Hong Kong Wetland Park is holding its annual winter highlight event, the Bird Watching Festival, from today (December 16) until April 2017.
 
     With "Secrets in the World of Birds" as the theme this year, the Festival introduces some of the interesting adaptive features and habits of birds that make them so unique and successful in nature.
 
     Birds are almost everywhere. Birds are wonderful creatures with many distinctive characteristics that set them apart from other animals. They have adapted to life in the wilderness and in urban areas. They live in forests, mountains, river banks, mangroves, sea shores and other natural habitats. They also inhabit parks, gardens and plantations next to busy city streets.
 
     There are around 10 000 species of birds worldwide, and about 20 per cent are even specialists at long distance migration. The thematic exhibition "The School of Black-faced Spoonbill" reveals the secrets that enable black-faced spoonbills to travel thousands of kilometres back and forth every year between their breeding grounds in the north and their wintering grounds in the south, including the function of their hollow bones which account for only about 5 per cent of their body weight. A skeleton model of this globally endangered species is also being displayed in Hong Kong for the first time.
 
     Another attraction of the Festival is the "Wetland x Lego Experience Class". Participants will have a chance to build a black-faced spoonbill Lego brick model created by Lego Certified Professional Mr Andy Hung and his team exclusively for the Wetland Park.
 
     There is also an array of other edutainment activities about birds at the Festival, such as bird-watching guided tours, "If Bird Bones could Talk" interpretation sessions, public lectures and a kids' reading club.
 
     The Wetland Park has recently renovated the Inspiration Zone of the Human Culture Gallery with brand new interactive games showcasing the stories of wetland monsters which led to the formation of diverse human myths and culture. Highlights of the games include "Wuzhiqi", a supernatural water spirit of Chinese mythology, and the "Wetland Monster Workshop". Besides learning about wetland monsters from around the world, visitors can also create their own monster images.
 
     Located next to the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site, the Wetland Park is an ideal place for bird watching. It has diverse habitats including mudflats, freshwater marshes, ponds, streams, wet farmlands, reedbeds, mangroves and woodlands, which provide suitable living environments for more than 255 bird species, accounting for over 45 per cent of the bird species recorded in Hong Kong.
 
     For details of the events and the exhibition galleries, please visit Wetland Park's website (www.wetlandpark.gov.hk).

Ends/Friday, December 16, 2016
Issued at HKT 19:10

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