BIRDS OF A FEATHER
A solid introduction and great pictures set apart a new pictorial field guide to the birds of the Indian subcontinent
The weekend after I received my review copy of A Pictorial Field Guide to Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by multiple authors, I used it during a quick one-day birding trip. While it has a smallish footprint, 800 pages of glossy paper give this field guide substantial heft. Fairly well-organized, the book has a crisp introduction, and beautiful photographs for most of the 1200+ bird species found in our region.
The introduction by Carol and Tim Inskipp, well-known for their bird guides, including one that is popular among Indian birders, is beautifully illustrated and offers a succinct view of the state of bird life in the subcontinent. It includes a concise history of birding in the area and the personalities who play key roles in it. It’s a great read for anyone trying to get a grip on the vast range of our birdlife, their environs, and what is being done to ensure the survival of these birds. Towards the end, the Inskipps make a very good point about the lack of scientific data to actually say whether Indian birdlife is improving, suffering or changing in any way.
This field guide includes not just an index but a complete checklist of birds and a taxonomic checklist of birds and their IUCN status. This is a useful addition. The full-page interludes with a single species are nice, but they affect usability as it makes the reference inconsistent. I’d have preferred each species referred to in a consistent manner - layout, inset images, and so on. Identification of birds in the field is aided by the accurate colour rendition of bird images; something very important for a photographic guide.
One of the nicer aspects of this book is that the latest taxonomic conventions have been followed. This means it includes the latest accepted scientific names. Older birders like me who used the BNHS Oxford Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent as beginners still refer to some birds the old way. This book is great to transition to the newer names and taxonomic organization. The layout for each species includes a tiny, somewhat difficult-to-read range map allowing for identifica- tion by eliminating species that aren’t found in your geography. A joy to browse, this book has beautiful images of birds in their natural habitats including photographs of some exceedingly rare ones. Some of the full page images are especially gorgeous. Incidentally, there are some critically endangered birds in India that still haven’t been photographed. I would recommend this volume for use as a comparative reference and not as a beginner’s book. Usability as a field guide is where it fails. And it is a major failing. The weight of the book would make it uncomfortable to refer to in the field for extended periods of time, or perhaps even carry in a backpack with a camera and binoculars (as I realized). The graphic layouts are not consistent. There is no consistency in the smaller inset photographs. The inset photographs could be sex related (gender, breeding/non-breeding), the bird’s growth stage (juvenile, sub-adult), morphological (morph), or just a different image of the same species. It is surprising that there is no index to the graphic layout. The book just jumps from the introduction into references for each species. There is no guide to understand the layout, range map and description and use of inset photos. This is very jarring. One of the issues of photographic guides is the selection of images. Despite the now substantial number of bird images to choose from, it’s difficult to maintain the quality of images while trying to stick to a standard layout. For example, you couldn’t possibly find images of every bird species as a juvenile.It would have helped if the authors had included a table of characteristics to aid in the identification of bird groups that are difficult to identify — larks, wagtails and warblers. Even experienced birders struggle with identification within these groups. Another thing missing is pictures of birds in flight, especially accipiters. In the field, one is likely to see these in flight and positive identification is difficult based on just photographs. For about a thousand five hundred rupees, this book offers good value. A fantastic illustrated introduction, gorgeous images and the revised checklists balance out its usability flaws. This would make a good second or
third field guide for a birder.