A Chau
Uninhabited island of Hong Kong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Chau (Chinese: 鴉洲) is a small uninhabited island in the southeast of Starling Inlet (Sha Tau Kok Hoi), off Nam Chung,[1] in the north-eastern New Territories of Hong Kong. It is under the administration of North District, and falls within the Closed Area.
Native name: 鴉洲 | |
|---|---|
View of A Chau | |
  A Chau | |
| Geography | |
| Coordinates | 22°31′39.72″N 114°12′38.95″E |
| Administration | |
| Districts | North District |
| A Chau | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 鴉洲 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Geography
Starling Inlet is a sheltered bay in the north-eastern New Territories of Hong Kong with a surface area of approximately 500 hectares. It is surrounded by fragmentary wetlands and hills. A Chau is a small island in the southeast of the bay. It is covered with vegetation and has a landmass of around one hectare.[2]
Fauna
A Chau has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1985.[3] The fauna of the island includes night heron, little egret, great egret, black-headed gull and herring gull. It is also a breeding site for the passage migrants.[4] It was reported in 2007 that A Chau was the largest egretry in Hong Kong and may also have been one of the most important night roosting sites for the ardeids in winter.[5][6] A 2001 survey found that A Chau was the nesting site for the majority of great egrets, cattle egrets, and black-crowned night herons in Hong Kong, hosting 63%, 46%, and 71% of those respective species' nests.
During the early 2000s, several threats to the birds of A Chau were noted, including illegal collection of eggs and young, invasive climbers, and human disturbances at nearby wetlands.[7]
