


Top 20 Most Common Bird in Bohol
Bohol is an ecological paradise,with diverse environments, ranging from lush, tropical rainforests to idyllic coastal areas. This rich landscape is home to a wide variety of bird species. The 20 most common birds exhibit unique characteristics such as spectacular plumage, engaging behaviors, and phenomenal adaptative abilities, making Bohol a significant site for birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts.

Most Common Bird

1. Red-keeled Flowerpecker
The red-keeled flowerpecker or red-striped flowerpecker (Dicaeum australe) is a species of bird in the family Dicaeidae. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. The black-belted flowerpecker (D. haematostictum) was formerly regarded as a subspecies of this bird.


2. Philippine Bulbul
The Philippine bulbul (Hypsipetes philippinus) is a songbird species in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest; on Mount Kitanglad on Mindanao for example it is abundant in any kind of primary forest at least between 500 and 2,250 m ASL.


3. Olive-backed Sunbird
In most subspecies, the underparts of both male and female are bright yellow, the backs are a dull brown colour. The forehead, throat and upper breast of the adult male is a dark, metallic blue-black. In the Philippines the males of some subspecies have an orange band on the chest, in Wallacea and northern New Guinea some subspecies have most of the underparts blackish, and in southern China and adjacent parts of Vietnam most of the underparts of the male are greyish-white.


4. Zebra Dove
The zebra Dove is a small dove found in dense forests, open fields, farmlands, and similar suburban areas. Unlike other dove species, this ground-dwelling bird likes to forage alone or in pairs, but not in large groups. The call of this slender dove is often described as very pleasant. Very common in urban areas, they are quite comfortable around humans.

5. Grey-rumped Swiftlet
The grey-rumped swiftlet is 9–10 cm (3.5–3.9 in) in length with a square tail. The back and upper surface of the wings are dull dark blue with a moderate green gloss. The rump is paler due to the white margins of feathers forming the uppertail coverts. The throat and upper breast are grey with fine white scalloping merging into larger greyish chevrons over the lower breast and flanks, becoming white over the belly. There is sometimes a tuft of small feathers on the hallux, the rear facing toe. This species lacks the white spots on the inner webs of the tail feathers that are present in some Collocalia species.


6. Asian Glossy Starling
The Malayan purple starling (Aplonis panayensis) is a starling species from the Indian Subcontinent and the Indian Archipelago. It is a common bird that sometimes occurs en masse in cities. The bird is one of the noisiest bird species.

7. Yellow-vented Bulbul
The eyebrow buzz (Pycnonotus goiavier), is a common songbird from the family of the buulbuuls. The eyebrow bulge is found in large parts of Southeast Asia and the Indian Archipelago.

8. Pacific Swallow
The Pacific swallow (Hirundo tahitica) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It breeds in tropical southern Asia and the islands of the south Pacific. It is resident apart from some local seasonal movements. This bird is associated with coasts, but is increasingly spreading to forested uplands. The hill swallow was formerly considered conspecific. This species is a small swallow at 13 cm. It has a blue back with browner wings and tail, a red face and throat, and dusky underparts. It differs from the barn swallow and the closely related welcome swallow in its shorter and less forked tail. The Pacific swallow builds a neat cup-shaped nest, constructed with mud pellets collected in the beak, under a cliff ledge or on a man-made structures such as a building, bridge or tunnel. The nest is lined with softer material, and the clutch is two to three eggs. It is similar in behaviour to other aerial insectivores, such as other swallows and the unrelated swifts. It is a fast flyer and feeds on insects, especially flies, while airborne.


9. Philippine Pied Fantail
The Philippine pied fantail (Rhipidura nigritorquis) is a species of bird in the family Rhipiduridae. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Malaysian pied fantail. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.


