As a reply to message posted by John, the HK Bird Index is set up to measure two important things on the birds of Hong Kong: (1) the population, and (2) the diversity.
Unlike the Winter Bird Atlas and the Breeding Bird Survey, the HK Bird Index samples only selected sites. Based on our limited effort in the society, many sites that are currently under systematic survey are included. These include Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site Waterbird Monitoring (including wader count, waterbird count, and Egretry count), Long Valley bird count, Kite count, Breeding Tern count, Po Toi bird count. The new sites are Tai Po Kau, Shing Mun, Kam Tin, Tai Mo Shan, and Lung Fu Shan.
In terms of habitats, there are:
1. Wetlands (Mai Po Inner Deep Bay, and Egretries)
2. Farmlands (Long Valley, and Kam Tin)
3. Forests (Tai Po Kau, Shing Mun, Lung Fu Shan, and Magazine Gap)
4. Upland Grassland (Tai Mo Shan)
5. Islands and the surrounding sea (Po Toi and Tern colonies)
All of these are scheduled survey, although the sampling rate may not be the same throughout the year. For example, there will be no point to visit the Egretries or Tai Mo Shan during autumn and winter).
In the newly started surveys, all the species and number are counted. This is not the same are many of the existing surveys that count only a specific group of birds.
The counts are carried out more of less fixed route this year, but I think some minor adjustments are needed in the future. For example, Kam Tin is very unstable. The landfill area is expanding every week. Soon part of the present survey route may be ecologically useless. In that case, I think there should be a slight adjustment to the survey route.
The duration of the count is fixed. For the new sites, it is 3 to 4 hours. All counts at forest habitats are designated to be in the morning. In Kam Tin the count is in the afternoon. In Tai Mo Shan, I have counts both in the Morning and in the Afternoon.
On the web, we will present the data of species count and number count. I think this is sufficient for most members and the general public. I have detailed data that include the count of each species, the time, the weather, and also the subsection of the survey route that the birds were recorded. I don’t think these should be presented on the web at this moment.
We need competent birdwatchers to help. Those who are willing to count all the species on a particular site many times a year please step forward.
HF Cheung
