Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to the Birds of Mainland Southeast Asia: Including the Philippines and Borneo

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While it is nice to see the birds in the flesh with real-life pictures of them, it is certainly not pratical for use in the field.

Some of the pictures are poorly taken and it is highly difficult if not impossible to identify certain birds. Some of the images are back-lit, giving a silhouette of the bird!

There is no proper classification and very little info given of the birds - how the juveniles look like, breeding plumage, male/female plumage etc.

I suppose it is a good book for the casual birder who would like to know what's chirping outside his apartment window or chalet in the wilderness. It also comes with some interesting information on where to go birding to catch wetland or passerine birds etc.

I must commend Strange though for all his efforts into going into the field to capture these pictures - all pictures in the book were taken by Strange - good job Strange!

Basics: 2002, 398pp, softcover; 700 small to medium-sized color photographs of 668 (55%) of the region's species; only a couple dozen birds have more than one photo; short paragraph describes each bird along with other notes on behavior and voice; range maps

Although not complete, this guide shows more species than any other single photographic book on this region. Just over half of all southeast Asian species are shown with a single color photo. A few dozen of birds have two photos.

The selection of photos is pretty good. They show the bird in good light and in the open for a clear view. Although some of the birds are displayed a bit small, they are generally shown well enough to help identify the bird. Since most of the birds have only one photo, this book won't be a complete field guide, but it will allow the user to become familiar with many of the species across this region.

The range of this book covers several countries. It ranges from southern China and through the countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Although Borneo is noted in the title, only the Malaysian section of the island of Borneo is covered.

The text is brief and covers description, voice, and habits. The description, composed of 2-6 short lines, offer some decent tips but are not lengthy enough to be of solid help to identify many of the similar species. If you see an immature or many of the females, this book will probably not be of help in those instances. About 50-70% of the text is dedicated to describing the bird's habits. This section covers habitat preference and some behavioral notes. The voice is generally described in 1-2 short lines.

Each bird receives the same SE Asia map that contains two colors: Red for breeding and blue for migrant or non-breeding visitor.

Will this book be useful for a trip to SE Asia? Yes, but with limitations. You will definitely need to bring one of the available and complete field guides to show the variety of plumages and all the species that are present. This is a good practice book and I regard it as a good primer for a trip. -- (Written by Soleglad at Avian Review / Avian Books, August 2008)

I've listed several related books below...
1) Birds: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by Strange
2) A Photographic Guide to Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by Davison/Fook
3) Photographic Guide to Birds of Thailand by Webster
4) Birds of Thailand by Robson
5) A Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia by Robson
6) Photo Guide to Birds of the Philippines by Fisher
7) A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali by MacKinnon
8) A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines by Kennedy
9) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia by Strange
10) Photographic Guide to the Birds of Borneo by Davison

This book is absolutely FANTASTIC. It is a fully packed gem and I don't understand how anyone putting their hands on this book could not value it. I have nothing but high praises for all the work that, undoubtedly, went into this masterpiece. The pictures are clear and the write up is adequate; it provides everything I need at a quick glance. I'm so happy that I decided to make this purchase. The only thing I will do to "upgrade" the book is to have it spiral bound so that I can easily flip the pages. But this is a personal preference and by no means distracts from this fine work. Well done!

This is excellent guide book to have if ever you in southeat asia.