Threskiornis melanocephalus occurs in Japan (scarce non-breeding visitor), mainland China (probably breeds in Heilongjiang, but this is not confirmed; non-breeding visitors are rare along the east and south coasts, occasionally inland to Sichuan and Yunnan), Hong Kong (China) (regular winter visitor in small numbers with occasional summer records), Pakistan (scarce resident, principally in the Indus delta region), Nepal (frequent resident and summer visitor to the south-east), India (widespread and locally common in the west, scarce in the east; possibly increasing locally due to spread of man-made wetlands), Sri Lanka (common resident in the lowlands, particularly the dry zone), Bangladesh (local visitor to coastal regions and the north-east), Philippines (rare non-breeding visitor to the south), Myanmar (uncommon but widespread non-breeding visitor, 730 counted in 1991), Thailand (formerly common resident, now uncommon winter visitor), Laos (only one record, a single bird prior to 1950), Vietnam (previously abundant breeder, now a few large colonies remaining, Cambodia (fairly common resident in early 1960s; now scarce and local with small numbers breeding around Tonle Sap), Peninsular Malaysia (formerly occurred and probably bred in the west, but few recent records), Indonesia (scarce non-breeding visitor to Sumatra and north Borneo, possibly breeding in Sumatra with c.2,000 birds estimated, numerous breeding colonies in Java early in twentieth century, but now local and declining. While the East Asian population is extremely small (², those in South-East Asia and South Asia probably number fewer than 10,000 individuals each¹. It inhabits freshwater marshes, lakes, rivers, flooded grasslands, paddy fields, tidal creeks, mudflats, saltmarshes and coastal lagoons, usually in extreme lowlands, but occasionally up to 950 m, tending to be nomadic in response to water levels and feeding conditions. It is vulnerable to drainage, disturbance, pollution, agricultural conversion, hunting and collection of eggs and nestlings from colonies.