Figure 1

Demographic history of the crested ibis and its population dynamics. (a) The crested ibis populations (summer migrants, winter migrants, China residents, and Japan residents) were once widely distributed in East Asia. The recorded habitats are marked with parallel lines. The two breeding pairs were discovered in 1981 in the area in the South Qingling Mountains (green shade). (b) Population history based on historic records and the scientific literature [14]. The curves (dotted lines) indicate the time at which population bottlenecks occurred and bottleneck milestones are shown as solid diamonds (Additional file 1: Table S1). The inset enlarges the curves from 1980 to 2010. The colored solid triangles indicate recorded historic events (Additional file 1: Table S2). The vertical downward arrows indicate the discovery of the two survived breeding pairs in 1981.