This is our online life list, in photographs and videos of wild birds found in the Philippines. There are 725 species of birds recorded in the Philippines, and of these 255 are endemic, or found only in the Philippines, 205 are resident species that can be seen in the Philippines and in other countries, 278 are migrant species that visit the Philippines during the winter months. We became birdwatchers in May 2008. Taking pictures of birds started off simply as a means to identify the birds. It did not take long however to get hooked by the fun and challenge of capturing these wonderful birds in photographs and video. It takes a lot of effort and time to find and photograph the birds in the wild, but we think it is worth the trouble so people can see images of the birds in their natural habitat. We have since gone to many places visiting areas in Batanes, Luzon, Mindoro, Bohol, Cebu, Negros, Palawan, the Sulu Sea and Mindanao.
We hope our photos help people realize the wild areas of the Philippines are special places that should be cherished and protected.
Information on bird sizes, classification as to if it is an endemic, resident or migrant, as well as if the bird is rare, uncommon or common is taken from the book A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines by Robert S. Kennedy, Pedro C. Gonzales, Edward C. Dickinson, Hector C. Miranda Jr. and Timothy H. Fisher. This is the first complete guidebook to Philippine birds. It is referred to in this site as the Kennedy guide. In 2014 we started the process of updating our checklist to include species unrecorded in the Kennedy guide, updated English names, splits recognized by the IOC, and a reorganization of bird families. We are currently following the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines - Checklist of Birds of the Philippines 2018. The taxonomic treatment in this checklist follows Gill F & D Donsker (Eds) 2018. IOC World Bird List (v 8.1).
All of the photographs here are of birds in the wild. We don't bait birds, photograph pet birds or zoo birds. We seek them out in their natural habitat to show how important it is to save them and their habitat.
We constantly update the photos. It is our hope to improve the quality of our photos as well as try to get to photograph as many species as we encounter. We have seen 521 birds in the Philippines so far and have photographed 507 species.
