Date: 5/16/25 3:22 am From: Jim Felley <jdfelley...> Subject: Re: [MDBirding] SE Asia field guides
Another book to consider and some good advice. Thank you David
Jim
On Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 11:57:19 AM UTC-4 <sus......> wrote:
> Jim,
>
> Late chiming in here. I’ve made a few trips to Malaysia. Highly
> recommend hiring a guide. If you plan to make it to Fraser’s Hill (Bukit
> Fraser) north of Kuala Lumpur, there a several guides that help people
> there on day trips and there are occasional organized group walks there.
>
> As for printed guidebooks, I found Allen Jeyarajasingam’s Birds of
> Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore to be excellent. Very good
> illustrations. Published by Oxford, my copy was printed in 2012. It
> contains a map of 30 locations and paragraph descriptions of each. He also
> produced a photographic guide with Morten Strange which is more of a
> beginners guide though it does have some location advice mixed in by
> habitat.
>
> If you have time to familiarize yourself with some songs and calls
> of common or must see birds, this is a good resource:
> https://besgroup.org/2012/09/16/checklist-of-bird-calls-and-songs-for-singapore-and-malaysia/ > .
>
> Hope your trip is great!
>
> David Gersten
> Laurel, MD
> <Sus......>
>
>
> Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS
> <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aol-news-email-weather-video/id646100661> >
> On Thursday, May 15, 2025, 7:02 AM, Jim Felley <jdfe......> wrote:
>
> Thank you all for your recommendations. I will look at the Robson guide
> and 'The birds of Thailand' and 'The birds of Vietnam' with your criticisms
> in mind.
> Russ, I definitely spend plenty of time poring over the eBird bar charts
> for any new place I visit. They are very useful.
> Thanks again for your comments
> Jim
>
> On Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 9:50:12 AM UTC-4 Russ Ruffing wrote:
>
> I suggest pulling up the eBird bar charts for the locations and month
> you’ll be visiting and peruse those. It greatly narrows down the list of
> birds to familiarize yourself with and the bar charts even give an idea of
> how likely you’d be to see each species. It’s so much easier than trying to
> leaf through field guides and decipher species ranges and seasonal
> distribution.
>
> On Tue, May 13, 2025 at 9:32 AM L Rubey <rubey......> wrote:
>
> Jim: I took an independent birding trip to SE Asia last year and faced the
> same issue as to "which field guide to bring." My experience: The Craig
> Robson Helm SE Asia guide was not user friendly as a field guide. The maps
> and much of the info are separated from the plates, making it a pain to use
> in the field. And since it covers so many species, in any given area, there
> are a lot of similar "out of range" species to sift through. It is a good
> reference to have, but perhaps to leave back at the hotel. That leaves the
> country-specific guides. The Robson Helm "Birds of Thailand" is more
> manageable and has range maps on the same page as the plates. The downside
> is the text is TINY, almost unusable for me in the field. The Birdlife
> "Birds of Vietnam" by Richard Craik guide is quite good. Interestingly, in
> this guide, each description on the facing page to the plate has a QR code
> that links to eBird and the Handbook of the Birds of the World. Not a
> feature I used though.
> In the end, I found myself using Merlin bird packs on my phone almost
> exclusively. While I too prefer guides with illustrations to those with
> photos, the ability of Merlin is prioritize by abundance at my
> specific location was critical. The field guides I brought (too many) were
> mostly deadweight save for a few times I referred to them in the evening
> for an ID challenge. Even then, a Google search was often more illuminating
> than parsing the thumbnail descriptions in the written guides. Good luck!
>
> On Monday, May 12, 2025 at 9:25:08 AM UTC-4 Mike Bowen wrote:
>
> Jim: Better check carefully for each guide to see EXACTLY which countries
> are included or excluded. "Southeast Asia" -- and especially "East Asia"
> -- can mean a different set of countries, depending on the author and
> publisher.
>
> That said, I have heard good things about the Craig Robson book (Helm
> Guides) which is in its second edition -- although even that is now a few
> years old. It definitely covers the countries you mentioned.
>
> Mike Bowen
> Bethesda
>
> D. H. Michael Bowen
> 8609 Ewing Drive
> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/8609+Ewing+Drive+Bethesda,+Maryland+20817?entry=gmail&source=g> > Bethesda, Maryland 20817
> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/8609+Ewing+Drive+Bethesda,+Maryland+20817?entry=gmail&source=g> > Phone: (202) 236-0510
> Ambassador for American Bird Conservancy, helping ABC help the birds
> eBird volunteer Hotspot Reviewer/Editor for Maryland, Delaware, the
> District of Columbia, and the Republic of Ghana
>
>
> On Monday, May 12, 2025 at 06:24:55 AM EDT, Jim Felley <jdfe......>
> wrote:
>
>
> It looks like I'll be going to Southeast Asia next year, visits that will
> include Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
> What is (are) the best field guide(s) that cover this area? I should say
> that I prefer illustrated guides to photographic.
> I look forwa4rd to your recommendations, and thanks in advance for your
> help.
>
> Jim
>
> Jim Felley
> Clarksburg, MD
>
> --
> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
> To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on
> the web at http://www.mdbirding.com > Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here -
> http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html > ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to mdbirding+<......>
> To view this discussion visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/<fd01be19-05ec-4ad5-979b-5affd9f5fa64n...> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/<fd01be19-05ec-4ad5-979b-5affd9f5fa64n...>?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > .
>
> --
> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
> To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on
> the web at http://www.mdbirding.com > Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here -
> http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html > ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to mdbirding+<......>
>
> To view this discussion visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/<8f68f42a-9a11-4359-9403-86bdf1657148n...> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/<8f68f42a-9a11-4359-9403-86bdf1657148n...>?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > .
>
> --
> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
> To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on
> the web at http://www.mdbirding.com > Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here -
> http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html > ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to mdbirding+<......>
> To view this discussion visit
>
>
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/<b8428d06-8f2f-4b1b-b1d6-cdc4a7a097den...> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/<b8428d06-8f2f-4b1b-b1d6-cdc4a7a097den...>?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > .
>
>
--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group 'Maryland & DC Birding'.
To view group guidelines or change email preferences, visit this group on the web at http://www.mdbirding.com Unfamiliar with a hotspot mentioned on this list? Quickly locate it here - http://www.mdbirding.com/hotspot.html ---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maryland & DC Birding" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mdbirding+<unsubscribe...>
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/<931c0eb7-1aa3-4431-aea2-318b2e45f09bn...>
