Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Extent of this site : the section of river where the Pohtzi River enters the sea, mainly consisting of the approximately 5-km section of river channel and the two banks from upstream at Hsuangliantan downstream to the Dongshih Bridge (Prov. Highway 17). The main environments are the estuary, mangrove forests, protection forests, and aquaculture ponds.
The habitats at this site are relatively plain, since they mainly consist of the river channel and banks on the downstream section of the Pohtzi River. There are small patches of agricultural areas which are located in tidally influenced brackish water wetland areas. The Pohtzi River carries the organic load of upstream cities, and the river bed is silting up with sand, nurturing the abundant benthic organisms. Among these are many species of crabs whose numbers are increasing which is ideal as crabs are a main food of birds residing here. The activities of shorebirds, the Charadriidae, and waterfowl flocks near the advancing and receding tides depend on their different feeding characteristics and territories for feeding and roosting on the mud flats. Numbers of the globally threatened Saunders’s Gull approach 100 birds in the winter; they feed mainly on the abundant crabs and the Dusky Mud Hopper on the mud flats.
IBA criterion species: Saunders’s Gull:
Time 1995 Feb. 1996 Feb. 1997 Feb. 1997 Nov. 1998 Jan. 1998 Dec. 1999 Jan. 1999 Dec. 2000 Feb. 2001 Jan.
No. of SG 380 13 60 59 65 44 59 81 91 36
• At this site, 179 species of birds have been recorded.
• Each year up to 3,000 Black-headed Gulls are seen.
• Large numbers of up to several hundred birds of Whiskered Tern and White-winged Black Tern pass through on migration. Waterfowl principally gather in the Hsuanglian section of the river, reaching 2-3,000 birds of Green-winged Teal which is the most numerous at about one-half. Others include Northern Pintail, European Wigeon, and Northern Shoveller with tens to hundreds in a flock. Eastern Marsh Harrier is frequently observed flying over the reed bush on the riverbed of Hsuangliantan in winter.
Non-bird biodiversity: • On the higher exposed areas in the riverbed are mixed mangrove stands of Kandelia Kandelia candel and Black Mangrove Avicennia marina. Although the older mangrove forest were cut to open up agricultural areas, after the river levee was built, young mangroves quickly grew back, and are slowly evolving into new dense mangrove forests just like were here formerly.
• There are many species of fiddler crabs here including the endemic Uca formosensis.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
• There is development of reclaimed lands on the coast wetland which requires the dredging of sand, and there is unrestrained digging of fishponds.
• The fishing harbor is being expanded, and there is construction of river levees to prevent flooding.
• Abandoned materials are accumulating; industrial wastewater is being dumped here.
• Groundwater extraction in the coastal area is causing land sinkage.
• There are natural disasters like typhoons, etc.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
Lobbying activities:
• In 1994, the 1994 Planning examples of environmentally sensitive areas at the coast of Taiwan listed Pohtzi River as an ecologically sensitive area.
• The Fisheries Administration of the Executive Yuan legally established the hiatula species Fisheries Resource Conservation Area.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Pohtzi River Estuary (Taiwan, China). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/pohtzi-river-estuary-iba-taiwan-china on 23/12/2024.
