The birds of Mt Kinabalu and their zoogeographical relationships

Abstract

The extent of our knowledge of the birds of Mt Kinabalu is reviewed. Details are given of the geographical distribution of the 17 endemic and 33 non-endemic montane and higher montane species (including the 2 endemic and 2 non-endemic species characteristic of the summit zone). About half the non-endemic species have an Indo-Malaysian distribution; the fact that subspeciation has not proceeded very far, in spite of geographical isolation on mountain 'islands', and that the songs and call-notes of widely separated populations (e.g. Burma and Borneo) are closely similar in a number of species, suggests that the pattern of distribution is of recent origin. The question of why higher montane species are not found on mountains whose summit is under 5000 ft., although on higher mountains they occur well below the 5000 ft. contour, is discussed.