Every autumn, special birds fly all the way to Taiwan for the winter. They have black faces and bills shaped like spoons!
This is Bomi, a black-faced spoonbill. And this is Ting, who loves watching birds in Tainan. Let's follow Bomi's year!
๐ Tap the glowing circles. Tap ๐ Read to me to hear the story. Press Next โถ to keep reading, or jump straight to the game.
Look at Bomi's bill: long and flat, with a round spoon at the tip! In Taiwanese, people call these birds "rice-paddle birds" (้ฃฏๅ้ณฅ), because the bill looks like the paddle you use to scoop rice.
There are six kinds of spoonbills in the world. The black-faced spoonbill is the smallest one. ๐ Tap around.
๐ From the tip of its bill to the end of its tail, a black-faced spoonbill is about 75 cm long, about as long as a guitar.
Bomi hatched far to the north, on a small rocky island off the coast of Korea. That's where most black-faced spoonbills build their nests.
Mom and Dad take turns keeping the eggs warm. Baby spoonbills have pink bills! Their bills turn black as they grow up. ๐ Tap the chicks.
๐ฅ Eggs are laid in May and June. The parents feed their chicks for about 40 days, until they are big enough to fly.In autumn, the north gets cold, and the shallow water where spoonbills find food starts to freeze. So in October, Bomi flies south! The cool northeast monsoon wind gives a push.
Many spoonbills cross the Yellow Sea to China's coast, rest and eat at wetlands along the way, then fly on to Taiwan. ๐ Fly the route!
๐ฐ๏ธ Scientists put tiny trackers on some young spoonbills. On average, they flew about 1,200 km from Korea to their winter homes, about 3 times the length of Taiwan, and rested 2 or 3 times on the way.
Bomi arrives in Tainan! During the day, the spoonbills rest together in big flocks at river mouths and lagoons, where people don't bother them.
Many sleep standing on one leg, with their bills tucked into their back feathers. ๐ Find the sleepy birds.
๐ Black-faced spoonbills stay in Taiwan for about half a year: they arrive in autumn and fly north again in spring.How does Bomi catch fish? It puts its spoon bill in shallow water, and sweeps it from side to side. Swish, swish! When the bill touches a fish, it snaps shut. Gulp!
Bomi doesn't need to see the fish. Its bill can feel them! ๐ Sweep the bill.
๐ง Spoonbills like to feed where the water is shallow: about 16 cm deep or less, a bit shorter than a school ruler.
Most of Bomi's eating happens at night! When the sun goes down, the spoonbills fly from their resting place to shallow fish ponds and wetlands nearby.
In the dark, they sweep and feel, sweep and feel, until morning. ๐ Tap around the pond.
๐ In Tainan, spoonbills fly about 8 km each evening to their feeding spots, and some fly as far as 15 km.
Ting's grandpa, A-gong, raises fish in ponds. After he harvests his fish, he lets the water out, so the pond can dry in the sun.
The water gets shallow, and lots of little fish are left behind. For spoonbills, that's a feast! ๐ Open the gate.
๐ค In Taiwan, some fish farmers get a thank-you payment for keeping their drained ponds safe for spoonbills to feed in, with no poison and no nets.About 35 years ago, black-faced spoonbills almost disappeared. In 1989, people counted only 288 in the whole world!
People in many countries worked together: they protected wetlands and nesting islands, and counted the birds every winter. Now there are more than 7,700! ๐ Watch the numbers grow.
๐ข Every January, bird watchers in many countries count spoonbills on the same days. It's called the global census.Where do all the black-faced spoonbills spend the winter? If the whole world had just 100 of them, about 61 would be in Taiwan!
That means Taiwan has a very important job: keeping these birds safe every winter. ๐ Tap the places.
๐ In the January 2026 count, Taiwan had 4,719 spoonbills. Tainan had 2,034, and Chiayi had 1,515.
Some spoonbills wear a little ring on their leg, with letters and numbers on it. Bird watchers read the rings through telescopes, so they know who's who.
A spoonbill named T85 was rescued, got better, and was set free. It has come back to Tainan for three winters in a row! ๐ Read the rings.
๐ญ The rings don't hurt. They help scientists learn where each bird goes and how long it lives.
When spring comes, grown-up spoonbills get dressed up! They grow fluffy yellow feathers on the back of the head, and a yellow patch on the chest.
Then, starting around March, they fly north in small groups, back to the islands to build nests. Bye, Bomi! See you next winter! ๐ Wave goodbye.
๐ Young spoonbills don't get yellow feathers yet. They grow them when they are about 3 or 4 years old.
Ting and A-gong go to a birdwatching hut. They watch the spoonbills from far away with binoculars, and stay quiet. If people get too close, the birds fly away and waste the energy they need.
Every autumn, Tainan holds a spoonbill festival to welcome them back. ๐ Tap the ways to help.
๐ฆบ Spoonbills are protected in Taiwan. Keeping wetlands clean and safe helps many other birds too.Black-faced spoonbills nest near Korea and spend the winter in places like Tainan. They catch fish by touch with their spoon bills, mostly at night, and they came back from only 288 birds thanks to people working together.
๐ง Quick Quiz!