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The Hong Kong Wetland Park is holding its annual winter highlight event, the Bird Watching Festival, from today (November 24) until April 2016.
With "Feathers and Flight" as the theme this year, the Festival will introduce how the distinctive shapes and structures of feathers help birds to soar high in the sky, and how closely bird feathers are connected with the daily life of human beings.
Feathers have unique colours and patterns and are durable. Since ancient times, bird feathers have been used for decorating accessories and producing everyday items, such as quill pens, feather shuttlecocks, down jackets and chicken feather dusters. Moreover, inspired by the structure of bird wings, pioneers started to design flying machines and gradually realised the dream of flight. In the early 15th century, Italy's Leonardo da Vinci recorded in "Codex on the Flight of Birds" his observation of bird flight with detailed sketches of flight postures, the process of air passing through the wings and preliminary designs of an ornithopter.
Bodies and wings of birds are covered by a variety of feathers that streamline their body shape to reduce wind resistance and produce a lifting force for flight. Feathers also serve many other functions, like helping birds to attract mating partners and providing birds with waterproof and insulating outer shields as well as camouflage from predators. For instance, the great egret will grow long plumes that fall gracefully from the back and extend beyond the tail during the breeding season.
Another attraction of the Festival is a cinereous vulture specimen made by the Hong Kong Wetland Park that is on open display in Hong Kong for the first time. The cinereous vulture is a rare winter visitor as well as the largest raptor in Hong Kong. It has a body length of more than 1 metre and a wing span of 2.6m. With nearly black dark brown feathers covering the whole body, the cinereous vulture simply looks gorgeous.
In addition, the Wetland Park is displaying different types of feathers from various birds including the great cormorant and the black-faced spoonbill in the "Animal Encounter" session, so that visitors can take a closer look at the delicate structures and arrangements of feathers during the Festival. The Wetland Park is also holding an array of activities including guided tours, interpretation sessions, public lectures, "Pei Pei" sock doll making classes and more to enable visitors to learn about birds.
Located next to the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site, the Wetland Park is an ideal place for bird watching. The Park has diverse habitats, including mudflats, freshwater marshes, ponds, streams, wet farmlands, reedbeds, mangroves and woodlands, which provide suitable living environments for more than 250 bird species, accounting for over 45 per cent of the species recorded in Hong Kong.
For details of the event, please visit the website of the Wetland Park (www.wetlandpark.gov.hk).
Ends/Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:20
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