Broadbills of Southeast Asia

When it comes to the most sought-after birds of Southeast Asia, the Broadbills are definitely one of the most attractive for birders!

There are two Broadbill families in Southeast Asia: Eurylaimidae, which includes the Asian and Grauer's Broadbills, and Calyptomenidae, which consists of the African and Green Broadbills. The Calyptomenids are easily distinguished from the Eurylaimids by their overall bright green plumage and forehead fluff that obscures their bills. The Eurylaimids come in more variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, making them a very popular family for bird photographers.

This piece is based on the 2025 AviList, which currently recognizes 12 species in Southeast Asia from both families. The Banded Broadbill is treated here as a single species instead of splitting it as Javan Broadbill. The same case applies for the Irrawaddy Broadbill, with it being lumped back as a subspecies of Black-and-Red Broadbill.

These illustrations were created to roughly scale with one another. The inclusion of country flags to indicate where these Broadbills have been recorded provides a visual guide to their distribution by country. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy this little piece! This is my simple attempt to showcase these colorful birds of Southeast Asia!

In terms of fun stats:

• Philippines has the most number of Endemic Broadbill species. Country endemic species are marked here to avoid confusion.

• Both Indonesia and Malaysia are tied with having the largest number of Broadbill species recorded in Southeast Asia. With the Indonesian island of #Sumatra having the most number of species!

• Singapore used to have a total of 5 Broadbill species, but habitat loss has now only left Singapore with 2

• The Black-and-red Broadbill is found in the most number of countries in Southeast Asia, only missing the Philippines and Timor-Leste

• All three Calyptomenidae Broadbills are on the lower right side of the composition, and the rest of the space is dedicated to the Eurylaimids