Birds of the Philippines

Birds of the Philippines is a very welcome addition to the field guides of the Oriental region. It is the latest in the Lynx and BirdLife International Field Guides series, joining other guides in the series covering nearby Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, and the Indonesian archipelago. Like these guides, Birds of the Philippines is both up-to-date and user-friendly, and is available with either a soft, flexible cover or in hard back. Furthermore, it can easily be carried in a small bag. In addition to the main author, Des Allen, some text was prepared by Alex Berryman, Chris Bradshaw, and Tim Marlow, whilst the artwork is the product of 15 artists.

When I first visited the Philippines in the 1980s, John DuPont’s Philippine Birds was the only easily obtained illustrated bird book and I had to rely on a lot of insights and advice from the legendary Tim Fisher to find and identify the many exciting birds that this country has to offer (see OBC 2010). After the publication of The Birds of the Philippines: An Annotated Checklist by BOU in 1991 it was possible to make confident identifications of the vast majority of resident birds one encountered, but birders had to wait until 2000 for a real turning point in birding in the archipelago with the publication of A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines by Oxford University Press, also known as “the Kennedy guide”. This was a fully illustrated guide with maps and basic information on identification. The Kennedy guide was, however, relatively poorly illustrated, had basic maps, and included insufficient information on subspecies. Needless to say, there has been an enormous increase in our knowledge of Philippine birds in the twenty years since the Kennedy guide appeared, as well as very dramatic changes to our understanding of the taxonomy of birds of the region.

Anyone who visited the Philippines more than five years ago will likely be startled to see how many Philippine species have been split in recent times. For example, whilst the Kennedy guide included four species of brown-dove (Phapitreron sp.), there are now eight recognised species. In 2000, only two boobooks (Ninox sp.) graced the plates of the Kennedy guide but there are now a remarkable eight. Fantails have increased from four to seven species, all of which are considered endemic, as are five newly-recognised endemic “flameback” woodpeckers. The present guide includes 722 species, a number that increases to 770 when distinctive subspecies groups are included. Of these, an incredible 254 species (35%) are presently recognised as endemic to the Philippine archipelago, and another 15 are near-endemic. It should be noted that a relatively large proportion of species are vagrants or rare visitors, including 22 species of ducks, geese, and swans (e.g. Scaly-sided Merganser, Baer’s Pochard), 16 shorebirds (e.g. Oriental Plover, Spotted Greenshank) and 26 seabirds (e.g. Kamchatka Gull, Bonin Petrel).

Philippine forests boast an impressive collection of resident forest species, in particular a large diversity of pigeons (39 species including 21 endemics!), parrots, kingfishers, hornbills, owls, woodpeckers, white-eyes, babblers, tailorbirds, old world flycatchers, and sunbirds (these 11 groups include a remarkable 126 endemics), but it also harbours good numbers of wetland species, including an endemic duck and several endemic rallids. Although the archipelago supports no endemic bird families, the islands nonetheless boast an interesting suite of exceptional taxa, including spectacular species such as Palawan Peacock-pheasant, Philippine Eagle, five (or six) species of bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba sp.), Scale-feathered Malkoha, the remarkable Celestial Monarch, and the highly localised Luzon Water-redstart. Four species of Rhabdornis, now known to be related to the starlings and mynas (though nothing like any of them), three species of elusive ground-warblers (Robsonius sp.), the equally perplexing Bagobo Babbler, and two species of wattled broadbills (Sarcophanops sp.) are quite unlike any of their close relatives. In addition to resident species, many birds winter in the Philippines, including species difficult to see without visiting their remote breeding grounds to the north, such as Ijima’s and Kamchatka Leaf-warblers, Pechora Pipit, and global rarities such as Chinese Crested Tern and Japanese Night-heron.

Sadly, a combination of factors has resulted in the loss or serious degradation of large areas of original habitat throughout the 7,600 islands that comprise the Philippines. As a consequence, an ever increasing number of species have become very difficult to find without expert local knowledge. Sites such as Candaba swamp in Luzon, where one could still expect to find the occasional wintering Streaked Reed Warbler in the 1980s, and even the main forested watershed of Manila, which one would expect to have been carefully protected, have been so impacted by people that many of the more specialised, low-density, or larger (hence edible) species are now very rare outside of remote or protected areas. It is not surprising therefore, particularly given the relatively small range of many taxa, that thirteen endemic species are now considered to be Critically Endangered, 18 are Endangered, and 47 are Vulnerable: that’s a staggering 30% of endemic species.

