Macao took home the top prize at the first Greater Bay Area (GBA) bird watching competition, which held its closing ceremony in Hengqin’s Mang Zhou Wetland Park yesterday.
The winning team was organised by the Macao Association of Ecological and Environmental Conservation and came in first place by spotting a total of 86 bird species.
The 28 teams that competed in the event spotted 118 species of birds altogether over the course of 12 hours. They also managed to record 5 species that had not been sighted in the Hengqin area, including the yellow-breasted bunting which the Chinese Government declared a Class I conservation bird species in 2021.
[See more: Bird enthusiasts explore the Macao Fortress]
“It is an honour to be able to represent Macao by participating in this bird watching competition,” a representative of the winning Macao team told Chinese media. “Hengqin has rich ecological resources [and] lots of habitat.”
Also attending the event were students from Macao and Zhuhai.
Macao is also home to a variety of bird species. According to the Municipal Affairs Bureau, there are 141 species of birds that have been identified in Macao as of November 2022.
—With reporting by Kenny Fong