10. Collared Kingfisher
The collared kingfisher is 23 to 25 cm (9.1 to 9.8 in) long and the male weighs 51 to 90 g (1.8 to 3.2 oz), while the female weighs 54–100 g (1.9–3.5 oz). It varies from blue to green above while the underparts can be white or buff. There is a white collar around the neck, giving the bird its name. Some races have a white or buff stripe over the eye while others have a white spot between the eye and bill. There may be a black stripe through the eye. The large bill is black with a pale yellow base to the lower mandible. Females tend to be greener than the males. Immature birds are duller than the adults with dark scaly markings on the neck and breast. It has a variety of calls which vary geographically. The most typical call is a loud, harsh and metallic "kee-kee-kee" repeated several times.


11. Barn Swallow
A familiar sight in rural and semi-open areas, the small barn Swallow can often be spotted by its distinctly graceful flight as it travels low over fields. Seemingly unbothered by having human neighbors, they nest unafraid in barns, garages, beneath bridges or wharves. Interestingly enough, they have come to prefer these locations so much that you are unlikely to spot a nest in a place that is not a human-made structure.

12. Black-naped Oriole
The black-naped oriole is medium-sized and overall golden with a strong pinkish bill and a broad black mask and nape. The adult male has the central tail feathers tipped yellow and the lateral ones are more broadly yellow. The female has the mantle colour more greenish or olive. The juvenile has a streaked underside. The nestling has dull greenish with brown streaks. The head and nape are more yellowish and the undertail coverts are yellow. Several variations exist in the populations that have been separated as subspecies. The subspecies in the Andamans, O. c. andamanensis has all black wings while O. c. macrourus of the Nicobars has a very broad nape band so that only the top of the head is yellow. The wings are all black with a yellow primary covert patch. The calls of the Andaman and the Nicobar subspecies are said to be quite different, the latter having a more modulated call note. In the Southeast Asian populations some geographic trends include a reduction of yellow on the forehead and a decreased brightness in the yellow plumage from north to south. Females from southern populations are more greenish on the back and tail and there are no yellow spots on the tips of the secondaries as in northern populations. The usual call is a nasal niee or myaa and the song (diffusus) is a fluty iwee wee wee-leeow. They have a dipping flight.


13. Brown Shrike
This shrike is mainly brown on the upper parts and the tail is rounded. The black mask can be paler in winter and has a white brow over it. The underside is creamy with rufous flanks and belly. The wings are brown and lack any white "mirror" patches. Females tend to have fine scalloping on the underside and the mask is dark brown and not as well marked as in the male. The distinction is not easy to use in the field but has been tested with breeding birds in Japan where the female can be identified from the presence of a brood patch. The use of multiple measurements allows discrimination of the sex of about 90% of the birds. Subspecies lucionensis has a grey crown shading into the brown upperparts and the rump appears more rufous than the rest of the upper back. The tail is more brownish and not as reddish as in the red-backed shrike. Younger birds of lucionensis have a brown crown and lack the grey on the head. Subspecies superciliosus has a broad white supercilium and a richer reddish crown. The tail is redder and tipped in white. A number of confusing forms are known from central Asia where the populations of cristatus, isabellinus and collurio overlap. The taxonomy has been in a state of flux and some forms such as phoenicuroides formerly considered as subspecies of L. cristatus have been moved to the species L. isabellinus. Subspecies lucionensis has been recorded interbreeding with superciliosus in Ishikawa, Japan while superciliosus has interbred with Lanius tigrinus in central Japan.


14. Black-chinned Fruit Dove
The black-chinned fruit dove (Ptilinopus leclancheri), also known as the black-throated fruit dove or Leclancher's dove, is a medium-sized (up to 27 cm long) bird of the family Columbidae. The male is a colorful bird with a green belly and wings, a brown tail, a whitish grey head and neck with a purple base, red iris and a small black patch under its yellow bill. The female has a green head, neck and breast. The black-chinned fruit dove is distributed in lowland forests of Taiwan and the Philippines, where it is fairly common. On Taiwan, it is very rare, known only from four specimens. The diet consists mainly of fruits. The female usually lays a single white egg in a nest made of twigs. Widespread throughout its large range, the black-chinned fruit dove is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.


