Zhouzi Wetland Park, located on Zhouzi Road by the Lotus Pond in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung City, was formerly a vast open paddy field. It used to be home to pheasant-tailed jacanas. Due to urban development, however, the birds migrated to Guantian in Tainan. To bring the beautiful birds back to Kaohsiung, Taiwan Wetland Protection Alliance and a few other groups launched a project called "Home-coming of Pheasant-tailed Jacanas," and requested the city government to restore the area as a wetland park. The project was accepted by the city's Public Works Bureau, which then built the park with ecological methods. Today, this wild habitat within the city center is thriving with aquatic floating-leaf plants and pond animals, such as water caltrops, lotus, pheasant-tailed jacanas, and water ducks.
Visitors are free to walk the paths in the park, watch blooming lotus flowers, and appreciate water birds such as greater painted-snipes, swamp chickens, Eurasian teals, and herons gracefully swimming in between water plants. You are cordially invited to reserve for a guided tour at Zhouzi Wetland Park (members of the Taiwan Wetland Protection Alliance will serve as guides and explain the park's flora and fauna to participants).
Photo courtesy: Information Bureau, Kaohsiung City Government. Photo by Pao Chung-hui