THAILAND: BIRDWATCHERS MONITOR SIBERIAN SWALLOWS FOLLOWING THEIR MIGRATION TO SOUTHEAST ASIA TO ESCAPE FREEZING WINTER

Record ID: 597033

  • Title: THAILAND: BIRDWATCHERS MONITOR SIBERIAN SWALLOWS FOLLOWING THEIR MIGRATION TO SOUTHEAST ASIA TO ESCAPE FREEZING WINTER
  • Date: 20th December 1995
  • Summary: BANGKOK, THAILAND (DECEMBER 20, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) NIGHT 1. GV/SV SWALLOWS ABOVE SILOM ROAD (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. MCU/CU SWALLOWS IN THE TREES (2 SHOTS) 0.21 3. SV BIRD WATCHERS GATHER IN THE STREETS 0.25 4. SV/ZOOM VOLUNTEERS PREPARING NET (2 SHOTS) 0.30 5. GV PANS AS VOLUNTEERS LIFT NET TO COVER A TREE ACROSS STREET/ZOOM (3 SHOTS) 0.43 6. MCU BIRDS IN NET/ VOLUNTEERS PICKING BIRDS OFF NET (2 SHOTS) 0.49 7. GV STREET SCENE SWALLOWS ABOVE SILOM ROAD 0.52 8. SV INT. SWALLOWS ARE TAKEN OUT OF CLOTH BAG 0.55 9. MCU/CU KIYOAKI OZAKI, DIRECTOR OF BIRD MIGRATION RESEARCH CENTRE OF YAMASHINA INSTITUTE FOR ORNITHOLOGY, COLLECTING DATA AND TAGGING SWALLOW (3 SHOTS) 1.12 10. SV OZAKI SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.30 11. SV RESEARCHER/ CU TAGGING BIRD (4 SHOTS) 1.47 SEQ.10: TRANSCRIPT; OZAKI: "ONE OF REASONS WHY WE ARE HERE RESEARCHING IS TO KNOW THE POPULATION MOVEMENT OF ROOSTING SWALLOWS HERE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 4th January 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BANGKOK, THAILAND
  • City:
  • Country: Thailand
  • Reuters ID: LVA5QLUT6PYQ800VZYF78KO4EUHU
  • Story Text: Bird-watchers from around Thailand are defying noise complaints and urban development in an effort to keep tens of thousands of Siberian swallows from fleeing a roosting area in Bangkok's bustling Silom Road financial district.

    Several hundred bird-lovers invaded Silom, to spread out nets to catch and tag thousands of barn swallows perching on trees and buildings.

    The volunteers put small aluminium bands on the birds' legs that will help ornithologists keep track of them.

    The swallow banding campaign, organised by the Thai Forestry Department and Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group, seeks to monitor the bird's annual long-distance migration from Siberia to southeast Asia.

    Kiyoaki Ozaki, Director of Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, said experts did not know the total number of swallows flying thousands of kilometres (miles) each year to balmy southeast Asia to escape the freezing Siberian winter.

    Studies have shown that about 90 percent of the birds do not survive more than a year due to the harsh weather conditions or because they fall victim to bigger predatory birds.

    "One of the reasons we are here, tagging and counting, is to determine the population movement of the roosting swallows here," Ozaki said.

    Thailand has for decades been a refuge for the black and brown swallows during the northern winter, with at least 200,000 birds found last December at three sites in northern Nan province, at Silom, and in the Thai-Malaysian border town of Betong.

    But the Thai forestry department said the Silom swallow population was falling fast, from about 270,000 11 years ago to some 50,000 this year.

    The most recent threat was a Bangkok city decision several years ago to place Silom Road's overhead power lines, the bird's former main roosting place, underground.


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