Birds and birding in India

Indian birds

Checklist of Birds (specifically for India)

-From the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Based on the Oriental Bird Club checklist.

--Most people in India still follow the checklist based on Ripley's, "Synopsis of the Birds of India and Pakistan".

Field Guides and Other Bird Books for the Region

-Including new and upcoming guides.

Trip Reports

-Updated fairly frequently

Birding Site Information (by region)

-Checklists, hotspots, etc.

Bird Call Mnemonics for the Indian Subcontinent (New)

-Collection of informal aids to remembering bird calls/songs.

Nathistory-India

A new email discussion group, devoted to the natural history of the Indian subcontinent.

You may get answers to specific queries here.

Browse the Nathistory-India archives

View recent attachments posted to Nathistory-India

Indian bird links

The Northern India Bird Network

-A great site, coinciding with the recent resurgence of birding in the Delhi area.

Oriental Bird Club

Oriental Bird Images - a database of the Oriental Bird Club.

-An incredible resource. A must-see.

Threatened Birds of Asia - India page.

-Indian species information from Birdlife International's Red Data Book.

Indian wildlife and conservation

Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre

-Includes Biodiversity Profile of India

IISC CES

Sanctuary Asia

-Home page for India's leading wildlife and conservation magazine.

Some relevant natural history links

WCMC World Conservation Monitoring Centre

-Has links to list of protected areas and endangered species in India.

-Follow the link - "Published data and texts". Also check out - "Other Internet Services"

World Species List Taxa Database Plants Animals Microbes (WSL)

The Tree of Life Home Page

Taxonomy Browser

India: General, tourist, and travel information

Mom's Home Page

Major Field Guides and Other Books

"Ornithology of the Indian Subcontinent 1872-1992: An Annotated Bibliography"
- Charles G. Burg, Bruce M. Beehler, and S. Dillon Ripley, 1994. National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
330 pages. ISBN 0-9644592-0-5.
 It is available from the Division of Birds (Indian Bibliography), NHB E607/MRC 116,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560. Price $20.
Checks can be made in favour of the Smithsonian Institution.

   Here is a list of books for the Indian Subcontinent. From my
personal experience I have found that Martin Woodcock's Handguide,
the 12th edition of the "Book of Indian Birds" by Salim Ali and
Salim Ali's Pictorial Guide was until recently a good combination of books
to be carried out to the field, if carrying capacity was at a premium.

However, a new era for birdwatching has arrived in India with the arrival
of a comprehensive modern field-guide [Grimmett et al. 1998] and the first bird 
finding guide covering the entire country [Kazmierczak et al. 1998].
In addition 2 more new field guides depicting all the species are expected in 
the near future! Details below.

First, books specifically for Sri Lanka and for Nepal.

Books specifically for Sri Lanka:

1. Due in Feb. 1999:
   Harrison, John. A Field Guide to the Birds of Sri
   Lanka. Oxford University Press.
   The latest field guide. Comprehensive, up-to-date. Plates by Tim Worfolk.
2. Kotagama, S. & Fernando, P. 1994. A Field Guide to the Birds of Sri
   Lanka. Wildlife Heritage Trust of Sri Lanka, Colombo.
   A full-fledged field guide.
3. Wijesinghe, D. P. 1994. Checklist of the Birds of Sri Lanka. Ceylon
   Bird Club, Colombo.
   Available from: Ceylon Bird Club, P. O. Box 11, Colombo 1, Sri Lanka.
   Price US $5.00 (inclusive of airmail postage).
   This is an up to date systematic list of Sri Lanka's birds, with English
   and scientific names, and brief notes on the status and distribution of
   each species/subspecies. Plus other useful information and references.

Additional books:

3. Henry, G.M. "A Guide to the Birds of Ceylon", Oxford Univ. Press:1955,1971.
   A most useful reference. Apparently this book has been in much demand and is
   possibly out of print.
4. Let's look at Sri Lanka, Ornitholidays, (Try L.A. Audobon).
5. Banks, John & Judy, "The Birds of Sri Lanka", Colombo: 1980. An introductory
   pamphlet.
6. Philips, W.W.A., "Birds of Ceylon", 4 vols, 1949,52,55,61, Colombo.
7. Ranasinghe, Douglas, "A Guide to Birdwatching in Sri Lanka", Colombo:1977

