| | The 16 Sub-regions are Daxinganling Mountain Subregion(A), Changbai Mountain Sub-region(B), Songliao Plain Sub-region(C), Huanghuai Plain Sub-region(A), Loess Plateau Sub-region(B) , East Meadow Sub-region(A) ,West Desert Sub-region(B) ,Tianshan Mountain Sub-region (C), Qiangtang Plateau Sub-region(A) , Qinghai and Southern Tibet Sub-region(B) , Southwest Mountain Sub-region(A),Himalayan Slope Sub-region(B) , Eastern Hillock-Plain Sub-region (A),Western Mountain Sub-region(B), Fujian-Guangdong Costal Sub-region(A) , South Yunnan Hilly Sub-region (B , Hainan Island Sub-region(C), Taiwan Island Sub-region(D) , South China Sea Archipelago Sub-region(E). China is blessed with one of the largest diversity of bird species in the world. There are 1332 species, belonging to 429 genera, 101 families and 24 orders. The total number of species ranks the fifth in the world. There are temperate zone type birds, tropic zone types, sub-tropic zone types, sub-frigid zone types as well as arid area types and oceanic area types. Of Chinese birds, the Passeriformes takes about 55% and Ciconiiformes takes about 23% of the total avian species. There are currently 106 endemic bird species listed belonging to 55 genera, 15 families and 7 orders, accounting for about 8% of China’s avifauna, of which 77 species are only found in China. Ten endemic genera are currently recognized including Nipponia, Tetraophasis, Chrysolophus, Crossoptilon, Ithaginis, Pseudopodoces, Rhopophilus, Kozlowia, Urocynchramus and Latoucheornis. The 2-dimensional distribution pattern shows that 61 species are found in Sichuan Province, 45 species in Gansu Province, 41 species in Yunnan Province and 36 species in Tibet, with much fewer species in other provinces and only 3 species in Jilin Prov. In terms of recognized zoo-geographical sub-regions, 68 species are distributed in the“ South-West Mountainous Subregion”, 58 species in the“ Western Mountainous Plateau Subregion ”and 56 species in the“ Qinghai-South Tibet Subregion” with much fewer species in other Subregions, and only 3 species in the “ Tianshan Hilly Subregion” and 1 species in the “Daxingan Mt. Subregion”. Three centers of endemism were identified by overlapping distribution maps, namely the“ Hengduanshan Mountain areas ”, “Mountain areas in north Sichuan Province and Qinling as well as south Gansu Province”, and“Taiwan Island” . These are mainly comprised of three habitat types:“High Mountain and Plateau”, “Himalayan-Hengduanshan Mt .”and“ Island” . | |