Birds of the Philippines replicates the format of the increasingly familiar Lynx and BirdLife International field guide design. In particular, the inclusion of clear, colour distribution maps alongside the illustrations and the text opposite the relevant plates makes this very practical in the field. In contrast to other guides in the series, the maps are no longer in boxes, which presumably makes them easier to fit on the page. A useful topographical map that names key islands, major towns, and mountains is provided inside the cover, although strangely it does not clearly show the international boundaries between the Philippines and Malaysia or Taiwan, and like other maps in this field guide series, it inexcusably lacks any scale. The font throughout is frustratingly small, but increasing it would have undoubtedly resulted in an unwieldly large field guide.

The book starts with a succinct 17-page General Introduction that includes a summary of the historical to present day sources of information on the avifauna. The following section, Geographical Scope, provides an overview of the various major islands, with details of the distinctive birds inhabiting each island or island group. Brief descriptions of Climate and Habitats are followed by a brief account of Bird Conservation in the Philippines that includes the most recent list of threatened species. The last part of the introductory section briefly describes forty Birding Hotspots and the key birds that occur in them, along with a hotspot location map.

A section on Using the Field Guide is essential reading for those unfamiliar with this field guide series. It includes a discussion of the taxonomic approach (this book follows that of HBW-BirdLife International) and explains the inclusion of separate accounts and illustrations for taxa that have been assigned to Subspecies Groups. The treatment of taxa in Subspecies Groups will help keen birders and listers differentiate between groupings of various closely-related taxa, some of which might be split in the future. As a result, this field guide has, for example, full accounts for subspecies groups of Streak-breasted Bulbul (“Tablas”, “Cebu”, and “Siquijor”); Philippine Bulbul (“Philippine”, “Mindoro”, and “Visayan”); Hair-crested Drongo (“Palawan”, “Cuyo”, “Sulu”); Slender-billed Crow (“Sierra Madre”, “Samar”, “Palawan”); and Orange-bellied Flowerpecker (“Orange-breasted”, “Sibuyan”, “Grey-throated”, “Sulu”). In some cases, such groupings can be seen as a stepping-stone towards recognising certain taxa as good species, and I am sure this will eventually be what happens in a substantial number of cases, such as with the Slender-billed Crows: listen to the calls of the various subspecies on xeno-canto if you wish to convince yourself!

One species that has not been recognised as having different subspecies groups is Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker, although Sulu Pygmy Woodpecker is split as separate. Despite this, this species has three distinctive subspecies, a northern (Luzon, Mindoro), a southern (Mindanao to Samar), and a central (Visayan) one, all of which are significantly different morphologically (R. Hutchinson pers. comm.). The same is also true for Turquoise Flycatcher and Purple-throated Sunbird, both of which have very distinctive subspecies that are presently not in any subspecies groups but probably should be. Other taxa have already been split into northern and southern forms, and sometimes central (Visayan) forms in the past decade, including Rufous Hornbill, Silvery and Indigo-banded Kingfishers, Sooty Woodpecker, Black-and-White Triller, and Rufous Paradise-flycatcher. The enigmatic “Rabor’s Wren-babbler” is now treated as three species (of ground-warblers), all endemic to Luzon. It should also be pointed out that some of the taxa, such as Glossy Swiftlet, found elsewhere in the Oriental region, are represented in the Philippines by endemic subspecies groups (“Philippine Glossy Swiftlet”), and hence could become future endemic Philippine species.

As with other guides in this series, rigorously sticking to taxonomic order has resulted in a few similar-looking species appearing on different plates. Cinnamon Ibon, for example, is tucked away on the plate with parrotfinches, alongside Eurasian Tree Sparrow, when it would be surely more easily found had it been placed alongside the white-eyes (it used to be considered to be closely related to these) or the relatively similar-looking babblers. Some of the plates seem remarkably empty, such as those of rails, which could have been expanded to include some immature plumages. The description of immature Slaty-legged Crake, for example, is simply given as “overall dark olive brown”, although there is some additional information in the text on similar species. An additional painting of an immature of this species would have perhaps help draw attention to the possibility of confusion with immature Brown-banded Rail, a scarce, very poorly-known Luzon endemic. Indeed, it is a little odd perhaps that there are comprehensive sets of illustrations of some vagrants (e.g. Red Phalarope), but only one adult of many resident or even endemic species.

