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Book Review
Field guide to bird watching in southern India
THEKKE INDIAYILE PAKSHIGAL (Malayalam): Richard Grimmett, Tim Inskipp and P.O. Nameer; BNHS Field Guides, Price not mentioned.
V. Santharam
The credit for popularising bird watching and thereby giving an impetus to the nature conservation movement amongst the lay public in Kerala must go to K.K. Neelakantan (“Induchoodan”). Way back in 1958 he published his magnum opus that is now a classic, titled Keralathile Pakshikal. Kerala now has a well-organised group of birdwatchers, who since 1990, with the help of the State Forest Department, have been organising several bird surveys in the state. These surveys have also served as training grounds for novice birdwatchers who get an opportunity to interact and learn from the more experienced people.
This book will surely give a boost to this movement since this is the first comprehensive field guide for the region and depicts in colour (87 colour plates rendered by 12 artists of international stature) all birds known to regularly occur in southern India (which includes Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, Lakshadweep and the Maldives).
This book covers about 600 bird species (which is around 50 per cent of the avi-fauna of the subcontinent). Brief descriptions are provided opposite each plate that gives useful information in identification of birds, including age-related, seasonal and sexual variations in plumage characteristics. Malayalam names are also provided, mostly borrowed from Neelakantan but over 170 were specifically coined by the last author (who translated this book from English) with the assistance of several colleagues.
Features
Apart from material that is helpful in field identification of birds, this book has useful sections that give some background information about the region, key birding sites, species that are globally threatened and endemic to this region, contact details of conservation organisations (regional, national and international), select bibliography, and brief family-wise descriptions of birds. A regional map and diagrams showing the various body parts of birds that are used in the book are also included. Additionally, there are tables that deal with the field characteristics of more difficult species such as leaf warblers, nightjars, yellow wagtails that need a closer scrutiny. Brief descriptions of species recorded as vagrants in the region are also appended but these are not illustrated.
There are a few minor criticisms of the book that I would like to mention: Some of the plates are too cluttered in their layout since they show birds in different plumages as well as in flight (e.g. plates 27, 29, 30, 32, 34 37, 43, and 46). Presence of many forest birds can be detected and their identity determined through their calls and songs. However this book fails to provide calls of all species. Being a specialised field guide, there is hardly any information in this book about the ecology and natural history of the various bird species. Since there are several birds not occurring in Kerala but quite similar to those found there, beginners may find it somewhat difficult to use this book at least initially. I found the glossary of terms (in English) somewhat out of place in this translation as none of these terms are actually used in the book! Overall, despite these minor issues, I feel this will be a fine addition to the books on natural history in Indian languages. I hope there will be more such publications on other aspects of the country’s flora and fauna which will help generate greater interest to nurture the conservation movement.
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