Birds of Pakistan

Co-published with Yale University Press, this latest offering in the Helm Field Guides series is a further spin-off from Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp’s landmark handbook Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (1998).

Unlike earlier guides on Nepal, Bhutan and northern and southern India, the market for Birds of Pakistan may be limited in view of the current security situation in the country. On the upside, however, sponsorship from the World Bank means it is also being published in Urdu, providing local ornithologists with their first-ever dedicated field guide.

Those unfamiliar with the country’s birds will discover an impressive mix of the Palearctic and Oriental. Almost 670 species are featured, including vagrants. The well-written species texts in the main section are, in the case of trickier groups such as nightjars, Phylloscopus warblers and rosefinches, augmented by tables setting out identification characters in some detail – a nice additional touch. There are also introductory sections on topics such as geography, habitat, migration, birdwatching areas and family summaries.

The main downside to this guide, as with its subcontinent stablemates, is the systematic order inherited from Inskipp et al’s otherwise excellent An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of the Oriental Region (1996). So, gamebirds and ducks are followed by woodpeckers and barbets, hirundines follow tits, and so on, making it a navigational nightmare for those used to more traditional treatments. Neither have any of the relevant species-level differences unveiled by Rasmussen and Anderton in their more recent two-volume Birds of South Asia (2005) been adopted by the Helm guides.

Notwithstanding taxonomic issues, which in Asia are destined to remain unsettled for some years to come, this field guide is another very welcome step forward for ornithology on the subcontinent.

Tech spec

•    Birds of Pakistan by Richard Grimmett, Tom Roberts and Tim Inskipp (Christopher Helm, London, 2009).

•    256 pages, 600 distribution maps and 93 colour plates.

•    ISBN 9780713688009. Pbk, £24.99.

Available from Birdwatch Bookshop

First published in Birdwatch 206:53 (August 2009)