List of birds of Korea
Order: Podicipediformes Family: Podicipedidae Grebes are small to medium-large in size, have lobed toes and are excellent swimmers and divers.
Order: Procellariidae Family: Diomedeidae Once common, it was brought to the edge of extinction by the trade in feathers, but with protection has recently made a recovery.
Order: Procellariidae Family: Hydrobatidae It breeds on islands in the northwest Pacific off China, Japan and Korea.
It nests in colonies close to the sea in rock crevices and lays a single white egg.
Order: Suliformes Family: Sulidae This group comprises medium to large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish.
Order: Suliformes Family: Fregatidae Frigate birds are built for flying; they rarely swim and cannot walk but can manage to climb around the trees and bushes in which they nest.
Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Pelecanidae These large birds use their elastic pouches to catch fish—though different species use it in different ways.
Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Ardeidae Large wading birds found in most temperate regions but most numerous in tropical and subtropical areas.
Most herons roost and nest in large colonies called heronries; others are gregarious only at breeding time; and some are entirely solitary.
Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Threskiornithidae Ibises and spoonbills occur primarily in freshwater and estuarine habitats, including swamps, marshes, coastal mangroves, rice fields, rivers and ponds.
Ibises and spoonbills are widely distributed in the warmer regions of the world and are especially abundant in the tropics of Africa, Asia and South America.
Order: Ciconiiformes Family: Ciconiidae The storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long stout bills.
They tend to live in drier habitats than their relatives the herons, spoonbills and ibises, and lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime.
These birds are adapted to an aquatic existence with webbed feet, bills which are flattened to a greater or lesser extent, and feathers that are excellent at shedding water due to special oils.
Order: Accipitriformes Family: Pandionidae The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a medium large raptor which is a specialist fish-eater with a worldwide distribution.
The osprey is particularly well adapted to its diet, with reversible outer toes, closable nostrils to keep out water during dives and backwards facing scales on the talons which act as barbs to help catch fish.
The most typical family members occupy dense vegetation in damp environments near lakes, swamps or rivers.
Order: Otidiformes Family: Otididae Bustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large terrestrial birds mainly associated with dry open country and steppes in the Old World.
Order: Charadriiformes Family: Jacanidae Jacanas are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat.
Most species are sedentary, but the pheasant-tailed jacana migrates from the north of its range into peninsular India and southeast Asia.
All three species live in reedy swampland, and their diet consists of annelid worms and other invertebrates, which they find with their long bills.
Order: Charadriiformes Family: Haematopodidae The oystercatchers are large, obvious and noisy plover-like birds, with strong bills used for smashing or prising open molluscs.
They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short, thick necks and long, usually pointed, wings.
Different lengths of legs and bills enable multiple species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food.
Order: Pterocliformes Family: Pteroclidae Sandgrouse have small, pigeon like heads and necks, but sturdy compact bodies.
Order: Apodiformes Family: Apodidae The swifts are small birds which spend the majority of their lives flying.
Order: Piciformes Family: Picidae Woodpeckers are small to medium-sized birds with chisel-like beaks, short legs, stiff tails and long tongues used for capturing insects.
