Birds of India - A Pictorial Field Guide Paperback – 2 May 2016

Beautiful pictures, very informative especially for a beginner. Very exhaustive but yet interesting for all birders. Once again, the photographs are to die for. A must have book in collection of all birders.

Rich pictures of famous birds to those unheard or unseen of. A beautiful glimpse to India's rich diversity in species of birds. A perfect gift for burd lovers and keen budding bird watchers.

As a detailed field guide, this book is just about as good it gets. The photos and descriptions are excellent to which the extensive bibliography adds much.So, what can be improved? Two areas come to mind.Firstly, the book could really do with a clearer introductory section. Key elements missing here are - a key to the maps so that the reader can see without ambiguity which species are local, which are migrants, etcSecondly, the only way to find where a particular species is in the book, one has to look at the index. While this is useful, for a book of this magnitude, there must a more detailed contents page with the various families categorised and presented in some form of organised sequence.As the book stands today, it just misses 5 star rating. I am sure that a new edition can easily improve it to challenge all the other guides in the market.

This Magnum Opus by Bikram et al is not to be missed by anyone even remotely interested in the birds of Indian Subcontinent. With 1300 species and 4000 photographs, this is clearly in a league of it's own. The biggest USP of this book, in my opinion, is it's photographs. The 2 most popular field guides (Grimmet and Krys) have bird paintings that are helpful in understanding the features and appreciating the finer nuances, but when it comes down to identifying a bird in the field, the impression s/he gets is not of a painting but a real bird and nothing can be better than a good photograph as a reference. The choice of photographs in the book, is focused and meticulous. In many cases where the confusion between various plumage/stages of a specific bird, is rampant between bird watching community, the authors have chosen to publish multiple pictures of the bird, with the insets providing critical angles that will be immensely helpful to the birder in field.The opening commentary by Inskipps touches upon the diversity, threats, keystone species, decline and a host of other aspects and provides an engaging and enlightening read.The list of Vagrants and improbable birds in the end will definitely fuel the energies of twitchers who are keen on a challenge.Maps are accurate and well illustrated. I just wish the dull grey could be avoided, may be a white background so it could stand out.The details about each bird like sound, range are very helpful.The way creative team designed the layout, it makes for an interesting read, with the background of each photograph providing the blurred backdrop for writing details of the bird in white font. That takes away the monotony of a uniform background and introduces diverse colour plates, making it actually a colourful book.The cover, as many have noted, could have been sturdier for a big book such as this.Overall, this is one labour of love, from the stables of Bikram, that will surely be a proud addition to any bookshelf. Go buy it for yourself or to gift to someone who will appreciate. Thanks for reading

Really great , unique excellent book on birds on India.Cons -First ever bird guide in India, with good photographs. Though the existing ones like grimmett are better, but those have paintings, where as this book has gorgeous photographs.Really great value for Money. I bought this book in Amazon for 750 bucks. A steal in deed. 4000 photographs for just 750.On par with other field guides available in market.Though I like this book very much, I cannot overlook the cons.This is not a field guide in true essence. Though its an awesome reference book, binding is too fragile, If you take this in field for few days, be assured to damage the book. Hard binding would have made this book the best one.Maps are way too small. Slightly bigger would have been better. Moreover accuracy of maps are that good. Species like Grey headed lapwing and Fulvous whistling duck are found in abundant down south around chennai since last 10 years or so. But the maps does not show any reference for these species down south.Not all images are good. Even for some common species like kentish plover, images are way too soft. Mindy you still, majority of the images are way too good.In my opinion to learn the minute details of bird for a beginner, paintings are best choice. Not all images have all minute details of birds.But still to enjoy the beauty and identify the birds ofcourse, this book in additon to Grimmett's book will be a pleasure to own.Go ahead and buy one, if you are an avid birder like me.

Got 2 books ..worth the buy..informative. 1st book has real image.. 2nd book graphic image..

Full of Indian Bird with Colour Photographs, with available Location, Brief Descriptions. A must have Guide-Book for Indian Birdwatchers.

The book is great with actual pictures of all the birds. Also what I loved is that it has the distribution of a particular species illustrated through the Indian map. This makes it easy for us to see where in India that bird might be sighted. Overall the book is awesome and very informative.