The was recently seen by the Marine National Park Headquarters (MNPH) along the north coast of Dongsha Island. In the past, it was believed that the Japanese Grosbeak only migrates to the south of China during winter. Besides adding a new record to the migratory birds at Dongsha, the unique ecological significance also warrants further observation and study.

Dongsha Atoll National Park, the first marine national park in Taiwan, is located in the north of the South China Sea, approximately 450km from Kaohsiung. Dongsha Island covers an area of merely 174 hectares, there is a 64-hectare lagoon in the center of the island that creates a unique environment. The lack of human activity has helped to preserve the pristine, natural appearance, making it an extremely important migratory habitat for various migratory birds. In order to effectively protect the ecological habitats in the national park, the MNPH continues to conduct bird surveys every month and it has planned several routes for conservation patrols to monitor changes in the national park ecology and environment on a long-term basis. ,2012, the never-before-seen bird Japanese Grosbeak was seen during a conservation patrol at the north coast of Dongsha Island. In order to be circumspect, assistance was sought from the Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society for comparison, which confirmed it as a new bird species to Dongsha, in turn adding another valuable ecological record to Dongsha Atoll National Park.

The Japanese Grosbeak is a yellow-billed Grosbeak; it is a very rare winter migratory bird in Taiwan. With a large, pointed bright yellow bill, female and male birds share the same color; the front half of the head is black and the back is grey in color. The wings and uropygial emanate a blue luster, with white spots on the feathers of the wings. They are mostly distributed in eastern Siberia, northeastern China, Korea and Japan. During winter, they fly to southern China to live; they are often active on the ground foraging for shoots of plant seeds, although they do occasionally consume insects. Since Japanese Grosbeaks are timid and sensitive, they often fly away when people draw near or when they hear a sound, making them very difficult to photograph. Colleagues from the MNPH Dongsha Management Station spent a great deal of effort to capture their image and confirm the record, thereby increasing the number of bird species in Dongsha Island to 258.

According to the MNPH, the geographical location and environmental resources of Dongsha are extremely rare and unique, while birds are an important ecological resource and characteristic of Dongsha Atoll National Park. In the future, the MNPH will not only continue to perform bird survey, bird census and bird banding project will be launched next year in order to establish a more comprehensive ecological database of Dongsha’s bird species.