Due to the rapidly increasing numbers of both resident and
visiting birders in Thailand discovering new species, as well
as frequent taxonomic changes, the number of species recorded
in the country continues to increase every year meant that
the previous English language guides to Thailand had become
quite out of date, making this new field guide to the country
a very welcome and timely addition.
This field guide comes in a nice hardback cover with a striking
but simple design that looks good in the hand and on the shelf
but does result in it being a little bulky for use in the
field and the finish of the cover feels like it will quickly
get dented and scuffed when being used in the field and it
seems that its condition is likely to deteriorate with use
quite quickly. Perhaps a paperback version will follow at
a later date. However, it is the content that really matters
and browsing through several times it immediately leaps out
as being very well laid out, with illustrations not being
too crammed into the pages and instead it is easy to distinguish
between species on each plate and equally as easy to refer
from the text to the illustration. One thing that really irritates
in some field guides is when the range maps or species accounts
are on a different page to the plates for each species but
Birds of Thailand keeps all the relevant information together
on facing pages making it simple to use in the field.
The plates are generally very good in quality and the authors
worked alongside the artists to ensure that certain details
were correctly depicted, eliminating the problem that some
other publications have suffered from where illustrations
are poorly posed or dully-coloured due to the artist only
painting from photos and skins. However, although the illustrations
are far better than average the difference between some of
the very similar bulbuls and a few other species are rather
overemphasized. Summer and winter plumages are depicted where
relevant as are male and female plumages although most juvenile
plumages are not included, presumably through lack of space.
However, many different distinctive subspecies that occur
in Thailand are included in the plates although there are
some omissions including various subspecies of Ashy Bulbul.
One thing which is included in this book is a very short note
on whether a species is common or rare, something which was
inexplicably absent in a preceding field guide for Thailand.
The ever-changing taxonomy of birds is a real problem for
field guides these days, often making them out of date very
quickly. This publication tries to minimize the problems of
future splitting by listing all known subspecies that occur
in Thailand 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. In the text potential splits are dealt with in a way
that makes the book relevant both before, or after any possible
splitting by grouping each taxon under the title of the current
taxonomy but also treating each as if they were already a
full species. For example Streaked Wren Babbler is the main
title for a group of three taxons that are potential (probable?)
splits but then each of Burmese Streaked Wren Babbler, Malay
Streaked Wren Babbler and Cambodian Streaked Wren Babbler
follow on the text with their own illustrations and range
maps. Birds such as Blue Whistlingthrush and Ashy Drongo are
given similar treatment. This excellent innovation not only
makes it clear to birders where the potential splits lie but
also encouraging them to be more thorough in their observations
by making them aware of all subspecies they are likely to
encounter.
The taxonomy used here is based on that which appears in the
Handbook of the Birds of the World, which is to be expected
as the two books are produced by the same publisher. For those
not familiar with this taxonomy there may be some confusion
but the authors have done a very good job of making the book
relevant to most well-known bird lists and include notes on
alternative names for each species where required.
Although there are one or two small errors in this book, such
as a few range maps being slightly inaccurate, Birds of Thailand
is an overdue and very welcome addition to the library of
birders in Thailand due to its high quality and forward-thinking
way of dealing with an ever-changing taxonomy. Of course it
is impossible to completely keep up with the ever-increasing
number of birds and it is almost inevitable that even with
the inclusion of birds that were added to the Thai list in
early 2018, there has already been another addition just before
publication. My only major criticism of this book is the price
which at 60 Euros is far more expensive than previous field
guides for the country but this may well reflect the real
cost of creating a book such as this in terms of the amount
of time and expertise contributed by the authors and artists.
Perhaps.
Score: 9/10
Other Relevant Field Guides
Birds
of Thailand - Published in 2002 this field guide
was created by extracting the relevant information from
the more expansive Birds of Southeast Asia. Most useful
as an update from earlier, outdated books, it suffers from
being out of date itself now but remains useful as the paperback
version is very light to carry in the field.
Birds
of Southeast Asia - This field guide covers the
birds found in all countries of mainland Southeast Asia
and this is the most up to date version of the book, published
in 2011. Great for those birders traveling in several countries
in SE Asia but a little tricky to use in the field due to
its layout. This book is still the best guide to the whole
region though.
Bird
Guide of Thailand - This pioneering field guide,
first published in 1974, covers off the species known in
Thailand at that time, making it far from complete from
the avifauna currently known. However, this is still a nice
book and certainly one that Thailand birders will want to
add to their collection, containing useful species accounts.
Birds
of Thailand
Birds
of Southeast Asia
Bird
Guide of Thailand
Download
a full 
