Birds Of Southern India (Helm Field Guides) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Tim Inskipp (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'the ideal travelling companion for any birding trip to peninsular India' Birding World

Product Description

This guide is a successor to the much acclaimed Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by the same authors. Covering southern India, the superb plates are accompanied by a succinct text highlighting identification, voice, habitat, altitudinal range, distribution and status. The text is on facing pages to the plates, for easy reference. Like previous guides covering Bhutan, Northern India and Nepal, this guide is a perfect size for use in the field and will be an essential companion when visiting this region.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: A & C Black (November 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0713651644
• ISBN-13: 978-0713651645
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #512,047 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quality illustrations; text is weak on some birds, September 5, 2008

By	Soleglad (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

Basics: 2005, softcover, 240 pages, 87 color plates, 600+ species, no range maps

This southern guide is a trimmed down offshoot of the author's previous and much larger work: A Guide to the Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. This reduced version is a true field guide-sized book that focuses on just those birds found in India's southern most six states; in other words, India south of Mumbai (aka, Bombay).

The 600+ birds found in the south are illustrated quite well and are usually shown with multiple plumages when significant differences exist between genders, age, or subspecies. These illustrations are good enough to identify most species. Each plate contains 4-10 species, made up of 9-30 illustrations. Some of the plates, especially the raptors and shorebirds, are notably crammed with 25-30 illustrations of perched and flying birds. This causes many of the plumages to be a bit small.

The text is the weaker part of this book. Each bird receives 3-15 lines describing it. This text may not always be sufficient to differentiate between many of the more similar birds. Sometimes a line or two is offered about the habitat or distribution. The raptors receive the most coverage while the passerines receive the least (i.e., 3-4 lines). There is only the sparsest of information given for vocalizations on some of the birds. There are also no range maps.

To help supplement the relatively thin text on identification, seven tables are included as appendices. These provide a comparison list of the more difficult bird groups such as nightjars, warblers, and the Yellow Wagtail subspecies.

This guide will serve you well in southern India and is probably the second-best option, aside from the author's combined Birds of India. A superior, but more expensive, book is the Birds of South Asia by Rasmussen.

If you're looking at other titles by the author, Grimmett, keep in mind this southern guide is a sister-work of the northern guide, which each come from the combined (but still condensed) Birds of India. These three books share many of the same plates and text. The combined version includes range maps. Basically, if you own Birds of India, you already own everything in this book. And, these three books all come from the aforementioned larger work that has everything along with extensive, in-depth text.

I've listed several related books below...
1) Field Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka by Kotagama
2) A Guide to the Birds of India... by Grimmett
3) Birds of India... by Grimmett
4) Birds of South Asia: Volumes 1 & 2 by Rasmussen
5) Birds of Western Ghats, Kokan & Malabar by Pande
6) A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Kazmierczak
7) A Field Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka by Harrison
8) A Photographic Guide to Birds of Sri Lanka by Wijeyeratne et al.
9) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of India by Grewal