Hengchun roll call
Tsai, who has kept a long-term watch of migratory birds in the Hengchun region such as shrikes, herons, raptors and waterfowl, serendipitously found over a decade ago that barn swallows, which fly in from mid to high latitudes, roost at night in great numbers in the Hengchun Peninsula from May through August each year.
Unlike most other migratory birds, which have to search for highly concealed places rich in water and vegetation and with few natural enemies for a stopover of several days, barn swallows choose populated urban areas like Checheng, Chaozhou and Hengchun in Pingtung County, and just stop for the night. “The barn swallow’s advantage is that it can eat mosquitoes and other insects while it flies, so it needn’t stop to eat,” says Tsai.
Barn swallows passing through downtown Hengchun number at least 3,000–4,000 a night. But the record high was over 30,000, “the effect of a pre-typhoon ‘traffic jam’ before they set out across the sea,” he says.
Tsai eagerly points out that the Hengchun Peninsula also has multitudes of migrating Pacific swallows stopping for the night, but they’re more savvy: “They know how to find shelter in the underground parking garage of the five-star Howard Beach Resort in Kending, perching en masse on the pipes in the ceiling for a good night’s rest. The bad part is that cars parked there end up ‘baptized’ with bird droppings.” Hotel employees, unable to shoo them away, are always ready at migration time, hanging nets beneath the pipes to catch the droppings.
Tsai found that despite power lines being put underground and locals trying to drive away the birds to address the droppings problem, the population of barn swallows overnighting here is still steadily rising. “The barn swallow is an anomaly among wild birds. Their numbers aren’t dropping due to human influence; instead they’re thriving. Maybe you can compare them to sparrows and pigeons in this way,” he says.
Perhaps because they’re so common and numerous, there’s no detailed account of the total number, taxonomy, distribution, or migration paths of Taiwan’s swallows, and there’s little priority for research into these questions. Still, the barn swallow can open a window through which people can explore nature, and can continue giving ordinary folk warmth and blessings.
“Feed me! Feed me!” The baby swallow on the far left exhibits albinism, which also affects some humans.
This juvenile, which has just learned to fly, hasn’t yet grown its long, pointed tail feathers.