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| A
Guide to the Birds of South East Asia by Craig Robson |
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This
quite excellent book is packed full of quality
illustrations and written information on 1251
species recorded in Southeast Asia. Even with
this number of species this book has been kept
to a size which is easily carried in the field,
although may be a little too large for many pockets.
For those visiting a number of countries in Southeast
Asia, this book is a must as it is the only guide
which depicts all the species of the region in
colour and is by far the most up-to-date guide
for the area. 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.
A
few small problems prevent this book from being
perfect, 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. |
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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.
One
of the biggest ommissions is the lack of distribution
maps, although given the lack of knowledge of many species
this may have been done to avoid misleading users.
Still,
these are minor points when considering the large amount
of species covered in this book and it is excellent
value for money. |
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Bird
Fact
(Photo
by Johan
Svensson)
The Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher was
formerly dealt with as an Old World flycatcher but
is now thought to be closely related to titmice
and chickadees.
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by
Morten Strange
