Language: English with bilingual abstract in English and Burmese
Avifauna of the Southeastern Himalayan Mountains and Neighboring Myanmar Hill Country provides significant new insights into the biology and biogeography of the birds that inhabit the northernmost tip of Myanmar. The area's hill jungle is largely untouched by humans and has not been visited by ornithologists since the late 1940s. Even today, this jungle can be considered a primary forest in the literal sense and a "white map" area for most biodiversity. During our recent visits to this extraordinary, species-rich area we compiled an inventory of the avifauna that includes records of more than 440 species. Although the area inventoried covers only about one percent of the land surface of Myanmar, the species reported in the inventory include endemics as well as globally threatened taxa and represent more than a third of all known bird species from the country. By evaluating in detail the subspecific relationships of the Hkakabo Razi rainforest avifauna, we conclude that the bird avifauna community of northern Myanmar is most similar to the one found in the avifauna of the temperate rainforests of northeastern India.