With the highest number of endemic species of any country
in mainland Southeast Asia as well as being the best place
to see many of the region's scarcest and most secretive birds
it is a mystery why there has previously been no field guide
dedicated to this interesting country's exceptional avifauna,
finally that void has been filled. With ever-increasing numbers
of birders visiting Vietnam and an expanding number of local
birders, relying on the hard-to-use-in-the-field Robson's
Birds of Southeast Asia for birding in this country has become
quite unsatisfactory so that the publication of this new field
guide is both welcome and none too soon.
This field guide is available in two formats, a hard back
cover and a waterproof flexible cover. Both formats have exactly
the same attractive design which uses exactly the same layout
as the previous book in this series "Birds
of Thailand" and presumably this will be the standard
for forthcoming publications too. Although book-lovers will
appreciate a volume that looks nice on their shelf it is what
is contained within the pages that really counts and after
a useful introduction, with notes on the habitats and main
birding sites in Vietnam, the main body of this field guide
begins, containing more than 1900 illustrations. Generally
the plates are well laid out, with species easily distinguished
from each other as they are not too closely crammed in next
to each other. However, there are a few exceptions to this,
notably terns and some of the smaller shorebirds, which I
guess limitations of space demanded but these few exceptions
are a shame considering the high quality of the layout of
most of the book. Range maps are actually displayed alongside
the species illustrated, eliminating having to refer between
pages to narrow down identification on range and each species
illustration is also clearly annotated with its common name
as well as the scientific name for subspecies where relevant.
The usability of this field guide is also helped by keeping
the species accounts on the facing page to the plates, unlike
some annoying guides that place them in confusing places.
It is always good to see that a few words have been dedicated
to whether a species is common or not, which can help birders
work out whether their sightings are notable or not.
The artwork in Birds of Vietnam is of a high standard and
similar species have been consistently posed in profile for
easy comparison and almost all are positioned in typical poses
which reflect the shape they usually acquire when seen in
the field. This may seem obvious but some guides dealing with
the region have failed miserably to do this, rendering some
species so contorted that they are unidentifiable in the field;
Birds of Vietnam does not fall into this trap. The illustrations
are also vibrant in colour, reflecting the true appearance
of most species well and presumably this is a result of artists
working alongside the authors and being able to refer to modern,
high-quality digital images. However the differences in colour
of a few species are rather over-emphasized to justify splits
or future splits but these are few in number.
As with the preceding guide in this series, Birds of Vietnam
deals with the rapidly changing taxonomy of birds in a novel
way in order to be relevant pre and post split and with a
variety of taxonomical lists. By including all known subspecies
that occur in Vietnam as well as indicating where they occur
on the species range maps by using annotations of "a",
"b", 'c" etc. for the subspecies named in the
text this guide deals with all currently known taxons. In
the text potential splits are grouped under the title of the
current taxonomy but also listed with their own text entries
as if they were already full species. An example of this is
Russet Grasshopper Warbler which forms a group heading under
which two taxons are dealt with separately: Russet Grasshopper
Warbler and Annam Grasshopper Warbler. Both of these have
full text entries, range maps and illustrations so whether
the taxonomy a birder uses regards these as species or subspecies
the book is still relevant. This thoughtful way of dealing
with birds not only makes it clear to birders where the potential
splits lie but also encourages them to be more thorough in
their observations by making them aware of all subspecies
they are likely to encounter.
For those birders who follow Handbook of the Birds of the
World the good news is that Birds of Vietnam uses the taxonomy
prescribed there and this is also in alignment with the previously
issued guide in the series and the publishers have informed
me that this will be the standard for all future guides for
other countries too. This will allow birders using several
books when traveling to be able to refer to plates quickly
and easily rather than struggle with different layouts in
every book. For those who are not already fully conversant
with this increasingly-used taxonomy confusion is limited
by including alternate names for each species and potential
split.
While the soft cover version of this book will doubtlessly
do its job and protect the book in the field without degrading
much or getting badly damaged, there is something about the
feel of it that is not quite right. Quite frankly it is made
from the same material as "books" for infants that
prevent damage from various methods of soaking and at first
it feels a bit weird to be handling a book that feels like
this as an adult. Still, this is a small thing and I am sure
the cover will do its job.
For those that like such things, QR codes are included for
every species. Scan them and a variety of images and sounds
will be available for reference but I have not used this feature
so cannot comment on how good it is. Also included is card
which carries a unique code so download a full checklist of
the birds of Vietnam from the publisher's website; a very
nice addition.
Quite frankly there are very few errors or omissions to pick
up on in this field guide although some birders will not like
some of the common names imposed upon them by HBW taxonomy.
However, the consistency that this gives for those who already
have this excellent series of books is helpful and being the
first field guide dedicated to Vietnam there is no previous
book to get names confused with. Anyway, with this in mind
alternative and old names for species are also included in
the text to deal with this potential issue. It is inevitable
that new birds will be added to the Vietnamese list and this
field guide, like all others, will become a little outdated
but by publishing this field guide in parallel to HBW further,
updated editions will be easy to publish. At 55 Euros this
is not a cheap field guide, but it is encouraging regarding
the price of further titles that Birds of Vietnam is a little
cheaper than the previous book in the series. With a hard
cover version for the book shelf and a waterproof soft cover
version for the field at least one should be a must-have for
birders in the region and it would be unthinkable to go birding
in Vietnam without this guide.
Birds
of Southeast Asia - Published in 2015 this is a
beautifully illustrated book covering all the birds known
to occur in Southeast Asia at the time of publication. However,
with just one illustration per species this is more of an
illustrated checklist than a field guide, although nice
addition to the bookshelf.
Birds
of Southeast Asia - This field guide covers birds
found in all countries of mainland Southeast Asia and this
is the ost up to date version of the book, published in
2011. Great for those traveling in several countries but
a little tricky to use in the field due to its layout. Still
the best guide to the whole region though.
Birds
of Southeast Asia
Birds
of Southeast Asia
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