Threskiornis melanocephalus occurs in
Japan (scarce non-breeding visitor), mainland
China (probably breeds in Heilongjiang, but this is not confirmed; non-breeding visitors are rare along the east and south coasts, occasionally inland to Sichuan and Yunnan),
Hong Kong (China) (regular winter visitor in small numbers with occasional summer records),
Pakistan (scarce resident, principally in the Indus delta region),
Nepal (frequent resident and summer visitor to the south-east),
India (widespread and locally common in the west, scarce in the east; possibly increasing locally due to the spread of man-made wetlands),
Sri Lanka (common resident in the lowlands, particularly the dry zone),
Bangladesh (local visitor to coastal regions and the north-east),
Philippines (rare non-breeding visitor to the south),
Myanmar (uncommon but widespread non-breeding visitor, 730 counted in 1991),
Thailand (formerly common resident, now uncommon winter visitor), Laos
(only one record, a single bird prior to 1950),
Vietnam (previously an abundant breeder, now a few large colonies remaining and still locally common),
Cambodia (a fairly common resident in early 1960s; now scarce and local with small numbers breeding around Tonle Sap), Peninsular
Malaysia (formerly occurred and probably bred in the west, but few recent records),
Indonesia (scarce non-breeding visitor to Sumatra and northern Borneo, possibly breeding in Sumatra with c.2,000 birds estimated; numerous breeding colonies were recorded in Java early in the 20th century, but now local and declining (Collar
et al. 2000). The Sumatran population is thought to have undergone a very rapid decline in recent decades (Iqbal and Hasudungan in press). While the East Asian population is extremely small (Q. Wang
in litt. 2002 to Wetlands International 2002), those in South-East Asia and South Asia probably number fewer than 10,000 individuals each (Byers
et al. 1995).
Rights Holder: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
Bibliographic Citation: BirdLife International 2012.
Threskiornis melanocephalus. In: IUCN 2014 . IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1 . <
www.iucnredlist.org>
