干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Problems of defining a desert bird species are discussed. An ecogeographic, rather than evolutionary, definition is considered more useful. A listing of desert bird species should aid the hunt for avian adaptations to deserts. The Caspio-Central Asian desert is delimited and briefly described. An annotated list of the fourteen desert bird species that occur there is presented, based on the existing ornithological literature. Three of these species do not occur in the Saharo-Sindian desert. Remarkably few of the world’s avian species may be desert birds.