Books specifically for Nepal:

1. Inskipp, "Guide to Birds of Nepal", 1991, Smithsonian Institute Press,
   Washington D.C.
2. Inskipp, "Birdwatcher's Guide to Nepal", 1988  (Try L.A. Audobon for both).
3. Fleming, et al., "Birds of Nepal - with reference to Kashmir and Sikkim", 
   Nature Himalayas,  1st ed. 1976 - 3rd ed. 1984.
   A delightful, old-fashioned, handy, field-guide, useful for a large section 
   of the Himalayas. 753 species depicted. Unfortunately this classic is out of print now.
4. Carol Inskipp, "Nepal's Forest Birds: Their Status and Conservation",
   International Council for Bird Preservation, Monograph No. 4.  Includes
   checklists for several national parks and wildlife reserves.

India and the Indian Subcontinent:

Modern Field-Guides:

Now Available:

1. "A Guide to the Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, 
Sri Lanka, and the Maldives", Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp. 
1998. Illustrated by various artists. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ. 
888 pp., 153 color plates, numerous drawings, tables, and range maps. 
Illustrates all species and major forms known to have occurred in the region.

A pocket-sized version of this guide is now available. It contains the
plates, brief descriptions, and range maps in color.

A very useful Excel sheet containing an index to the plates in the field-guide
and the pocket field-guide is available here: (Excel2.1), (CSV) - courtesy Tom Southerland.. 
It is sized and formatted to fit the inside front or back cover of either
version of the guide.

Upcoming:

2. "A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent", Krys Kazmierczak,
illustrated by Ber van Perlo, Pica Press.
  Aimed as a handy, field identification guide which covers all species, as
well as a few which might occur. Altogether 1335 species are illustrated on 96
color plates. Condensed text for each plate will be on the facing page, 
concentrating on identification hints for separating similar species, and basic 
information on habitat, status and  voice. Fuller identification treatments are 
only given for the more difficult groups such as warblers, larks and pipits. 
Over 1300 full-colour distribution maps are included (adjoining the relevant 
plates). Expected autumn/fall 1999.

3. "Field Guide to the Birds of South Asia," S. Dillon Ripley,
Pam Rasmussen, and John Anderton, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
  It will be about 700 pages and will have 104 color plates. Will cover
and illustrate all of the over 1300 species of birds occuring in India,
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Some
of the distict sub-species will also be illustrated.

Birdwatching Guides:

1. "A Birdwatchers' Guide to India", Krys Kazmierczak and Raj Singh, Prion Series. 
  Information on about 80 birdwatching sites around India with details of how
to get there, when to go, where to stay, what birds to look for, as well as site
maps for most of the more important sites. The introductory section includes 
general information on travel to and in India. Some appendices, including 
checklist of Indian birds and one for Indian mammals. 
Available from NHBS (http://www.nhbs.co.uk/).

2. Wheatley, Nigel. "Where to Watch Birds in Asia".
Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1996.
The Asian guide in this unique series by the indomitable Nigel Wheatley.
Its coverage for India is now a subset of (1) above, but it covers other
countries in the subcontinent as well. 
 
3. Shepherd, "Let's Look at Northern India", Ornitholidays, 1987.
A small booklet covering the classic tour of (Delhi-Agra-Bharatpur-Corbett-Nainital). 
Some birding info as well as a general history overview for visiting birders. 
A fairly useless checklist for the above tour.

Earlier Field Guides:

1. Salim Ali, S. Dillon Ripley, "Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the
Indian Subcontinent", 2nd ed., 1995, Oxford Univ. Press.
  This has color illustrations and very brief habitat and range
descriptions for all the approx. 1200 species. It is published by
OUP, UK. The second edition is now easily available in India.
Get it before it goes out of stock like the first edition.
This is the only book that has illustrations for all species.

2. Ali, "The Book of Indian Birds", 11th edition 1979, last
reprint 1992, Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford Univ. Press.
   A useful compact guide for the commoner birds of the subcontinent.
296 full descriptions with color plates. Also has useful apendices.
Not commonly stocked in the US but it might be possible to order copies
through OUP.

   A greatly enlarged and revised edition (12 ed.) is now readily available.
It describes and illustrates 538 species. These are illustrated in 64 new 
colour plates specially done by Carl d'silva.  Additional text has been taken 
from Dr Ali's field notes and edited by JC Daniel.

