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A comprehensive and up-to-date identification guide to birds of the Indian subcontinent. The first 300 pages is comprised of facing pages of color illustrations and short articles of the several birds shown, with page references to the fuller articles further in the volume. Those in turn include distribution maps; information on identification, voice, habits, habitat, breeding, and distribution and status; and references to the color plates. English and Latin names are indexed. -- Copyright © 1999 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR All rights reserved


Stephen Mills, Times Literary Supplement
Wonderfully illustrated . . . generous text, adequate maps, and is simply the one book you cannot do without in India.


Stephen Mills, Times Literary Supplement
Wonderfully illustrated... generous text, adequate maps, and is simply the one book you cannot do without in India.


Review
It is wonderfully illustrated, has generous text, adequate maps, and is simply the one book you cannot do without in India.


Book Description
Birdwatchers have long waited for a comprehensive and up-to-date identification guide for the Indian subcontinent. This exhaustively researched and beautifully produced book will finally meet that need. Written by three leading experts on the region--Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, and Tim Inskipp--the book provides complete information about the 1,300 species of birds found in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. The guide is firmly rooted in the authors' extensive field experience, reflected in the accuracy and fullness of their bird descriptions. The guide features more than 150 color plates by eminent bird illustrators from Europe and India that depict all the species in the region, ranging from the Himalayan Snowcock in the north to the Sri Lanka Spurfowl in the south. The plates include all relevant identifiable subspecies, as well as ages and sexes. The text consists of a detailed identification section, discussing the differences between similar species and containing descriptions of vocalizations, habits, habitat, breeding, distribution, and status. There are distributional maps for nearly all species. And the authors' introduction provides useful background information about such subjects as conservation, the history of ornithology on the subcontinent, and the climate. A detailed bibliography provides an introduction to the prolific literature on the subcontinent. This is a landmark publication that will be enthusiastically welcomed by all birdwatchers with an interest in the extraordinary variety of birds in this vast and diverse region.


From the Inside Flap
"I'm very excited about this long-awaited, definitive, and high-quality book. It fills a definite vacuum.... The color plates are the best that I can think of for Central and Eastern Asia, and the text contains the best information I know for the region."--John A. Gwynne, Wildlife Conservation Society


About the Author
Richard Grimmett works for BirdLife International in Indonesia and has managed conservation programs in Europe and Asia. He was an artist for Tim and Carol Inskipp's A Guide to the Birds of Nepal, coauthored BirdLife's Important Bird Areas of Europe, and was the founding chairman of the Oriental Bird Club. Carol Inskipp is a consultant for WWF-UK, producing a wide range of environmental educational materials. She has been involved with running the Oriental Bird Club since its foundation. In addition to A Guide to the Birds of Nepal, she and her husband, Tim, cowrote An Introduction to Birdwatching in Bhutan. She is also the author of A Birdwatcher's Guide to Nepal. Tim Inskipp works for the World Conservation Monitoring Center in Cambridge, England. In addition to cowriting two books with his wife, he is the coauthor of An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of the Oriental Region.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Written by three leading experts on the region - Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, and Tim Inskipp - the book provides complete information about the 1,300 species of birds found in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. The guide is firmly rooted in the authors' extensive field experience, which is reflected in the accuracy and fullness of their bird descriptions. The guide features more than 150 color plates by eminent bird illustrators from Europe and India that depict all the species in the region, ranging from the Himalayan Snowcock in the north to the Sri Lanka Spurfowl in the south.

FROM THE CRITICS

C. Leck - Choice Magazine

The Indian subcontinent is one of the world's richest areas for bird life, with more than 1,300 species, more than 10% of which are endemic. It has been almost a quarter of a century since this vast avifauna was last reviewed in an ornithological guide; this new handbook will be a landmark publication well into the next century.

Booknews

A comprehensive and up-to-date identification guide to birds of the Indian subcontinent. The first 300 pages is comprised of facing pages of color illustrations and short articles of the several birds shown, with page references to the fuller articles further in the volume. Those in turn include distribution maps; information on identification, voice, habits, habitat, breeding, and distribution and status; and references to the color plates. English and Latin names are indexed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

I'm very excited about this long-awaited, definitive, and high-quality book. It fills a definite vacuum.... The color plates are the best that I can think of for Central and Eastern Asia, and the text contains the best information I know for the region.  — Princeton University Press