Foto dell'autore
21 opere 153 membri 5 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Comprende il nome: Morten Strange

Opere di Morten Strange

Culture Shock! Denmark (1996) 30 copie
Parrots : A selection (1995) 3 copie
birds of fraser's hill (2004) 2 copie
Spokojnie to tylko Dania (2007) 2 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Sesso
male

Utenti

Recensioni

Basics: 1998, hardcover, 64 pages, 102 color photos, 96 species, no range maps

This little book offers a tiny sample of 96 of the nearly 1,700 birds found in Southeast Asia and Indonesia. The intent is to offer a taste of the variety of birds found in the region and to display the beauty of many of the more colorful species.

The photos are pretty good and of a decent size to show the bird well. The text sometimes addresses just the one bird featured on the page. At other times, it generally discusses the family of birds with only minor mention to each of the 4 or 5 members illustrated. This text focuses on the natural history of the birds and gives the reader a basic introduction to the habitats and behaviors of these birds.

This book is for the person with a beginning interest in birds. The nice photos should be appealing and will hopefully strengthen their appreciation or interest in birds.

As a side note, the same cover and ISBN -- but a different title of Tropical Birds of Indonesia -- is assigned to another book that I presume has the same contents inside, based on how the author addresses the birds of Indonesia and Southeast Asia in the introduction.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali by MacKinnon
2) A Photographic Guide to Birds of Java, Sumatra and Bali by Tilford
3) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Borneo by Davison
4) A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali by MacKinnon
5) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia by Strange
6) Birds: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by Strange
7) Photographic Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia by Strange
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Soleglad | Sep 9, 2008 |
Basics: 2001, softcover, 416 pages, 700 color photos, 686 species, range maps

In the same style as the author’s later book (SE Asia), this photo guide is not a complete guide. It shows only 686 (40%) of Indonesia’s nearly 1,700 species. However, this book does illustrate more species than any other single photo-book available for the region. Most of the birds are shown with a single color photo. About two dozen of the birds have two photos.

The selection of photos is good for 98% of the birds. They show the bird in good light and in the open for a clear view. Some of the birds are displayed a bit small but generally well enough to identify the bird. The remaining 2% really need to have new photos. These are often too small, too dark, too grainy, too obscured, or too indistinct to allow proper identification. It appears many photos were included merely because it was the only photo of any quality available. Since most of the birds have only one photo, this book won’t be helpful for immature birds, various races, or many of the females.

The few paragraphs of text are brief, which cover description, voice, and habits. The description, composed of 8-12 short lines, offer some decent tips but are not in-depth enough to offer help for identifying many of the similar species. These descriptions take up about half of the text given to each bird. The section on habits covers habitat preference and some behavioral notes. The voice is generally described in 2-4 short lines.

Each bird receives the same map of the Indian subcontinent. This shows Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The maps contain two colors: Red for breeding and blue for migrant or non-breeding visitor. A minor irk of mine is the displayed ranges artificially stop at the political boundaries of Indonesia. Why not continue the bird’s natural range into the adjacent countries of Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and Brunei?

Will this book be useful for a trip to Indonesia? Yes, but with limitations noted above. I recommend you bring one of the available, illustrated field guides to show the variety of plumages and all the species present. This book is a good practice source to prepare for your trip and, on occasion, a helpful reference when needing to review a photo of the bird you see in the field. This book will allow you to become familiar with many of the species in Indonesia.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali by MacKinnon
2) Field Guide to the Birds of Java and Bali by MacKinnon
3) A Guide to the Birds of Wallacea: Sulawesi, The Moluccas and Lesser Sunda Islands by Coates
4) A Photographic Guide to Birds of Java, Sumatra and Bali by Tilford
5) Birds of New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago: a Photographic Guide by Coates
6) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Borneo by Davison
7) A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali by MacKinnon
8) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia: Including the Philippines & Borneo by Strange
9) Pocket guide to the Birds of Borneo by Francis
10) Birds of New Guinea by Beehler
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Soleglad | Sep 9, 2008 |
Basics: 2002, softcover, 398 pages, 700 color photos, 668 species, range maps

Although not complete, this photo guide shows more species than any other single book on this region. Less than half of all SE Asian species are shown with a single color photo. A few dozen of birds have two photos.

