• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Bird species Number of Each country (1 Viewer)

Lihu_Xiong

Well-known member
I don't know how many species of birds each country has. I just know China has a number of 1184 or 1244 or 1253 bird species . Then how about other countries?

Lihu
 
Japan's list is only about 585 recorded species, of which 250 are breeding birds and 17 are endemic. A victim of isolation from the Asian continent.

By the way, 'ecology' is an interesting word, Lihu-- it comes from Greek oikos house + logos word. The science or study of the house we all live in.
 
India has about 1200 recorded species. With sub-species included, the list swells to 1900+. Incidentally, many are common with China.
Sumit
 
Charles Harper said:
By the way again, Lihu, where did you get the three different numbers (1184, 1244, 1253) for #species in China?

Zuoxin_Zheng, One Ornithologist of China has published the number 1244 in a Chinese academic journal named "Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica" in 1994. And in 1999 his student has sumed up the number as 1253.
And 1184 is from "a field guide of China birds".

Maybe there are more than that, i think.
 
Birds of the World: A Checklist, by James Clements (2000), includes an appendix listing the 'Distribution of Bird Species of the World by Countries'. He lists China as the 7th birdiest country, with 1204 species (50 endemics). Number One is Colombia, with 1725 species (62 endemics). The country with the most endemic species is New Guinea, with 330!

PS: You can't count subspecies, Sumit! Not fair!
 
Go on, charles... pander to my curiosity!

Who's at the other end of the list?
 
Country with the fewest (not 'least') endemics-- would you believe it?!-- a 137-country tie, with 0 endemics!

Country with the fewest species of birds: Easter Island (is that a country?) with 9 species (and 0 endemics).
 
Cheers Charles

I would have automatically thought Antarctica as well Michael, but then I suppose it depends on what counts in a country's range.

Apart from Penguins, I guess there would be some seabirds (Albatrosses etc.) that stick pretty close to the placefrom time to time.

The 137-way tie sounds surprising for no endemics - but Iguess those that can fly know no borders!

I'm with you Charles, I'm not sure Easter Island is a "country".

(Do you have the ISBN by the way?)
 
Easter Island belongs to Chile I believe, so I'm sure they have an endemic or two there.

I confess to Iceland being one of the 137 without an endemic, unless the Dutch split Icelandic Redpoll!!

By the way Charles, good luck enforcing the fewest/least and fewer/less rule. Recent trips back to the home country have revealed that people either don't know or don't care about the difference in usage.

E
 
Excuse my ignorance, but can someone explain to me exactly what constitutes an endemic species. Is it to do with where a bird can be found or where it breeds? If for example a Pink Pigeon (endemic of Mauritious) were to get lost and be blown to the coast of Africa does it cease to be endemic or does it have to breed in a second country to lose that status?

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

Interesting question!

I'd say to qualify as an endemic, the entire population has to breed in the relevant area, and basically all the population has to remain there all year, except that I don't think an occasional departing vagrant would be allowed to 'de-endemic' it.

I wonder if the differences between the two Easter Island lists can be accounted for by the nine being breeding species (bet they're all seabirds!), and the 21 being all species recorded, vagrants included.

Michael

Edit:
Looks more like the nine are perhaps native breeding species (yes, all seabirds!), and the 21 being all species recorded, vagrants and introductions included.

M
 
Last edited:
I'd say to qualify as an endemic, the entire population has to breed in the relevant area, and basically all the population has to remain there all year, except that I don't think an occasional departing vagrant would be allowed to 'de-endemic' it.

Thanks Michael

Dave
 
endemism could be described biogeographically or geopolitically - endemic to a country or to a habitat type/island/extended or more likely, restricted area etc. - hope this doesn't sound pretentious as i'm anything but! I guess the best approach depends on what you're wanting to do
 
Warning! This thread is more than 9 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top