15. Philippine Hanging Parrot
Philippine hanging parrots are about 14 cm (5.5 in) long, weigh 32–40 g, and have a short rounded tail. They are mainly green with areas of red, orange, yellow, and blue varying between subspecies. The forehead is red and the irises are dark brown. Adults have red beaks and orange legs except for Loriculus (philippensis) bonapartei which have black beaks and grey legs. They are sexually dimorphic with only the males having red on their chin or upper chest, except for the Loriculus (philippensis) camiguinensis in which neither the male or female has a red bib or chest. Juveniles have less red on their heads and paler beaks, but otherwise resemble the female.


16. Pied Triller
The pied triller (Lalage nigra) is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is found in Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.


17. White-eared Brown Dove
Adult individuals have a black sub-ocular line starting from the gape to the nape (McGregor, 1909) followed by a white line from the posterior border of the eye to the nape (Carino, 2009; McGregor, 1909). In general, these birds have brown feathers but the crown is pale gray and the chin and upper throat is tawny (Baptista et al., 2017). In addition, lower breast and abdomen are slightly pale yellow which is much paler than the posterior part, the under tail-coverts are dark pearl-gray and the wings are brown with the primaries having pale edges, and the rectrices each having a wide gray band on the terminal end (McGregor, 1909). These birds are also characterized by short bills (Carino, 2009; Hachisuka, 1941), and greenish bronze collar (Carino, 2009; McGregor, 1909) or green or blue iridescence on the nape (P. Simpson, pers. Commun., September 11, 2017).


18. Philippine Magpie-robin
The Philippine magpie-robin (Copsychus mindanensis) is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is endemic to the Philippines. It used to be considered a subspecies of the Oriental magpie-robin. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.


19. Asian Palm Swift
The Asian palm swift (Cypsiurus balasiensis) is a small swift. It is very similar to the African palm swift, Cypsiurus parvus, and was formerly considered to be the same species. It is a common resident breeder in tropical Asia from India to the Philippines. The down and feather nest is glued to the underside of a palm leaf with saliva, which is also used to secure the usually two or three eggs. This is a bird of open country and cultivation, which is strongly associated with oil palms. This 13 cm long species is mainly pale brown in colour. It has long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The body is slender, and the tail is long and deeply forked, although it is usually held closed. The call is a loud shrill scream. Sexes are similar, and young birds differ from adults mainly in their shorter tails. Asian palm swift has very short legs which it uses only for clinging to vertical surfaces, since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground. These swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks. Asian palm swifts often feed near the ground, and they drink on the wing.


20. Ruddy-breasted Crake
The ruddy-breasted crake (Zapornia fusca), or ruddy crake, is a waterbird in the rail and crake family Rallidae. Its breeding habitat is swamps and similar wet areas across South Asia from the Indian subcontinent east to south China, Japan and Indonesia. It has been recorded as a vagrant from the Australian territory of Christmas Island. It is mainly a permanent resident throughout its range, but some northern populations migrate further south in winter. This crake nests in a dry location on the ground in marsh vegetation, laying 6-9 eggs. The ruddy-breasted crake is about 22–23 cm long. The body is flattened laterally to allow easier passage through the reeds or undergrowth. It has long toes and a short tail. Coloring includes a pale brown back and chestnut head and underparts, with white barring on the flanks and undertail. The bill is yellowish, and the eyes, legs, and feet are red. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are dark brown with some white spotting. These birds probe in mud or shallow water and also pick up food by sight. They forage for shoots, berries and insects, as well as large snails, which they eat by using their bills to peck through the hard shell. Ruddy-breasted crakes are territorial, but are quite secretive, hiding amongst grassy shrubs and bushes when disturbed.
