Birds endemic to Taiwan

There are currently 533 officially documented species of birds in Taiwan, accounting for 1/18 of the 9,755 bird species in the world. In terms of the ratio of bird species per unit area, the density of Taiwan’s bird species populations ranks second in the world. Going back approximately 18,000 years, the earth experienced a period of significantly low temperatures lasting roughly 150,000 years, known as the “last glacial maximum." During this period, the ice sheets of the Northern and Southern Poles expanded considerably, with a large amount of water on the earth being converted into ice and snow and stored away in glaciers. With much of the water from oceans locked away in glaciers, global sea levels dropped significantly. Consequently, the underwater continental shelf of the Taiwan Strait, which is only 80 meters deep, was exposed connecting both Taiwan and mainland China into a vast continent. With the emergence of this "land bridge", many species were able to migrate south to escape the harsher northern climate. In addition, the towering mountains on the island of Taiwan provided vertically distributed climate zones with both temperate and milder temperatures. This resulted in a period of time when species from both land masses were intermingled. However, about 14,000 years ago, the earth slowly warmed up and the sea levels gradually rose turning Taiwan turned back into an island, once again separated from the larger land mass. The fauna on the island, now isolated from the mainland Chinese groups, evolved on their own, becoming today's endemic species of Taiwan. The definition of ‘endemism’ refers to a species whose distribution is limited to a certain area due to historical, ecological or physiological factors, where traits of those species are to be found nowhere else. Currently, there are 27 species of endemic birds in Taiwan. From the study of the varied altitudinal and ecological environments where the birds live, I have combined the birds with individual plants specific to those regions in order to represent the varied ecology of those flowers and birds within my paintings.