resident' in Thailand. Contrary to that, Poonswad and Kemp (1993) list this species as rare in Indonesia and endangered with local extinction in Thailand.
For this purpose I have relied as much on published trip reports and personal comments by fellow birdwatchers as my own experiences. Since I have never seen a Bushy-crested Hornbill, despite travelling through prime habitat in both Thailand and East Malaysia for days and weeks, I simply labelled it as 'generally scarce', although it must be said that it appears to be locally fairly numerous in parts of Peninsular Malaysia. Lekagul and Round (1991) describe the Plain-backed Sparrow as Very common resident' in Thailand, yet birdwatchers have commented to me that they have travelled for weeks through that country working hard to find one or two individuals. Therefore it is listed here as 'uncommon'.
It could be that field guides are either written by very capable ornithologists who easily locate scarce birds, or that they tend to copy from other outdated references. Newer publications like Sun et al, (1998) tend to provide a more realistic picture on status. At any rate, it has been my experience that resident rainforest birds especially are few in number and are usually infrequently encountered, therefore many of those have been 'down-graded' to uncommon status here, which I hope will give the reader a more realistic expectation of birdwatching conditions in the region. In montane forest habitat, the diversity is lower, but the density tends to be higher, and more montane residents thus have been labelled fairly common or even common.
Where there appears to be a great discrepancy in status within range, this has been differentiated between the countries. Please note that references to status do not apply to Myanmar, where very little current information is available.
Some terms used:
Widespread means that the bird occurs over a wide geographical area and in a variety of habitat types.
Local is the antonym for widespread and is used where a species is restricted to a special habitat within a small geographical area.
The term scarce indicates that a bird occurs in low numbers (while an uncommon bird although uncommonly encountered could be locally and seasonally numerous or might be numerous elsewhere in extralimital range).
Numerous is the antonym of scarce, a species occurring in large numbers.
Abundant is very numerous, occurring in very large numbers, sometimes dense flocks.
Figure 7: Southeast Asia migration routes
Modified from Viney, Phillipps and Lam (1994) and Lim and Gardner (1997) we have used the following colour codes to indicate abundance of birds.
Globally threatened status
We have included a code for globally threatened status. It follows the important BirdLife International study, which was published in Collar et al. (1994), please consult this book for more detailed information. Briefly, this survey operates with four main categories, which have been adopted unchanged here:
The author in freshwater wetlands.
LITTLE GREBE (Red-throated Little Grebe)
Tachybaptus ruficollis 25 cm F: Podicipedidae
Description: Unmistakable, Note yellow spot near bill in breeding plumage; non-breeding plumage is duller, breast and hind neck pale brown.
Voice: A sharp ke-ke-ke-ke.
Habits: Like all grebes, a strictly aquatic bird rarely seen flying. Swims in ponds and lakes near or among reeds and dives when disturbed. Feeds on fish and aquatic invertebrates. Disperses outside breeding season, small flocks sometimes gather at prime locations.
SPOT-BILLED PELICAN
Pelecanus philippensis 140 cm F: Pelecanidae
Description: Distinguished from other pelicans by spotted upper mandible on bill; also grey-tinged to white plumage.
Voice: Generally quiet.
Habits: Frequents a variety of shallow wetlands, from inland marshes and lakes, to brackish estuaries near the coast. Swims on surface and dives for fish, often in flocks with other water birds. Formerly widespread, numerous and locally abundant, with millions of birds in Myanmar atone. During the last few decades has declined drastically; now scarce throughout its range and vulnerable to global extinction.
MASKED BOOBY
Sula dactylatra 86 cm F: Sulidae
Description: Distinguished from other boobies by black facial mask contrasting with yellow bill; distinguished from Brown Booby also by large size and white (not brown) neck and wing coverts.
Voice: Quiet during migration;
