Over candle light and flashlight, professional bird watchers...

TMATBOEY, PREAH VIHEAR, CAMBODIA - 2007/02/21: Over candle light and flashlight, professional bird watchers Philip D. Round, left, and Jon L. Dunn compare notes on birds seen during the day while on a birding tour in northern Cambodia. The two are at the table in the small guesthouse for foreign visitors in Tmatboey. Behind them, Cambodian guide Chea Sophal tallies his own bird list. Two of the world's rarest birds - the giant ibis and the white-shouldered ibis - make their home near Tmatboey, in north central Cambodia. Both critically endangered species nest and feed in the surrounding deciduous dipterocarp forest, a regional rarity. Once widespread across Southeast Asia, both giant and white-shouldered ibises have suffered a century of hunting, habitat loss and deforestation. Perhaps as few as 250 remain of each species. Tmatboey is the only protected nesting site for the white-shouldered ibis, and one of the few places in the world to spot the giant ibis, Cambodia's national bird. When the dry season hits its peak, February through April, the birds congregate to feed at ancient man-made reservoirs called trapeangs, which date to the Angkor era 600-1,200 years ago. Since the Tmatboey Ibis Project was established by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society in 2005, villagers enforce a local code of conduct prohibiting hunting and preserving feeding and nesting areas. Tmatboey is the closest wilderness to the Angkor temples, which attracted more than 1.5 million visitors in 2006. Just three hours by car from Siem Reap, the Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary surrounds Tmatboey, where the ibises overlap with 16 woodpecker species, greater and lesser adjutants, sarus cranes, green peafowl, black-necked storks, wooly-necked storks, greater spotted eagles, grey-headed fish eagles, white-rumped falcons, pale-capped pigeons, Asian golden weavers, Alexandrine parakeets and rufous-winged buzzards. (Photo by Jerry Redfern/LightRocket via Getty Images)