S. Korean city to host Asia Bird Fair next year

ULSAN, April 14 (Yonhap) -- A regional get-together of Asian birdwatchers and bird conservation bodies will take place around a river in South Korea's southeastern city of Ulsan in February next year, the Ulsan metropolitan government said Thursday.

The executive committee has designated the city's Taehwa River, South Korea's biggest habitat for migratory crows, as the venue of the 2017 Asia Bird Fair over Malaysia.

When Victor Yu, the committees co-leader, visited Ulsan in December, he was quoted as saying the South Korean city is one of the best places in Asia that many birdwatchers like as it is rich in rare migratory and water birds with its location near a river and the sea.

Yu also touted the river as a place for the spectacle of a murder of crows flying over the river in winter time, a scene rarely witnessed in the world, the regional government said.

The five-day event is expected to bring together more than 100 birdwatchers from 13 Asian countries, and unofficial partners Britain and France.

"The event will be a great opportunity to demonstrate the ecological superiority of the area surrounding the Taehwa River, designated as one of the country's top 20 ecological tourism regions," an official at the regional government said.

The Taiwan-based Asian Bird Fair Network was formalized in 2010 to jointly promote each other’s bird events and to grant special considerations and allocations to member organizations.

namsh@yna.co.kr
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