Asia

Asia is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth’s total land area and 9% of Earth’s total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Its 4.8 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world’s population.

In general terms, it is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. The border of Asia with Europe is a historical and cultural construct, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. It is somewhat arbitrary and has moved since its first conception in classical antiquity. The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East-West cultural, linguistic, and ethnic differences, some of which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. A commonly accepted division places Asia to the east of the Suez Canal separating it from Africa; and to the east of the Turkish Straits, the Ural Mountains and Ural River, and to the south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black seas, separating it from Europe. Geographically, Russia is partly in Asia, but is considered a European nation, both culturally and politically. It is separated from the Americas by the Bering Strait. The Gobi Desert is in Mongolia and the Arabian Desert stretches across much of the Middle East. The Yangtze River in China is the longest river in the continent. The Himalayas between Nepal and China is the tallest mountain range in the world. Tropical rainforests stretch across much of southern Asia and coniferous and deciduous forests lie farther north.

Asia has extremely diverse climate features. Climates range from arctic and subarctic in Siberia to tropical in southern India and Southeast Asia. It is moist across southeast sections, and dry across much of the interior. Some of the largest daily temperature ranges on Earth occur in western sections of Asia. The monsoon circulation dominates across southern and eastern sections, due to the presence of the Himalayas forcing the formation of a thermal low which draws in moisture during the summer. Southwestern sections of the continent are hot. Siberia is one of the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere, and can act as a source of arctic air masses for North America. The most active place on Earth for tropical cyclone activity lies northeast of the Philippines and south of Japan

Birding Asia

From a birding perspective every part of Asia has something to offer. In the far east  country bird lists are long and varied with high endemism in the island nations of Indonesia and The Philippines in particular. Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia has tropical forest and a great variety of birds. India has huge dense cities and almost pristine National Parks with a birdlife as diverse as the country itself with high elevations, dry states, tropical areas, savannahs and the rest. Despite the size of the population there are a great many wild areas containing big predators and big game animals.

Taman Negara, Malaysia – ©Vyacheslav Argenberg CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Malaysia still has some great birding forests but they are under great threat from loggers, Sri Lanka’s endemics are sometimes hard to find but the search is through beautiful landscapes and India is rich culturally as well as in terms of its birding spectacle. With a large proportion of the world’s bird families and some wonderfully diverse habitat there plenty for birders to hope to see.  Over the last few years birding as a hobby has grown in some countries like Malaysia many of whom are also keenly photographing birds. China’s vast country also have more birders and birding tourism is growing with a number of home-grown birding companies to choose from. The vast steppes of Mongolia in the north have their particular special birds as do the jungles of Borneo and the forests of colder northern countries.

Not only are the birds colourful but there are many Asian photographers and artists who have captured these glories and a few images appear on these pages. Asia has very marked differences in attitudes towards the wild world in general and birds in particular. The caged-bird trade devastates local wild populations in, in particular, Indo-China.

Gurudongmar Lake, Sikkim – ©Yoghya CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

On the other hand Hindu reverence for ALL wild animals means that birds are still densely packed and widespread in India. China’s massive population and intensive agriculture has impacted on the Avifauna and habitat destruction is rife just about everywhere. Even where there are large national parks and reverence for wildlife, poachers can decimate populations and bring them to the brink of extinction as is happening with Bengal Tigers and less ‘loveable’ species like pangolins… much of it to feed ‘traditional’ medicine practiced in China. Growth of protection societies has been slow but does make a difference, especially where the green tourist dollar supports local economies. Forests making way for monoculture palm plantations, the adoption of western agricultural techniques and even the over use of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories on animals can almost wipe out whole species before anyone even notices their impact.