Birds
Birds are living dinosaurs, the surviving branch of the theropod lineage, and almost everything about them is organised around flight even in the species that have given it up. Feathers…
About birds
Birds are living dinosaurs, the surviving branch of the theropod lineage, and almost everything about them is organised around flight even in the species that have given it up. Feathers came first and were used for insulation and display long before they were used to fly. The skeleton is hollowed and fused, the lungs run air in a one-way circuit that extracts oxygen on both inhalation and exhalation, and the whole body is trimmed to weight — including a reproductive system that shrinks outside the breeding season. Birds are the most conspicuous wildlife almost everywhere, they are the best-surveyed group by a wide margin, and consequently they function as the clearest indicator of what is happening to habitats more broadly.
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Where birds are recorded
| Region | Climate | Species |
|---|---|---|
| Arabia & the Middle East | Blistering desert heat with very little rain. | 242 |
| West Africa | Hot and humid by the coast, drier toward the Sahel. | 155 |
| Himalayas & High Asia | Bitterly cold with thin air, snow and fierce winds. | 132 |
| Arctic & Tundra | Long frozen winters far below 0°C and a short, cool summer. | 113 |
| Mainland Southeast Asia | Hot and tropical with a heavy monsoon. | 113 |
| Indian Subcontinent | Hot, ruled by the dramatic monsoon rains. | 108 |
| Central Asian Steppe | Harsh extremes — baking summers and deeply frozen winters. | 106 |
| Mexico & Central America | Warm and tropical with a strong rainy season. | 101 |
| African Rainforest | Hot, humid and rainy almost every day, around 25°C. | 92 |
| Southern Africa | Warm and sunny with a summer rainy season. | 88 |
| China's Bamboo Forests | Cool, misty and damp in the mountain forests. | 81 |
| Antarctica | Earth's coldest, windiest place, plunging to −60°C. | 74 |
| Patagonia | Cool, dry and famously windswept. | 69 |
| Pantanal & Cerrado | Hot, with a flooded wet season and a dry winter. | 66 |
| Eastern North America | Four full seasons — humid summers and snowy winters. | 59 |
| North American Desert | Scorching dry days and surprisingly cool nights. | 59 |
| Amazon Rainforest | Warm and extremely humid with heavy rainfall all year round. | 56 |
| Australian Outback | Hot, dry and blazing-bright across the interior. | 52 |
| New Guinea & Melanesia | Hot, humid and rainy all year. | 51 |
| Sahara & Deserts | Scorching days above 45°C and surprisingly freezing nights. | 49 |
| Caribbean Islands | Warm, breezy and tropical all year. | 48 |
| European Woodlands | Mild, temperate seasons with cool rain and gentle summers. | 43 |
| Madagascar | Tropical and warm with distinct wet and dry seasons. | 43 |
| Andes Mountains | Thin, cold mountain air — sunny days and frosty nights. | 40 |
| Siberian Taiga | Brutally cold winters and short, mild summers. | 31 |
| Coral Reefs & Oceans | Warm, sunlit tropical seas in the shallows; cold and dark in the deep. | 30 |
| Japan & Korea | Four seasons, from the snowy north to the mild south. | 28 |
| African Savanna | Hot all year with dramatic wet and dry seasons, typically 25–35°C. | 27 |
| American South & Everglades | Hot, humid and subtropical with heavy summer storms. | 25 |
| New Zealand | Mild, wet and temperate. | 24 |
| North American Wilds | Four strong seasons with snowy winters and warm summers. | 21 |
| Southeast Asian Jungle | Hot and steamy with monsoon downpours. | 20 |