Endemism in birds.html



This article is a parent page for a series of articles providing information about endemism among birds in the World's various zoogeographic zones.

The term endemic, in the context of bird endemism, refers to any species found only in a specific area. There is no upper size limit for the geographical area. It would not be incorrect to refer to all bird species as endemic to Earth; in practice, however, the largest areas for which the term is in common use are countries (e.g. New Zealand endemics) or zoogeographical regions and subregions (West Indies endemics).

Birdlife International has defined the term restricted-range endemic as any species whose historical range is less than 50,000km².

Patterns of endemism

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Endemism is particularly notable when not just a particular species is confined to given areas, but a whole higher-level taxon (e.g. genus, family or even order).

Almost all orders are represented on at least two continents. The orders with the most-restricted range are the mousebirds (Coliiformes), found only in sub-Saharan Africa and the tinamous, found only in South and Central America.

At the level of family, endemism is exhibited widely. Examples include:

• The Kagu, a monotypic family found only on New Caledonia in the south Pacific Ocean
• The Palmchat, another monotypic family, found only on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean
• The kiwis, a family of five species found only in New Zealand
• The todies, a family of five species found only on the Greater Antilles
• The Hawaiian honeycreepers, a family found only on the Hawaiian islands - see Endemism in the Hawaiian Islands and Endemic birds of Hawaii
• Australia has many endemic families - see Endemic birds of Australia
• Madagascar has a number of endemic families (plus others found only on Madagascar and nearby island groups) - see Endemic birds of Madagascar and western Indian Ocean islands

Endemic Bird Areas

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Birdlife International has defined the concept of an Endemic Bird Area (EBA). This is a region of the world which contains two or more restricted range species.

To support this, they have also introduced the Secondary Area concept, for areas which contain one or more restricted-range species.

See also:

List of Endemic Bird Areas of the World

List of Secondary Areas

Publications in Bird Endemism

Birdlife International has produced two publications on endemism in birds:

• Putting biodiversity on the map: priority areas for global conservation C. J. Bibby, N. J. Collar, M. J. Crosby, M.F. Heath, Ch. Imboden, T. H. Johnson, A. J. Long, A. J. Stattersfield and S. J. Thirgood (1992) ISBN 0-946888-24-8

• Endemic Bird Areas of the World: Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation Alison J. Stattersfield, Michael J. Crosby, Adrian J. Long and David C. Wege (1998) ISBN 0-946888-33-7

List of articles on endemic birds of individual regions

The Palaearctic

• Endemic birds of the Western Palearctic
• Endemic birds of Central Asia
• Endemic birds of Japan

The Afrotropics and Malagasy regions

• Endemic birds of eastern Africa
• Endemic birds of western Africa
• Endemic birds of southern Africa
• Endemic birds of Madagascar and western Indian Ocean islands

The Oriental region

• Endemic birds of the Indian Subcontinent
• Endemic birds of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Endemic birds of Southeast Asia
• Endemic birds of Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java & Bali
• Endemic birds of Borneo
• Endemic birds of Sulawesi and associated islands
• Endemic birds of The Philippines
• Endemic birds of Taiwan

Australasia & the Pacific

• Endemic birds of Australia
• Endemic birds of New Guinea and neighbouring islands
• Endemic birds of New Zealand
• Endemic birds of New Caledonia
• Endemic birds of Hawaii

North America

• Endemic birds of eastern North America
• Endemic birds of western North America
• Endemic birds of the West Indies
• Endemic birds of Mexico and northern Central America
• Endemic birds of southern Central America

South America

• Endemic birds of the Galápagos Islands
• Endemic birds of northern South America

Other

• Endemic birds of southern Atlantic islands