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A Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia
by Craig Robson

 

Birds of Thailand by Craig RobsonTitle: A Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia

Publisher:
New Holland, 2009

ISBN: 978-1847733412

Authors: Craig Robson

This review is specifically about the version of this book seen pictured here.

This version of "A Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia" was published in 2009 and updated the information contained in the original version. This book is packed full of detailed illustrations and written information on 1251 species recorded in Southeast Asia up to the date of publication. Even with this number of species this book has been kept to a size which can be carried in the field, although may be a little too large for many pockets. For those visiting Thailand as part of an extended trip to surrounding countries this book is a must as it is the only guide which depicts all Southeast Asian species in colour and is the most up-to-date guide covering the wider region. A brief, but interesting section at the beginning of this book introduces the reader to the main habitats to be found in the region and an extensive list of references for the ornithologist interested in more scientific reading on the region's avifauna.

For birders travelling only to Thailand, however, there is a dilemma in choosing whether to buy this book or the more specific and far more up-to-date Birds of Thailand published by Lynx Edicions.

A number of small problems do exist though and one of the most confusing of these is the huge number of illustrations crammed into each of the 104 plates. Although these are clearly labelled and referenced, such is the number of pictures on each page that it can be quite visually confusing at times and may slow identification of species, particularly for those new to the region. Obviously this issue has been a result of trying to keep the number of pages as low as possible, but a little has been lost in clarity of layout to gain in carryability.

A small amount of text is placed opposite the plates for each of the species, with a much larger amount of informative text in the section at the back. The text with the plates is largely descriptive and as this is reasonably obvious from the pictures it may have been better to have included key identification points in this limited space.

Still, these are minor points when considering the large amount of species covered in this book and for those birding close to Thailand's borders with other countries this could be vital in identifying species that have not before been recorded in Thailand. Given that many regions of Thailand have been seldom visited by birders this could potentially be a real issue.

The main complaints users have of this field guide is the haphazard way it is layed out, with illustrations crammed into the pages and poorly annotated. Some birders still use this field guide in Thailand because it is fairly cheap although this version is not so easy to obtain. Other versions of this field guide are reprints from an older version of the book, so contain an even more outdated taxonomy. There nearly 200 species added to the Thai list since this book was published and many more name changes, rendering this book extremely confusing.

If you are birding in many of the countries of Southeast Asia then this remains a useful book but if visiting only Thailand then I would strongly recommend not buying this book and instead check out my review for the newer Birds of Thailand published by Lynx Edicions. The only advantage of Birds of Southeast Asia over the Lynx Birds of Thailand, when birding in Thailand, is price.

Score: 6.5/10

 
Other Relevant Books

Birds of ThailandBirds of Thailand - Published in 2018 this field guide was based on the taxonomy used in Handbook of the Birds of the World with several new plates created on consultation with the authors. Inclusion of all subspecies know to occur in Thailand makes this book excellent as it makes it relevant to all taxonomies while anticipating future splits.

Bird Guide of ThailandBird Guide of Thailand - This pioneering field guide, first published in 1974, covers 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.

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