Hello Fellow Birders, I may be going to a wedding in Thailand and so as birders do, I looked up the bird list for Thailand and to my amazement discovered that Thailand has a larger bird list (1017) than us. I also discovered that Thailand has some really lovely Sunbirds including our Olive-backed Sunbird. I know that none of us can possibly know but I’m sure that others have pondered on why the Olive -backed Sunbird is all over Asia and also Australia and yet I suppose that the other Sunbirds have stopped at the Wallace Line. Any ideas or theories on how we managed to get just one Sunbird would be appreciated. Happy birding, Patriick
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Patrick, There is at least one other sunbird species in New Guine (Black Sunbird) that extends as far west as Sulawesi and a couple of close relatives of the Olive-backed are in the Lesser Sundas. There are large numberso species in Africa (including South Africa) but relatively few on the subcontinent (many more in the tropical areas of south east Asia). Wallace’s Line may be a barrier, but it may just be that the Asian species require more tropical conditions and that suitable habitat is limited in Australia to the east coast, and that perhaps the large number of nectivores that evolved in Australia (i.e. Meliphagid honeyeaters) outcompeted any other species that tried to settle here. No science in, just my gues based on basic knowledge of biogeography. Cheers, Peter
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