Conservation officials from the Marine National Park Headquarters and wildlife experts from the Kaohsiung City Wild Bird Society conducted a field survey on the Dongsha atoll earlier this month.

An official from the Ministry of the Interior's Construction and Planning Agency (CPA) , which is in charge of national park affairs, said the 11 species spotted for the first time included merlin, migratory quail, crested tern, plaintive cuckoo, Indian cuckoo, citrine wagtail, short-tailed bush warbler, Gray's grasshopper warbler, red-breasted flycatcher, paradise flycatcher and common rosefinch.

"These new additions have brought to 215 the number of bird species ever sighted and documented in the Dongsha Marine National Park," said a CPA official.

Since the beginning of autumn, the official said, a large number of migratory birds have passed or stopped over in the Dongsha Islands, including many endangered or protected species, such as Chinese goshawk, hair-crested drongo, chestnut-winged cuckoo, Indian cuckoo and ruddy kingfisher.

"The marine national park will continue stepping up conservation efforts and educational publicity to make the park a new wintering paradise for migratory birds," the official added.

Located 444 km southwest of the southern port city of Kaohsiung, the Dongsha Islands, also known as the Pratas Islands, comprise Dongsha Island and two coral reefs. The government made the area a marine national park in October 2007 as part of its efforts to better protect its rich marine resources and biodiversity. .

A national monument was erected on Dongsha Island June 30, 1989, as well as an adjacent structure to protect the monument May 18, 1993, to assert its sovereignty over the archipelago.

With an area three times that of Taipei City, the archipelago boasts the largest and most unspoiled group of atolls in the West Pacific.

The reefs surrounding the islands are also the best in Taiwan's territorial waters. Dongsha's coastal waters are known for their biodiversity, with 489 fish species and about 200 kinds of coral documented, as well as numerous other marine species.