A Field Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore

It's 13 years since the first edition of this book, and during this time much has happened and changed within the region covered in this rather bulky field guide. Some 673 species are accounted for, with all bar five vagrants lavishly illustrated by Alan Pearson.

Compared to the first edition, many plates have been subtly altered, often for the better, in particular the bill shapes of flowerpeckers and babblers being more accurate. Unfortunately, however, several species are less faithful than before, Mountain Bulbul being a notable one. In fact this species is one of several examples of something that presumably has gone wrong at the printers with colour rendition – check the Narcissus Flycatcher too.

Thumbing through the plates of waders, and reading the text opposite, it is simply not possible to confidently identify certain species. For example, with the sandplovers, why illustrate summer-plumaged birds in full and only the head of non-breeding birds when this is a non-breeding region? Also, the failure to mention upperparts and proportions as key features in separating Red-necked Stint from Little. In the passerines, many species show simple errors, for example a yellow eyering on Rufous-winged Fulvetta, while Streak-breasted Woodpecker isn’t illustrated. The layout is confusing in some cases, with Sturnus split between two plates, 13 plates apart.

With the publication of a new field guide, something that many us look forward to is what taxonomy is used, and will the reader be getting many ‘armchair ticks’. Unfortunately this again is disappointing. Choosing to ignore many recent peer-viewed manuscripts and the latest checklist updates, the authors have used Howard and Moore 2003. Recent splits such as Malayan Banded Pitta and Blyth’s Shrike Babbler have been ignored. Oddly, Collared Babbler is accepted, but not Malayan Laughingthrush, when these were split in the same paper.

Several changes in English names result in considerable confusion, such as changing the well-known Von Schrenk's Bittern to Chestnut Bittern – the same name given in Birds of South Asia for Cinnamon Bittern – while Malayan Night Heron becomes Rufous-necked Night Heron, both of which are unlikely to be universally used.

Thanks to the author’s long, intimate history in Malaysian ornithology, the text generally reads well. There are several pages devoted to the region as a whole, and these are informative and in-depth, giving a nice overview of the birds and their habitat within the region. Generally, the book would make a good companion to a novice or a birder’s first visit to the region, as the simple illustrations and text make for easy reference. However, those looking to solve more in-depth identification quandaries or getting to grips with babbler vocalisations would be better off with Robson's Birds of South-East Asia.