounter”, sighed the researchers of the Dongsha Island Avian Resources Investigation Program when they witnessed a rare vagrant bird, Indian Whistling Duck, resting with a flock of egrets in the Dongsha lagoon on May, 11th evening. Indian Whistling Ducks, with a black bill, relatively long legs, and a distinctive penguin-style standing posture, are mainly distributed in South-east Asia, which are rarely frequent to their northern boundary distribution of Taiwan. This unexpected sighting has added up Dongsha Island birding records to 197 species. Let along the abundant species visiting this comparably small island, and numerous migratory birds utilizing the island’s resource for supplement, researchers even found a sanderling traveling a long way from Australia by its orange yellow leg flag.