The range of this book’s coverage is southern China and all countries from Myanmar southeast through Malaysia to Vietnam. Borneo and The Philippines are also included.

The selection of photos is pretty good. They show the bird in good light and in the open for a clear view. Some of the birds are displayed a bit small but generally well enough to identify the bird. Since most of the birds have only one photo, this book won’t be a complete field guide, but it will allow the user to become familiar with many of the species across this region.

The text is brief and covers description, voice, and habits. The description, composed of 2-6 short lines, offer some decent tips but are not lengthy enough to be of solid help to identify many of the similar species. If you see an immature or many of the females, this book will probably not be of help in those instances. About 50-70% of the text is dedicated to describing the bird’s habits. This section covers habitat preference and some behavioral notes. The voice is generally described in 1-2 short lines.

Each bird receives the same SE Asia map that contains two colors: Red for breeding and blue for migrant or non-breeding visitor.

Will this book be useful for a trip to SE Asia? Yes, but with limitations. You will definitely need to bring one of the available and complete field guides to show the variety of plumages and all the species that are present. This is a good practice book and I regard it as a good primer for a trip.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) Birds: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by Strange
2) A Photographic Guide to Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by Davison
3) A Photographic Guide to Birds of Thailand by Webster
4) Birds of Thailand by Robson
5) Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia by Robson
6) Birds of the Philippines (A Photographic Guide) by Fisher
7) A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali by MacKinnon
8) A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines by Kennedy
9) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia by Strange
10) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Borneo by Davison
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Soleglad | 1 altra recensione | Sep 9, 2008 |
Basics: 1999, flex-cover, 258 pages, 290 species in color photos, no range maps

Covering almost half of the birds (290 of 638) found on the Malaysia/Singapore peninsula, this photo guide offers one medium-sized (2 x 2-inch) color photograph of each bird. Although some of the subjects are small, they are typically well lit and show the bird clearly. Most of the photos are of birds with little sexual dimorphism or of the breeding male. This limitation combined with only 45% of the region’s birds depicted means you should regard this book as an introduction to the peninsula’s birds and not as a strong field guide. The book will also serve as good practice, at least for the one plumage that may be illustrated.

The brief text consists of three segments: Description, Distribution, and notes on habits, habitat, and voice. This information is generally good but may not always be useful to distinguish the bird from a similar species.

There are two quirks about this book that make it a little awkward to use. One, the birds are grouped into five different habitat types. This causes related species to be scattered across the book. If you want to look at the Little Pied Flycatcher and the Asian Brown Flycatcher in the book, under which habitat type should you look for each: “Montane Rainforest” or “Gardens and Parks”? If you’re not familiar with the bird’s habitat preference, you must look up the bird in the index, which leads to the second quirk.

The index can list several page numbers next to each bird, but only one brings you to the photo and text. The others pages refer you to merely a mention of the bird in an introduction or in another species's account . Bolding the page number containing the photo would have been very helpful.

A nice addition to the book is an introduction to each of the five habitat types. These introductions are 5-10 pages long and include locations, directions to, and maps of birding locations. Another 41 pages begin this book and nicely cover topics of breeding, migration, birding techniques, ringing, and photography.

There are other complete field guides for this region, but there are few photographic guides. This is one of the better photo books which competes with two others by the same author and by Davison & Fook.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) A Field Guide to the Birds of West Malaysia and Singapore by Jeyarajasingam/Pearson
2) A Photographic Guide to Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by Davison/Fook
3) Birds of Singapore by Hails/Jarvis
4) Birds of Fraser's Hill (Malaysia): An Illustrated Guide and Checklist by Strange
5) Birds of Taman Negara (Malaysia): An Illustrated Guide and Checklist by Strange/Yong
6) Birds of Thailand by Robson
7) A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia by King
8) A Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia by Robson
9) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia by Strange
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Soleglad | Aug 26, 2008 |

Potrebbero anche piacerti

Autori correlati

Statistiche

Opere
21
Utenti
153
Popolarità
#136,480
Voto
3.1
Recensioni
5
ISBN
42
Lingue
2

Grafici & Tabelle