Wildlife thrives as spring is here and summer is approaching. If you notice carefully, you might spot some spring migrants passing through Hong Kong, but what’s more, many birds start to breed. Luckily enough, you may even get to see the whole family with parents bringing up their chicks, which always make people’s heart melt.
However, the Society recently noticed many “bird families” are being disturbed by humans during this sensitive period, including photo-shooting or observation at close distance, lingering around the active bird nest for a long time, and shining strong light towards the nest or bird at night. These activities would scare the parents away, leaving the eggs and chicks unprotected and unattended, or frightening the chicks so they run around in panic. It is possible that the chicks will starve, dehydrate, or got drowned to death.
The above human disturbance would seriously disturb the survival and breeding of the birds. According to the “Wild Animals Protection Ordinance”, all wild birds are protected. Without a special permit, it is illegal to hunt or wilfully disturb any wild birds, or take, remove, injure, destroy or wilfully disturb a nest or egg of any wild birds.
To promote the principle of “Respect birds, do not disturb”, the Society has designed a “Don’t disturb” watermark for people to use on their photos. Below is the pledge for using the watermark:
1. declare that the work was taken with minimum interference to the birds
2. remind everyone to respect birds, not to disturb them, and not to disclose their nest location
3. demonstrate that awesome photos can also be captured at a distance from the bird
We hope everyone can appreciate the beauty of the birds in the photo, at the same time spread the message of protecting birds and conserving the nature!
*Download the “Don’t disturb” watermark (white): https://bit.ly/2y1dg2F
*Download the “Don’t disturb” watermark (grey): https://bit.ly/3cYX5l3
**HKBWS Code of Conduct for Birdwatching and Photography: https://bit.ly/2KlxwOV
→Support HKBWS's bird conservation and research work NOW!
