Futian Mangrove Birdwatching Area 福田红树林开放观鸟区

About Futian Mangrove Birdwatching Area

The park covers about 380,000 square metres and is zoned into a visitor area, an ecological restoration area and an ecological control area; it opened to the public on 26 December 2015. The national reserve lies immediately to its west and Hong Kong's Mai Po reserve, an internationally important wetland, is across the water to the south, so the park sits at the inner corner of one continuous estuarine system. Within the grounds are a mangrove interpretation hall and volunteer-run nature classes, a saline artificial lake fed with sea water, and a tunnel through a low rise with a mangrove mural on one side and a viewing deck on the other.

The mangrove section of the reserve next door measures 367.64 hectares on the north-eastern shore of Shenzhen Bay and forms the Deep Bay mangrove wetland together with Mai Po. Guangdong's forestry administration describes it as the only national nature reserve inside a Chinese city centre and the smallest in the country, with 19 mangrove plant species in nine families and around 200 bird species. Close to 100,000 migrating birds pause or winter here each year on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, among them herons and egrets, ducks, waders, gulls and cormorants. A synchronised global count in January 2022 found roughly six per cent of the world's black-faced spoonbills here, the third largest concentration for the species.

What to look for

• The Feilandi birdwatching point on the site of the former Shazui wharf, where restored tidal mudflat draws waterbirds at low tide and screened windows keep watchers out of sight
• The artificial floating island in the park's saltwater lake, planted with mangrove species such as Acrostichum aureum and Acanthus ilicifolius, where little egret, white-breasted waterhen and little grebe have been recorded
• The fish-viewing tunnel, with a painted mangrove ecology mural on one wall and a raised viewing deck on the other
• The mangrove interpretation exhibition hall inside the park
• Wintering flocks between November and April, when waders, ducks, gulls and cormorants use the bay and black-faced spoonbills may appear

Location & getting there

Getting to Futian Mangrove Birdwatching Area

Check the open visitor route and follow the site’s rules on distance, food and photography. Conservation areas may limit access beyond designated paths.

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