Megapodiidae-megapodes:
Indonesia support all but five of the world’s 22 species. These extraordinary birds, which bury massive eggs in sand or large mounds of rotting vegetation, from which freeflying chicks emerge, are one of Indonesia’s greatest birding highlights. The black-and-white Maleo of Celebes is the most famous; the orange-footed Scrubfowl of Nusa Tenggara and Dusky Scrubfowl of North Moluccas are among the easiest to see strolling around the forest floor. (17 species)
Taken from Jepson, P, 1997, Birding Indonesia, Periplus Editions. Singapore
Phasianidae/Turnicidae: pheasants, quails and button quails:
Birders in Sumatra and Borneo invest considerable effort in catching up with the superb forest pheasants. Red Jungle-fowl, the ancestor of the domestic chicken, is locally common in Sumatra and Java, and the Green Peafowl’s range extends from Java into Nusa Tenggara. Only the button-quails’ range extends east of the Wallace line. (28 species)
Rallidae-rails, moorthens, and coots:
Rails are long-legged, mostly drably coloured birds that skulk around the margins of forest pools or marshes. They are favourites with birders, probably because they are a challenge to see, although, with a few notable exceptions such as the invisible Rail of Halmahera, they are easy to find in Indonesia compared with other countries in the region. (27 species).
Charadriiformes-waders:
Indonesia is good place to catch up with eastern paleartic species on their wintering grounds: they include Asian Dowitcher, Great Knot, Grey-tailed Tatler, Oriental Plover and Sharp-tailed and Terek Sandpipers. The largest concentarations of shorebirds are found on the river deltas of west Sumatra and north Java, but many birds are scattered in small groups along the eastern Indonesia coasts. Flocks of Red-necked Phalrope are common sight on the seas of moluccas and Lesser sundaes.
Stercorariidae/Laridae-skuas, gulls, terns and noddies:
The almost total absence of gulls is a striking feature of Indonesian Bird Life. Great Crested and Bridled Terns are the typical inshore species, but black-naped Terns are qute common around rocky coasts. In the northern winter flocks of Common Terns, mixed with Brown Noddies and often with couple of skuas in attendance, feed in the mangrove-fringed bays of the eastern islands. Whiskered and White-winged Terns are common over freshwater swamps. (26 species).
Columbidae-pigeons and doves:
Indonesia’s amazing vriety of pigeons-flocking green pigeons; delicate, long-tailed, warm brown and rufous coloured cuckoo-doves; magnificent imperial pigeons, whose deep calls reverberate through the island forests and mangroves of eastern Indonesia; gorgeously coloured friute-doves and the dainty ground-doves and famous crowned pigeons of Papua-will leave you with new depths of appreciation of this familiar bird family (91 species).
Indonesia support all but five of the world’s 22 species. These extraordinary birds, which bury massive eggs in sand or large mounds of rotting vegetation, from which freeflying chicks emerge, are one of Indonesia’s greatest birding highlights. The black-and-white Maleo of Celebes is the most famous; the orange-footed Scrubfowl of Nusa Tenggara and Dusky Scrubfowl of North Moluccas are among the easiest to see strolling around the forest floor. (17 species)
Taken from Jepson, P, 1997, Birding Indonesia, Periplus Editions. Singapore
Phasianidae/Turnicidae: pheasants, quails and button quails:
Birders in Sumatra and Borneo invest considerable effort in catching up with the superb forest pheasants. Red Jungle-fowl, the ancestor of the domestic chicken, is locally common in Sumatra and Java, and the Green Peafowl’s range extends from Java into Nusa Tenggara. Only the button-quails’ range extends east of the Wallace line. (28 species)
Rallidae-rails, moorthens, and coots:
Rails are long-legged, mostly drably coloured birds that skulk around the margins of forest pools or marshes. They are favourites with birders, probably because they are a challenge to see, although, with a few notable exceptions such as the invisible Rail of Halmahera, they are easy to find in Indonesia compared with other countries in the region. (27 species).
Charadriiformes-waders:
Indonesia is good place to catch up with eastern paleartic species on their wintering grounds: they include Asian Dowitcher, Great Knot, Grey-tailed Tatler, Oriental Plover and Sharp-tailed and Terek Sandpipers. The largest concentarations of shorebirds are found on the river deltas of west Sumatra and north Java, but many birds are scattered in small groups along the eastern Indonesia coasts. Flocks of Red-necked Phalrope are common sight on the seas of moluccas and Lesser sundaes.
Stercorariidae/Laridae-skuas, gulls, terns and noddies:
The almost total absence of gulls is a striking feature of Indonesian Bird Life. Great Crested and Bridled Terns are the typical inshore species, but black-naped Terns are qute common around rocky coasts. In the northern winter flocks of Common Terns, mixed with Brown Noddies and often with couple of skuas in attendance, feed in the mangrove-fringed bays of the eastern islands. Whiskered and White-winged Terns are common over freshwater swamps. (26 species).
Columbidae-pigeons and doves:
Indonesia’s amazing vriety of pigeons-flocking green pigeons; delicate, long-tailed, warm brown and rufous coloured cuckoo-doves; magnificent imperial pigeons, whose deep calls reverberate through the island forests and mangroves of eastern Indonesia; gorgeously coloured friute-doves and the dainty ground-doves and famous crowned pigeons of Papua-will leave you with new depths of appreciation of this familiar bird family (91 species).
