Habitats
Hills & Mountains
In general Hong Kong is a steep place with little flat land, so hills and mountains are in most places. The lower slopes are thickly wooded, whereas often above 500m the woodland gives way to shrubs or grasses.
Rivers
Rivers of any size occur mostly in the New Territories, where they are channelled for drainage as they all run through or by human settlements. A lot of the rivers are tidal and a habitat for fish that thrive in brackish waters and birds that feed on them. The bare concrete channels are being improved in recent years through a number of projects to re-green these areas and make them more friendly for wildlife.
Mangroves
In many places along Hong Kong's extensive coastline there are small mangrove colonies with a variety of different mangrove vegetation, crabs and mudskippers.
Catchwaters
Although not a promising habitat in themselves, catchwaters are a great place to experience the forests. You can often look down on to the tops of trees, in a way you couldn't just walking through the understorey, you can see fish, newts and dragonflies in the actual catchwater, and insects are easier to spot on the man-made railings than in the half-light of the deep woodland.
Rocky Shorelines
Hong Kong has a very long coastline with numerous islands. A lot of this is rocky from boulder strewn headlands to high cliffs.
Sandy Shorelines
There are many beaches in Hong Kong, the longest is 2km long. These can be feeding places for wading birds.
City Parks
Many bird species seem to prefer living in country parks rather than in the woodlands. The artificial lakes also attract dragonflies.
Wetlands
In Hong Kong's north-west there is flat land, which is naturally a marshy area, a lot of which is used for shrimp and fish ponds. This is very important spot for migrating birds, not least the rare black-faced spoonbill that spends its winters in the area.
Woodlands
There are only a few deciduous tree species in Hong Kong as the temperature rarely goes below 10 degrees in the winter, most tropical species do well. Therefore the woodlands are green all year round, with both native species such as machilus, aporusa, Chinese alangium and Hong Kong magnolia, and some introduced (mostly Australian) trees such as the paperbark and Brisbane box.
Grasslands
On some of the higher mountains there are small areas of grasslands. They go to seed in October.
Mountain Streams
The steep terrain of Hong Kong means there are a lot of rocky mountain streams. These are home to frogs, fish, shrimp, dragonflies and fishing spiders.
Farmland
In the New Territories there are a lot of abandoned farming villages and some that are having their farmland (paddy fields) restored such as at Yiu Tin Tai and Lai Chi Wo. The villagers at Chuen Lung have been growing watercress in their well irrigated fields for generations.
Reservoirs
Naturally scarce in lakes, Hong Kong has built many reservoirs of various sizes, some of which have been produced from areas taken from the sea. The reservoirs in themselves do not harbour a lot of wildlife, but the protected water catchment areas around them are important green areas.