Birds of East Asia

by Mark Brazil

This is the first single volume guide ever devoted to the eastern Asian avifauna. The eastern Asian region, centering especially on the major islands off the continental coast (including Japan and Taiwan) and the immediately adjacent areas of the Asian continent from Kamchatka in the north and including the Korean Peninsula are an important centre of endemism. Birds endemic to this region include representatives of many of the major families, from the world's largest eagle - Steller's Sea Eagle - to the tiny Taiwan Firecrest. The east Asian continental coast and the offshore islands also form one of the world's major international bird migration routes, especially for waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors, while the east Asian continental mainland itself is home to a wide range of species little known to western ornithologists such as Scaly-sided Merganser, Oriental Stork and Mugimaki Flycatcher. The guide features the most up-to-date text available, which, in conjunction with extensive colour plates throughout, facilitates the field identification of all of the species known from the region. Colour distribution maps enhance the text by providing a visual analysis of the summer, winter and migratory ranges of all species.

528 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2008

Reviews

[Calidris Birding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Field guides for bird watching are intended to do exactly that, guide bird watchers to identify birds in the country/region for which the publication is designed and this book does this fairly well, although its size means that nobody will be pulling it in and out of their pocket very quickly, if they have a pocket large enough to put it in.

Most importantly the layout of the Birds of East Asia is clean and well formatted with accounts of each bird species displayed, along with a range map, on the page opposite the illustrations of the birds themselves. This might seem an obvious thing to do but it is not always the case in field guides such as these.

The other important thing in any field guide of birds is the quality of the illustrations. In this book these are very nice, clear, well-printed and most pages are not overcrowded with birds, making it visually easy to use.

We always use this field guide on our South Korea Birding Tours.

[Kartikeya · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best bird guides I have ever come across