Book Condition: Near Fine apart from slight marking on back cover (see photo). With over 430 resident bird species, 50 of them endemic, the island of Borneo is undoubtedly worthy of a field guide all of its own. Although the vast majority of its 633 total recorded species are adequately covered in Craig Robson's excellent Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia, here in this recently published book each is treated in much greater detail. Illustrated by sixteen of the world's leading bird artists???among them Clive Byers, Anthony Disley, Martin Elliot, Alan Harris and Ian Lewington???this beautiful new volume is an absolute must for anyone contemplating a trip to this extraordinarily diverse and ornithologically rewarding destination. Though Borneo is not so rich in winter-visiting Palearctic migrants as some of the more popular Asian bird destinations to the north???e.g. India, Thailand and Malaysia???it is nevertheless blessed with a wide variety of classical Oriental bird families such as pittas, broadbills, hornbills and frogmouths, to name but a few. The text for each species is comprehensive, including as it does very detailed notes on identification and voice recognition, as well as briefer descriptions of breeding behaviour, range and status within Borneo. All subspecies occurring in Borneo are included in the descriptions, and in many cases in the illustrations too. For an island as important faunistically as Borneo it has been somewhat of an enigma that there has never been a comprehensive dedicated bird field guide available. Previously, avaiable references for the avian fauna of Borneo were rather few, the main field guide in use by birdwatchers being A Field Guide to the Birds of Boreo, Sumatra, Java and Bali by Mackinnon and Phillipps, first published in 1993 which, though excellent, was badly in need of revision nor was it specific for Borneo. The hefty and encylopaedic Birds of Borneo by B. E. Smythies, revised recently in 1999, has and will probably always be the standard reference for this island, but it is unfortunately too large to be practical for field use. Released in August 2009, this is the first field guide to comprehesively cover the entire 631 species of birds in Borneo. Following a brief introductory chapter on Borneo and its avifauna, the guide treats each species complete with a detailed description and a color distribution map. This book recognizes quite a few recent nomenclatural changes to Borneo's birds, notably numerous splits of species from their Southeast-Asian counterparts, thereby effectively giving the island more endemics. These include: Bornean Frogmouth (Batrachostomus mixtus), Bornean Leafbird (Chloropsis kinabaluensis), Bornean Bulbul (Pycnonotis montis), Pale-faced Bulbul (Pycnonotus leucops), Cinereous Bulbul (Hemixos cinereus), Bornean Whistling-thrush (Myophonus borneensis), Bornean Forktail (Enicurus borneensis), Bare-headed Laughingthrush (Melanocichla calva), and the Chestnut-hooded Laughingthrush (Rhinocichla treacheri). The layout of the book differs from most typical bird field guides in having each bird's illustration accompanied next to its descriptive text and range map. This negates the need to look anything up and prevents possible confusion with multiple bird illustrations on a single color plate, although it obviously limits the number of species presented on each page. In practice this is a very easy to use format and is a welcome change. The description for each bird is well detailed, providing identification features for variations within the species (males, females, juveniles, and subspecies) as well as comparison with similar birds. General behavior, habitat, and breeding cycle are covered, as well as a description of the voice. The range maps are also remarkably useful; Borneo is a very large after all and it is surprising how many birds have restricted regional distributions on the island.
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