Field Guide to the Birds of Southern India

The press release for this book states that “Birds of Southern India is a successor to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by the same highly acclaimed authors”. Since I had used the field guide version of that book – Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent – on a trip to Goa – and found it to be invaluable, I was keen to see what this Field Guide to the Birds of Southern India could add to it. The answer, sadly, is not an awful lot.

The new guide covers six states in the southern part of the mainland subcontinent: Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra> and Tamil Nadu, along with the archipelagos of Lakshadweep and the Maldives. It begins with a 30-page regional overview before launching into a field guide format.

The years that have passed since the pocket guide was published have seen some rapid developments in taxonomy, so it is pleasing that many of the relevant species and forms are given more thorough treatment – for example, Indian Spotted Eagle is elevated to full species status and more illustrations and text are devoted to the region’s various races or species of blackbirds.

For the vast majority of species, though, the illustrations are identical to the original and so is the text. In a few cases, such as some of the waders and gulls, the images of the birds are marginally larger, or one or two new figures have been added, depicting additional plumages (for example, Great Black-headed Gull). Others, though, such as Curlew Sandpiper, depict fewer plumage phases or poses than the pocket guide.

In terms of layout, the new guide has a little more space, although the distribution maps from the original are done away with in favour of a brief comment on the distribution and status of each species for each state in which it has occurred.

If you are planning a first-time trip to southern India, or if you plan to visit many times, this could be the guide for you. Its limited range of species covered makes for less confusion for the novice, particularly when some of the large families such as babblers are pruned down to leave just those occurring in the region, which could make identification a much less daunting task in certain cases. Also, it is only about two-thirds the size and weight of the pocket volume.

However, most birders holidaying in Kerala or Goa would probably be just as likely to travel to the north of the country on a return visit to see a different selection of species. If that is the case, the pocket guide, which covers 1,300 species in virtually identical detail to this book, would be the best option, especially when you realise that it costs considerably less as well.

This book is very good until it is put in context with its predecessor. A revised edition of Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent would surely be more welcomed by birders than any further regional guides derived from it. The moral of the tale: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

First published in Birdwatch 159: 55 (September 2005). To order a copy of Field Guide to the Birds of Southern India, please click here.

Tech spec

• Field Guide to the Birds of Southern India by Richard Grimmett and Tim Inskipp (Christopher Helm, London, 2005)
• 240 pages, 87 colour plates, seven colour photos of habitat, one colour map
• ISBN 0713651644. Pbk, £24.99.