3. Ali, "Field Guide to the Birds of the Eastern Himalayas", last
reprint 1992, OUP.
   An excellent field guide. 366 color plates and 536 full descriptions.
Thus covers more species than 2 above. But the status and range
descriptions pertain only to the region of the Eastern Himalayas.
Available in the US. For ex. thru LA Audobon.

4. Martin Woodcock, "Collins Handguide to the Birds of the Indian
Sub-Continent", 1989, Dist. in the US by Viking Penguin, NY.
The 1995 edition is now available.
   Deals with commoner birds, 272 color illus. and brief descriptions.
Also has a synposis at the back that lists the name of all families and
briefly describes 273 more species with no illus.
 
5. Ben King et. al., "A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia",
1991, Collins
   An excellent field guide dealing with birds of Burma, Indo-China
and Malaysia. Covers 1198 species with 869 color illus. with Peterson
style arrows. Even though I haven't counted exactly how many of these
are also seen in India there is a great deal of overlap. Collins says
it is out of print but it maybe in stock in some places. For ex.
LA Audobon.
 
Taxonomy:
 
1. Ripley, "Synopsis of the Birds of India and Pakistan", 1982, Bombay
Natural History Society and OUP.
   Comprehensive list of all species and subspecies with brief description of
range and status. Available in the US.
 
Reference Books:
 
1. Ali and Ripley, "Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan", in
10 volumes, OUP. 2nd edition available for some of the volumes.
   The definitive work. An absolute necessity for serious study. Covers
all species in great detail with maps, drawings, plates etc.
 
2. A compact edition of the above. Second edition published in 1987 is
available in the US. A large single volume called the "Compact Handbook".
   It includes all 10 of the above volumes. The second editions are used where
available. The second edition (1987) of the Compact Handbook has
John Henry Dick's plates which first made their appearance in the
Pictorial Guide (1983). Since Ali and Ripley's Handbook is indispensable
for serious study, the compact edition is very useful, since it makes
available all the 10 volumes under a single cover. 
 
Regional Guides:
 
1. Ali, "Birds of Kerala"
2. Ali, "The Birds of Sikkim"
3. Ali, "The Birds of Kutch"
4. Ali, "Indian Hill Birds"
 
  All of the above, BNHS and Oxford Univ. Press.
 
5. Tikader, "Birds of Andaman and Nicobar Isles", 1984.
 
6. Curson, "Birding Southern India and the Andamans", 1991.
 
Photographic Guides:

1. Grewal, Bikram, "Birds of India", Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Shri Lanka: A
photographic guide (1993) Gulmohur Press. Alternate title Odyssey nature
guide to birds of India, 193 pages. Second edition, 1995, now available.
   Photographs and brief descriptions of about 300 species. 

2. Grewal, Bikram, "A Photograhic Guide to Birds of India and Nepal". 
New Holland Publishers, 1995. Pocket size format.
   Photographs, brief descriptions, and range maps for 252 species.
Some overlap with the above guide. These two guides are the largest
collection of photographs of Indian birds, have excellent production
quality and are useful references. But as identification guides, they 
suffer from the some of the same problems as most photographic guides.

3. Grewal, Bikram and Pfister, Otto, "A Photograhic Guide to Birds of the Himalayas". 
New Holland Publishers, 1998. 
252 species. Same format as (2) above.
Nice selection of species. Marginal overlap with 2.

Other Useful Books:

1. Insight Guides: Indian Wildlife - Edited by Samuel Israel & Toby Sinclair,
Executive Editor Bikram Grewal, 1993. Apa Publications (HK) Ltd.,
distributed in the U.S. by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 380 pages.
  Beautiful photographs. Useful information about various national parks
and sanctuaries, including travel, access permissions etc. 
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All Oxford Univ. Press Books (OUP) may be ordered through OUP US. They
might have to export them from UK or India. Most of the books described
above are stocked in major birding and natural history book-stores.
Some examples:
 
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Los Angeles Audubon Soc. LA Audubon Soc: 213-876-0202
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Open Air Books
25 Toronto Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5C 2R1
Tel.: (416) 363-0719
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Natural History Book Service:  http://www.nhbs.co.uk/
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E.D. Galgotia & Sons, Book Sellers
17-B Connaught-Place
New Delhi-1, India
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