Product Description

With 234 superb color plates, and more than 950 color maps, Birds of East Asia makes it easy to identify all of the region's species. The first single-volume field guide for eastern Asia, the book covers major islands including Japan and Taiwan, as well as the Asian continent from Kamchatka to the Korean Peninsula. The region's major bird families are presented and distinct species are noted, from the well-known Steller's Sea Eagle--the world's largest eagle--to those less familiar to Western ornithologists, such as the Scaly-sided Merganser, Oriental Stork, and Mugimaki Flycatcher. The maps provide useful information about the seasonal migratory patterns of all bird varieties.

Birds of East Asia is a must-have resource for birdwatchers, ecotourists, and wildlife enthusiasts everywhere.

• A handy single-volume guide to all the bird species of East Asia, including China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia
• 234 beautiful color plates
• More than 950 color maps covering seasonal habitats and migration routes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140530 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780691139265
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Finally. The first single-volume guide for eastern Asia, and it's exquisitely illustrated.
(Matt Mendenhall Birder's World )

Any birder planning to visit this fascinating part of the world will want to get Birds of East Asia for their trip.
(Federick Brock Wildlife Activist )

This interesting guide, which covers major islands including Japan and Taiwan, as well as the Asian continent from Kamchatka to the Korean peninsula, is amply illustrated with a plethora of color plates and maps that will provide any traveler with the information necessary to identify any bird of this vast region.
(Indiana Audubon Quarterly )

Review
Well-written and well-organized, this excellent book will be widely applauded by the professional and amateur birding community.
(Susan Myers, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours )

From the Inside Flap

"Well-written and well-organized, this excellent book will be widely applauded by the professional and amateur birding community."--Susan Myers, Victor Emanuel Nature Tours

Customer Reviews

Beautiful artwork and concise layout
I just received this book in time for an upcoming trip to NE China. The plates are opposite the range maps and field notes for easy reference. The artwork is excellent and also includes some juvenile forms and seasonal variations. The field notes are concise and helpful and include notes on subspecies. The binding is rugged and durable.

The only other comparable book is Birds of China by MacKinnon and Phillipps, which I also own. MacKinnon's book is bulkier and has an awkward layout with maps and plates in front and field notes in the back. One very important caveat is that MacKinnon covers all of China while Brazil includes only coastal China (up to about 110 degrees east). Travelers to Western China are advised to buy MacKinnon's book instead.

Overall, Birds of East Asia is a portable and useful field guide. Highly recommended.

EASTERNmost East Asia
I am leaving for China in one week and will be taking this book, which looks to be an excellent guide. However, I was cross-referencing the birds in it with those found in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in the southwest of China, and most birds are lacking. As hinted at by the inclusion of Japan and Russia in the title, this book covers birds of easternmost east Asia. It does not cover Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hong Kong, and southern China. Moreover, the species maps only show distributions in the easternmost provinces of China, regardless if they are in fact further west.

"East Asia" leaves out parts of East Asia, but is still very good
I live in Shanghai and have been using "Birds of East Asia" for about a month. Despite its imperfections, especially as regards its treatment of China, Mark Brazil's opus should be on the bookshelf of every birder in eastern China. For many of us, "East Asia" will supplant MacKinnon's "Birds of China" as the book we turn to first for eastern Chinese birds.

The species accounts in "East Asia" are long and detailed, and the paintings are not just big and beautiful but also accurate. The accuracy of the paintings may be the biggest advantage of "East Asia" over MacKinnon. I photographed a zitting cisticola last year and mistook it for a Japanese swamp warbler, in part because the painting in MacKinnon of the cisticola is inaccurate. The zitting cisticola in "East Asia" looks just like the bird in my photo.

In the prefatory material, Brazil says that "East Asia" originally was going to cover the Japanese archipelago and Korean Peninsula only. Brazil's earlier plan is evident in the book. Eastern China (except for Manchuria) is a bit of an afterthought. Brazil includes all of Northeast China then hugs the Chinese coast to Fujian before turning east to Taiwan. "East Asia" also covers all of Japan, all of Korea, and all of Russia east of about 116 degrees east longitude.

Brazil may have had good reasons for not including the inland Chinese provinces, such as Jiangxi (which would have allowed him to include Courtois's laughingthrush). And it's true that few would agree that ALL of China lies in East Asia. So where do you draw the line? Farther west, I would say. (Suggestion: exclude the ornithologically complex provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, Gansu, Inner Mongolia west of 110 degrees east latitude, and all provinces west. Include everything else.)

After all, what could be more "East Asian" than, say, Hunan or Anhui? If you're standing on Mount Huang, the beloved mountain in Anhui, and someone asks you what region of the world you're in, don't you say, "East Asia"? Yet neither province gets coverage in a book called "Birds of East Asia."

Another mystery is why Brazil didn't stretch his coverage one more province south, to Guangdong, thereby taking in Hong Kong as well. Hong Kong has many English-speaking birders, many of whom might have made "East Asia" their No. 1 reference for their region. They're less likely to do that now. (And again, geographically speaking, excluding Hong Kong and Guangdong makes little sense, as those territories are commonly thought of as being in East Asia, as opposed to, say, Southeast Asia.)

Including more of the inland Chinese provinces would have given Brazil a better claim to have written a fully East Asian bird guide as well as THE field guide in English for eastern China. As it stands now, Brazil's book might better be called "Birds of Northeast Asia (Including Coastal China and Taiwan)."

That being said, birders in Taiwan, Northeast China, Korea, and Japan may find that Brazil has written THE bird guide for them. We birders along the southern Chinese coast will also find "East Asia" highly satisfactory.