The birds winter in Taiwan, which in recent years has become an important location for spoonbill research. With only some 900 black-faced spoonbills in the world today, the recent botulism outbreak represents a major setback for conservation efforts, and finding a way to protect the birds from future outbreaks presents a major new challenge to those endeavors.
年年過境台灣的黑面琵鷺，目前全球僅剩九百多隻，近年來台灣已成為保育與研究黑面琵鷺的重鎮，如今黑面琵鷺逢此一劫，不僅保育工作回到原點，未來如何防範類似事件，已為台灣保育工作帶來更大挑戰。