The best place to watch shorebirds is the Mai Po Nature Reserve. The Reserve is a wetland of 1500 acres situated in the Northwest of Hong Kong. Every year thousands of waterbirds from North China come to Mai Po to spend the warm winter here.
Starting from late November, the Reserve becomes a bird paradise.
The most spectacular scenery at this time of the year is the Cormorants. These birds come in their thousands to Mai Po Nature Reserve every winter and feed on the fish in the small ponds here.
To reduce the predation by the Cormorants in the surrounding commercial fishponds, the Reserve regularly purchases trash fish from local fishermen to provide food for the Cormorants. This programme not only compensates the local fishermen for their loss to the winter birds, but also presents a good opportunity for birdwatching.
The Cormorants are very intelligent and they can sense that fish are on the way once a group of visitors are present.
They get so excited as soon as the fish are loaded to the pond.
It is like watching an action film!
The fish seem too big for the birds to swallow but it does not stop them in the slightest from enjoying it!
