Birds travel thousands of kilometers across oceans and continents to escape the cold winter and move to warmer areas in search of food for survival and to breed.
In the Philippines, this natural phenomenon happens between the months of September to April when flocks of birds start arriving in September.
They find a suitable place to feed and roost, and leave in March or April the following year to return to their place of origin when the temperature becomes tolerable.
Global campaign
The Convention on Migratory Species and the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds on October 26, 2017, announced an innovative partnership to increase awareness of the plight of migratory birds around the world.
It put together two of the world’s largest bird education campaigns—the International Migratory Bird Day and World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD)—to strengthen the global recognition and appreciation of migratory birds and highlight the urgent need for their conservation.
Hence, starting in 2018, the new joint campaign adopted the single name of “World Migratory Bird Day.” Major events to celebrate the day are organized twice a year, on the second Saturday in May and in October.
This year’s theme, “Sing, Fly, Soar—Like A Bird!,” focused on the phenomena of “bird song” and “bird flight” to inspire and connect people of all ages around the globe in their shared desire to protect and celebrate migratory birds.
Seabird forum
In the Philippines, a few days following the WMBD celebration on October 9, the National Seabird Forum and Action Planning Workshop was conducted from October 13 to 15.
The three-day event was organized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau, Tubbataha Management Office, Isla Biodiversity Conservation, Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines, Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Inc., and Wetlands International Philippines.
Supported by the WWF Dr. Lew Young Grant, East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Small Grants Fund, and the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), the forum brought together 110 participants from government agencies, the academe, seabird conservation practitioners, site managers and seabird enthusiasts in the country and in other Southeast Asian countries.
Highlighting seabirds
The event highlighted seabirds as a very different species from other birds.
They are highly pelagic, spending most of their life in the open ocean and visiting land only to breed and rear their young.
According to the ACB, there are 34 species of known seabirds in the Philippines, 20 of them are regularly occurring and the rest are accidental sightings.
During the event, seabird specialist Arne Jensen, said there are 120 islets, rocks and outcroppings spread throughout the Philippine archipelago that are potential or known breeding or roosting habitats for seabirds.
Seabird habitats, status
Site presentations highlighted the status of seabirds and habitats, threats, data gaps and challenges, and current monitoring and conservation efforts.
He said that sadly there is no regular monitoring scheme in most of the known seabird sites in the Philippines which bird enthusiasts visited only occasionally.
This calls for training of field staff and birders on seabird identification and monitoring.
Among the threats identified in most of the sites—include marine litter, human intrusion and exploitation (e.g., egg collection, tourism, shipping), land conversion, presence of predators and other invasive species (e.g., rats, cats, monitor lizard), and climate change.
Plan of action
The participants in the forum agreed to craft a five-year National Seabird Action Plan, which includes strategies on policy formulation; management and enforcement; research and monitoring; communication, education and public awareness; knowledge management; and capacity building.
The participants agreed to gather baseline data in 100 of the 120 known or potential breeding sites, monitor priority sites and species regularly, establish areas for seabird conservation, develop a national communication strategy, including communication and education materials, and a seabird database.
Vanishing species
ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim warned against the extinction of seabirds species not only in the Philippines, but also in the Asean.
“Our seabirds are vanishing. In the Asean region, 70 migratory bird species from a total of 510 have been listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, and near threatened,” Lim said at the forum.
A former DENR-BMB director, Lim said hunting, illegal wildlife trade, habitat destruction, and even plastic pollution, are major drivers of increasing seabird mortality.
Citing studies conducted by Peter Ryan, the director of the Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, she said about 40 percent of seabirds have consumed plastic waste, which can kill them, or more likely, cause severe injuries.
Losing ecological connectors
“Losing the birds of the sea means losing our ecological connectors, those that connect remote island ecosystems to larger ecological networks,” she said.
According to Lim, Asean has a huge contribution to the world’s overall biodiversity, being at the center of the East-Asian Australasian Flyway, which is home to over 50 million migratory birds.
“Considering the need for stronger regional collaboration among Asean member-states, flyway site managers and partners from local, national and international organisations, the Asean Flyway Network was created, primarily to help improve knowledge, increase capacity, and enhance communication on wetlands and migratory birds in the region,” she said.
Finally, she said that through the Asean Flyway Network and the Asean Heritage Parks Programme, the Asean member-states, which include the Philippines, and the ACB are working together to protect and manage the ecosystems that serve as important feeding and watering sites of migratory birds, such as the Tubbataha Reef Natural Park.
Saving birds
The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines (WBCP) is among organizations that helps save birds. Its members help raise awareness about birds through photography, which they share through social media.
WBCP President Mike Lu, who was interviewed by the BusinessMirror on October 25, highlighted the importance of birds to the ecosystem.
“Birds are environmental indicators. The presence or absence, or the diversity of birds in an area indicates the overall health of the environment. Birds have different needs and food requirements, hence, the presence of more species in an ecosystem means there are diverse food choices for the birds,” Lu said.
Sadly, Lu said the current situation in the country is bleak due to environment degradation, illegal logging or mining, and even real estate development, land reclamation and infrastructure development that does not take into consideration their environmental impact.
“Add to that is the increase in wildlife trade due to the ease of online selling and market clamor due to the pandemic,” he said.
Don’t catch ‘em birds
According to Lu, most people see birds as good for cages only, and fail to see their importance in pest control, in pollination and propagation of forest trees.
He said while there may be an increase in awareness about the existence of birds during the pandemic since most people stay at home and begin noticing birds in their gardens, there is also an increase in people wanting to keep wild birds as pets.
“People need to appreciate the role birds play in the balance of nature. For example, insect-eating birds keep insect populations down, fruit-eating birds disperse the seeds of fruit trees far and wide, while other birds help pollinate flowers,” he said.
According to Lu, there is a need for stricter enforcement of the Wildlife Conservation Act, which prohibits hunting and poaching of wildlife. Most people do not even know that hunting is illegal. Worse, even law enforcement officers are ignorant or turn a blind eye to illegal acts.
“The government itself must lead in environment protection and awareness instead of just paying lip service during Earth Day, Coastal Clean-Up Day and other such [pro-environment] activities,” he said.