For A Chau (丫洲) in Tai Po District

Tai Po District

Tai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It covers the areas of Tai Po, Tai Po Kau, Ting Kok, Plover Cove and the northern part of Sai Kung Peninsula on both shores of Tolo Channel. It is located in the New Territories...

, see Centre Island, Hong Kong

Centre Island, Hong Kong

Centre Island aka. A Chau is a small unihabited island of Hong Kong located in Tolo Harbour, in the northwestern part of the territory. Administratively, it is part of Tai Po District.-History:...

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A Chau (Chinese:

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 鴉洲, Jyutping

Jyutping

Jyutping is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme...

: aa1 zau1, Pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: Yāzhōu) is a small island in the inner most of Starling Inlet

Starling Inlet

Starling Inlet or Sha Tau Kok Hoi is a harbour in northeast New Territories, Hong Kong. The whole body of water falls within the Closed Area and generally restricted to local residents....

 (Sha Tau Kok Hoi), off Nam Chung

Nam Chung

Nam Chung is an area in the north eastern New Territories of Hong Kong, west of Luk Keng and to the southwest of the Starling Inlet , opposite of Sha Tau Kok....

, in the north-eastern New Territories

New Territories

New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory...

 of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. It is under the administration of North District

North District, Hong Kong

North District is the northernmost district of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in the northwestern part of the New Territories. The new town of Fanling-Sheung Shui is within this district. It had a population of 298,657 in 2001. The district has the second lowest population density.It...

. The island falls within the Closed Area

Closed Area

The Frontier Closed Area is a 28 km² area in Hong Kong along the border with mainland China. It was gazetted and established in June 1951, and expanded to its current limit in 1962...

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Fauna

A Chau has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest (Hong Kong)

Site of Special Scientific Interest or SSSI is a special area to protect wildlife, habitats and geographic features based on scientic interest in Hong Kong. Scientic interests are special features relating to animal life, plant life, geology and/or geography...

 since 1985. The fauna of the island includes night heron

Night heron

The night herons are medium-sized herons in the genera Nycticorax, Nyctanassa and Gorsachius. The genus name Nycticorax derives from the Greek for “night raven” and refers to the largely nocturnal feeding habits of this group of birds, and the croaking crow-like call of the best known species, the...

, Little Egret

Little Egret

The Little Egret is a small white heron. It is the Old World counterpart to the very similar New World Snowy Egret.-Subspecies:Depending on authority, two or three subspecies of Little Egret are currently accepted....

, Great Egret

Great Egret

The Great Egret , also known as the Great White Egret or Common Egret, White Heron, or Great White Heron, is a large, widely-distributed egret. Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, in southern Europe it is rather localized...

, Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

The Black-headed Gull is a small gull which breeds in much of Europe and Asia, and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory, wintering further south, but some birds in the milder westernmost areas of Europe are resident...

 and Herring Gull

Herring Gull

The European Herring Gull is a large gull , and is the most abundant and best known of all gulls along the shores of western Europe. It breeds across Northern Europe, Western Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltic states...

. It is also a breeding site for the passage migrants

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

. 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.