the way birdlife changes with conditions. These changes are often gradual and many birds move between habitats—the Scaly-breasted Munia, for instance, can be found both in gardens, open country, wetlands and even beach-side grasses. Furthermore, definition of habitats are not always easy—the many types of lowland forest in this region, for example, makes it unsafe to generalise too categorically.
However, one also encounters many strictly stenotopic birds (birds confined to only one habitat), especially forest birds, mangrove species and birds occurring within narrow altitudinal ranges. Knowing which birds to expect within different habitat types makes the 'work' of identifying the many species much easier. We still find the habitats described in Strange and Jeyarajasingam (1993) the most relevant. There are five main categories.
Gardens and Parks are the most disturbed and artificial of all habitats of course, but they are highly productive, especially if managed sensitively. If you have your own garden, much can be done by planting a selection of fruiting trees to attract pigeons, bulbuls, starlings, the Black-naped Oriole and Coppersmith Barbet, and parrots if forest is nearby. Do not spray against insects if you can avoid it, to allow warblers and flycatchers to settle. Bushes with nectar-rich red flowers will attract sunbirds and if you are lucky a pair of Olive-backed Sunbirds might build their pouch nest in your garden or even in a potted plant on a balcony high above the roar of the traffic as they have been known to do.
Birds in parks and gardens often become used to plenty of human activity and become almost tame. Even shy raptors like the Shikra or the Japanese Sparrowhawk will visit parks, simply because of the abundance of small birds for them to catch. At night listen for the call of the Collared Scops-owl and the Large-tailed Nightjar, and during the winter season keep an eye out for rare visitors from the north, including certain forest birds that might turn up during migration.
Open Country is bee-eater, munia, coucal and shrike territory, although some birds such as the White-throated Kingfisher and others occur in both areas. Swifts and swallows fly overhead. A totally different avifauna inhabits the terrain around wet patches or open fresh water. Many species of heron, rail, duck and snipe are mainly or only found here. No wet field in Southeast Asia is complete without a party of foraging Cattle Egrets. If you are lucky you will locate a weaver colony— the Streaked Weaver prefers the tall grasses and low bushes, the Baya Weaver builds higher in trees and coconut palms, but either species provides captivating, non-stop action with birds calling, displaying, building and flying constantly to and fro.
At the Coast birds abound, especially on sheltered mudflats, and often where a large river joins the sea. Some species also occur around fresh water wetlands but most will be different species. Unless removed by developers, mangrove forests thrive along such sheltered shores and are home to a few specialised birds such as the Mangrove Pitta, Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, Ashy Tailorbird and Copper-throated Sunbird. Other mangrove birds such as the Pied Fantail, Mangrove Whistler, Collared Kingfisher and Laced Woodpecker are less specialised and turn up in nearby woodlands and gardens as well.
Storks are rare in this region, but this is the place to see them. At low tide, storks and many herons and egrets flock to feed on the exposed mudflats in front of the mangroves. Almost all shorebirds (plovers and sandpipers) in this region are migratory. The diversity can be somewhat confusing for the beginner (and for the experienced birder for that matter), especially since it is difficult to get close to shore-birds feeding far out on boggy mudflats. In fact, some birdwatchers get hooked on shorebirds and find the similarities and the differences a challenge. Exposed sandy seashores and rocky coastlines are less productive, but some plovers and sandpipers prefer this habitat, as does the resident Pacific Reef-egret. The Little Heron is likely to turn up wherever there is water.
Tropical Asia has few gulls, but further north in China they become more numerous although no species Stay to breed in this area, except terns, which breed mainly on remote offshore islets. If you have a friend who owns a boat, catch a ride offshore in the South China Sea. Swim to some remote reef during April or May and there you can walk among the breeding sea birds, with terns screaming at you overhead, boobies with their young on the ground, and the majestic White-bellied Sea-eagle soaring in the distance—another of the great birding spectacles this region has to offer. Do not stay long though as the hot sun might damage exposed eggs and young.
Lowland forests are the prime habitat of all Southeast Asia. More birds can be found here than in any other environment and furthermore most are sedentary residents found here all year round, a great number of which are restricted to this region and parts of Indonesia.
Yes, birdwatching in the forest is as tough as it gets. In rainforest, the trees grow to a height of 30 metres or more, and the foliage is massive. Less than two percent of the outside light reaches the forest floor and the humidity stays near 100 percent, even in the afternoon. But then, forest birdwatching is also the most rewarding. You can walk the same forest trail twenty times, week after week, and then the twenty-first time you might see a species you have never seen before in your life, such is the diversity and the scarcity of forest residents.
Conditions are challenging, even in the somewhat lower deciduous forests further north. In addition to the poor viewing conditions the birds are shy and take off at the least disturbance. In general it is better to visit during the dry season, from December to February, and go where the forest is less dense and where many migratory warblers, thrushes and flycatchers augment the resident bird fauna.
Pheasants, hornbills, broadbills, woodpeckers, leafbirds, babblers and flowerpeckers are almost exclusively forest bird families; night-birds, bulbuls, drongos, cuckoo-shrikes and flycatchers are also well represented.
As you proceed higher, the avifauna changes. At 900 metres you enter the montane forest where you will discover a totally different set of birds. This astonishing transformation is once again a highlight of birdwatching in this region. You can drive for a couple of hours from Kuala Lumpur to Fraser's Hill in Malaysia, or from Chiang Mai to Doi Inthanon in Thailand, and so profound is the change that you might well have crossed the ocean to another faunal region. You will then have to begin familiarising yourself with 50 or 60 new species that you simply will never find in the lowlands.
Insect life is abundant at montane elevations and insectivorous bird families such as babblers, warblers and flycatchers are especially well represented, but almost all the other forest bird families such as pigeons, bulbuls, broadbills, cuckoo-shrikes, thrushes, fantails, sunbirds and flowerpeckers have one or a few representatives in the mountains.
The higher reaches of the upper montane habitat, above 2,400 metres, and the alpine habitat near and above the tree limit are not of that much interest in this region, simply because there is little of it. It only exists in the Himalayan foothills of Myanmar and Yunnan (south China), which are not very accessible to tourists, and in Sabah within the Kinabalu National Park. At Kinabalu the subcamp at 3,400 metres is where the alpine habitat starts and this is really as far as birders need to go. Pushing all the way to the summit at 4,101 metres may bring you a nice view and a bout of altitude sickness, but no significant bird sightings apart from the occasional White-bellied Swiftlet, which is better observed at sea level.
The bird year
The region covered by this book is above the Equator and is part of the northern hemisphere. Close to the Equator, from peninsular Thailand and the so-called Tenasserim part of Myanmar and south, tropical conditions prevail, with heavy rainfall all year round, and insignificant changes in the seasons. Even then, the breeding of resident birds is not evenly spread throughout the year. Surveys show that most birds breed at the beginning of the year, from February towards the end of the northeast monsoon season, which dumps more rain than usual over most of the area during the months from November to January. Breeding peaks between April and May, and lasts until June or July, with some birds such as seabirds breeding into August. It is rare to find any nests in the later part of the year.
Actually, it is not
