Roughly 150 mates of the endangered bird black-faced spoonbill have been spotted around an island in the Incheon-Ganghwa Island area.

The Environment Ministry said Saturday that only 15-hundred of the birds remain in the world, making Ganghwa Island their largest mating spot in the world.

The sudden increase in the bird's mating patterns is likely a change in their traditional northern environments or damage to their other breeding spots.

The number of the endangered birds in the country had been an estimated 24, including two to five in the Nakdong River area and Jeju Island's Sungsanpo region.

The black-faced spoonbill is a member of the Ciconiiformes family, and has a white body with black legs and bill. It usually lives in shallow waters of the ocean and sleeps in forests.

Korea designated the bird Natural Monument No. 205 in 1968.