keep lists, and tally species they have seen within certain countries. Within the region covered in this volume, some major political entities exist, thus in the following table we list the nations and territories most visited by birdwatchers. Endemics refer to restricted range species found only in that country, except for East Malaysia and Brunei where numbers refer to Borneo endemics.
Just how many birds can one see in total in this region? Obviously many of the species listed under countries will be repeats. For a measurement of the total diversity Robson (2000) lists 1,251 species, King et al (1975) list 62 additional ones for Taiwan, Hainan. MacKinnon & Phillipps list 37 species endemic to Borneo, and Dickinson et al. (1991) has 169 endemics for the Philippines. Calculated this way about 1,519 different birds are found in Southeast Asia. But if you see the 668 covered in this volume, you will have done well.
Conservation
Many of the birds in this book are adaptable and prolific. The Yellow-bellied Prinia readily invades forest areas cleared for development; and the Common Myna visits gardens and even invades people's homes to grab food. These birds have no problem surviving, but others adapt poorly to changes in their environment, so if their forest is removed or their island built over, they have no place to go. They need our help if they are to survive.
'Conservation begins with enjoyment' says the English comedian and professional birdwatcher Bill Oddie. In the 1994 BirdLife International study, published in Collar et al. (1994), it was documented that no less than 1,111 bird species comprising 11 percent of the world's avifauna could be regarded as globally threatened with extinction. A further 875 (or nine percent) was near-threatened. In other words, one out of five of all birds in the world is doing poorly or about to disappear.
Even in this book, which mainly features the easy-to-see species, 29 birds are globally threatened, a further 31 birds fall into the near-threatened category, which totals nine percent of the species covered.
The BirdLife study also revealed that most of the threatened birds live in the tropics, in countries with relatively low national incomes. They are forest birds (65 percent) and the main causes for their decline are habitat loss, a small range or population, and hunting and trapping. Unfortunately, most birds are unable to defend themselves. This is where Bill Oddie's enjoyment factor comes in. Birdwatching is fun, exciting, intellectually stimulating and as more people take up the interest they wilt tend to appreciate the natural world more. This has happened in the West and is now happening in the East.
But first of all, reliable data is necessary before action can be taken. Together with BirdLife International, local nature societies and birdwatching clubs continuously document the status of selected species and sites as part of the Asian Red Data book project and surveys for Important Bird Area inventories.
In this era of globalisation, national efforts are not enough. The rich biodiversity is available for everybody to enjoy and likewise we all have a responsibility to monitor and protect it. Birdwatchers from elsewhere can visit Southeast Asia to enjoy what the region has to offer, and they should, in turn, make their expertise and observations available to national agencies. Once we know where to direct our priorities, we can initiate programs to reverse the decline of so many beautiful birds.
We must stop the indiscriminate developing of natural bird habitats, cease polluting the environment and start rebuilding what has already been damaged. We must heed the advice of those who have studied biodiversity and take into consideration the environmental effects of development just as seriously as we take the advice of economists and technicians before making decisions on how to progress.
In 1997, the Southeast Asian region experienced an economic setback partly due to an unbalanced and consumer-focused type of development. One hopes that the next bout of economic growth will be more sensitive to a total quality of life, including an appreciation for our natural heritage, the diversity of life, the health of the environment and the well-being of the other lifeforms around us—including the birds.
Baya Weaver at nest entrance.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
Area covered
For the purpose of this book we have adopted the generally accepted system of dividing the world into 6 zoo geographical or faunal regions. Modified from Viney, Phillipps and Lam (1994) the regions are as follows:
Figure 1; Faunal regions of the world
| Regions | Subregions |
| Australasian | Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and Oceanic Islands |
| African | Africa and Madagascar |
| Neotropical | Central and South America |
| Nearctic | North American and Greenland |
| Oriental | South and Southeast Asia |
| Palearctic | Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia |
In the text, different sections of the Asian continent are referred to as in Figure 2 (opposite, top). The faunal region of special interest here is the Oriental region. This region is usually defined to include South and Southeast Asia from Pakistan east to Borneo and Bali. The northern limit is the Himalayan mountain range and south China. Inskipp, Lindsey and Duckworth (1996) use the Yangtze river as the northern boundary and include the transitional subregion of Wallaces, i.e. Eastern Indonesia between Bali and Irian Jaya. Thus defined, the Oriental region has the extension as shown in Figure 3 (previous page, bottom).
Figure 2: Subregions of the Asian continent
Figure 3: The Oriental region
Birding is a social activity.
Within the Oriental region, the book covers Southeast Asia, an area defined for this purpose to include the following countries and territories shown on the map on pages 2-3.
The term Southeast Asia usually includes the country of Indonesia, Indonesia however straddles two very different faunal regions and is treated separately in another volume.
Nomenclature, taxonomy and sequence
For nomenclature, taxonomy and sequence our main reference was King, Dickinson and Woodcock (1975). Since this book does not include the latest taxonomic changes, small adjustments have been introduced, mainly following Lekagul and Round (1991) and MacKinnon and Phillipps (1993). Therefore we have placed fantails and monarch flycatchers in their own families, Rhipiduridae and Monarchidae respectively, a practice long ago accepted as standard. Darters, barn owls, Asian barbets, fairy bluebirds, weavers, munias and buntings have also been allocated their own families.
We are aware of the considerably more radical taxonomic changes inspired by new DNA-based research