As with any guide using illustrations from a diversity of artists, the quality of paintings of some groups are evidently different to those of others. This is not something that I’m particularly concerned about in this book, because the general standard is high, but there are some particularly poor illustrations, such as the perched Latham’s Snipe and females of Little Slaty Flycatcher, Purple-throated Sunbird, and of several flowerpeckers. There is also a lack of illustrations of younger plumaged raptors and of a few commoner species such Asian Glossy Starling. It would certainly be useful to include more illustrations of juvenile and immature birds in subsequent guides in this series.

The text on identification is succinct but packs in all the information that one requires to identify the vast majority of species that could be encountered. Indeed, the inclusion of introduced species such as Rose-ringed Parakeet, Crested Myna, and Java Sparrow, as well as a selection of hypothetical and potential species (e.g. White-faced Plover, Radde’s Warbler, Sakhalin Grasshopper-warbler; some of which have full species accounts) makes this a very comprehensive piece of work. Our knowledge of the distribution and occurrence of seabirds in Philippine waters is still rather rudimentary, so it is good to see that the two Storm-petrels that are known to occur – Leach’s and Swinhoe’s – are compared with four other illustrated confusion species that might also occur. For completeness, the guide also includes several species that are extinct in the Philippines, for example Sarus Crane, Asian Woolyneck, and Spot-billed Pelican; whilst these are very unlikely to occur, vagrants are not inconceivable.

Like other field guides in this series, Birds of the Philippines includes QR codes for every species account. Scanning the code takes the reader to webpages of images, videos, and sounds of the species involved. Owners of the book are also able to download a free annotated Checklist of the Birds of Philippines from the publisher’s website. This is a very useful checklist, with columns to fill in with the birds you have seen at different sites.

Despite the meticulous work, as in every field guide some factual mistakes have crept in, including on maps, but these are minor errors that do not affect the overall usefulness of the book. One newly proposed change in taxonomy worthy of mention is the splitting of Tanygnathus parrots by Arndt et al. (2019), which was adopted in the latest version of the HBW-BirdLife list (v.5: December 2020). Although this is mentioned in the text for Blue-backed Parrot, it could be easily overlooked despite the significance of this change. Elevating Blue-backed Parrot T. everetti to species means that it is now an endemic (as is Azure-rumped Parrot T. sumatranus in Indonesia). The most significant aspect of this split is that it will surely result in Blue-backed Parrot becoming a Critically Endangered species. It is on the verge of extinction or already extinct over large parts of its range, and although not yet as rare as Negros Fruit-dove appears to be, or as Cebu Brown-dove or Cebu Flowerpecker (Collar & Lambert 2013, BirdLife International 2020), it has become as impossible to find as these “lost” species. The Sulu Islands may be its last stronghold.

Although some parts of the Philippines should be completely avoided because of security concerns, in particular the endemic-rich Sulu Islands and some parts of Mindanao (such as Zamboanga), the Philippines is overwhelmingly a very welcoming country. It has a somewhat hectic but relatively good road system and daily flights to numerous airports in the country, making it possible to visit many of the more accessible key sites for birds without huge effort. Armed with this comprehensive new guide and considering the possibility of seeing 100 or more endemic species in a two- or three-week trip, this is a very alluring and economical birding destination for anyone interested in world birding. And for those who have visited before, this guide makes it easy to appreciate that a return visit is worthwhile, since not only is it impossible to see the majority of endemics in one visit, but the number of recognised endemics has increased dramatically in the last 5-10 years. Hopefully the publication of Birds of the Philippines will give renewed incentive for birders to visit the Philippines, and for the more adventurous amongst us to focus some efforts on discovering more about the many little-known birds inhabiting the remoter parts of this fascinating archipelago.

– Reviewed by Frank Lambert

References

Arndt, T., Collar, N.J. & Wink, M. 2019. The taxonomy of Tanygnathus parrots. Bull. British Orn Soc. 139 (4): 346-354.

BirdLife International (2020) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 11/12/2020.

Collar, N.J. & Lambert, F.R. 2013. The elusive Negros Fruit Dove Ptilinopus arcanus sixty years on. BirdingAsia 19: 38-43.

Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International (2020). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip.

Oriental Bird Club. Obituary: Tim Fisher 1947-2010. BirdingAsia 14.