Birds of Vietnam

Series : Lynx and BirdLife International Field Guides
Publisher : Lynx Edicions
Published In : Barcelona
Illustrations : 1900+ illus, c. 870 distribution maps

Our customers have given this title an average rating of 5 out of 5 from 1 review(s)

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Description:

2nd edition. Vietnam, home to rare secretive pheasants, jewel-like pittas, spectacular laughingthrushes and enigmatic babblers, is Asia’s most exciting new birding destination. A global biodiversity hotspot, Vietnam boasts 16 endemic species and subspecies groups, and a further 42 near-endemic species and subspecies, the largest number of any country in mainland South-East Asia. This book, the first comprehensive modern field guide dedicated to Vietnam’s rich and diverse avifauna, describes all 928 species in text, illustrations and distribution maps.

* Fully updated second edition with new additions to the Vietnam country list and the latest global conservation status for each species following the IUCN Red List.

* Taxonomy follows the HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World.

* Detailed texts covering status, habitat and behaviour, age, sex and geographical variation, voice, and confusion species.

* Over 1900 illustrations covering all species and distinctive subspecies, birds in flight, males and females, juveniles and non-breeding plumages, where appropriate.

* QR code for every species, linked to complementary audiovisual material.

* More than 870 full-colour range maps for all regularly occurring species.

* Well-marked subspecies groups receive full accounts, and the distributions of subspecies breeding in the region are clearly mapped.

* Local species names included.

Customer Reviews

Our customers have given this title an average rating of 5 out of 5 from 1 review(s), Click here to add your own review for this title.

Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne on 10/8/2025 11:26:35 PM

(5 out of 5)

Field guides for birds in Asia have come a long way since I first began to bird watch in Asia. Growing up in Sri Lanka I got off to a good start with G. M. Henry, Guide to the Birds of Ceylon and Dillon Ripley and Salim Al?s Handbook of the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent in 10 volumes. For travels further east into South-east Asia, I used Field Guide to the Birds of South-East by Ben King, Martin Woodcock and E.V. Dickinson. It took nearly another three decades before this was superseded by Craig Robson?s A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia in the modern format with every species illustrated in colour on plates. However, the first edition and even the d edition in 2008 still had the plates and text in separate parts of the book as was the old custom when full colour printing across the whole book was expensive.

The Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) in 17 volumes resulted in the publisher now known as Lynx Nature books having a comprehensive suite of colour illustrations and text for every species of bird in the world. This has placed them placing in an ideal position to produce books which are country specific. The field guides in this spin off series mark an important step change in the development of bird field guides in the world and perhaps more so in part of Asia. Now for many countries we have thoroughly modern field guides with first class illustrations with the species text on a facing page, covering the standard field guide topics on identification, distribution and behaviour. These guides are not important only tools in the hands of scientists and conservationists but they also play an important part in the development of wildlife tourism which provides a further economic impetus to conserve the last remaining wildernesses.

As this book makes clear, Vietnam is a special place for birding with 931 species, 16 endemics and 42 near endemics. Vietnam at one time suffered from the perception that its biodiversity had been largely lost due to human pressures with forests being replaced by agricultural land. In 2006, Vietnam: A Natural History by Eleanor Janes Sterling, Martha Maud Hurley and Le Duc Minh sought to dispel this myth by providing a fine all-round account of its natural history and outlining many of the exciting recent discoveries of new species not alone with its flora but even with vertebrate species. Nevertheless, Vietnam continues to be still under-appreciated as a birding destination despite the efforts of people like lead author Richard Craik who has been leading birding tours in the country. However, a second edition, 6 years after the first suggests that perceptions on Vietnam?s wildlife potential is changing for the better.

The field guide follows the standard formula for field guides in the Lynx series with the text d and supplemented by local experts, in this case Richard Craik and Qu Minh. The QR codes take you to the eBird website for supplementary information, images and most usefully sound recordings from the Macaulay Library. The growth of citizen science and the wealth of information that is available now and is being continuously d is phenomenal and is another essay in itself.

The inner front cover shows Vietnam in relation to its South-east Asian neighbours and the inner back cover marks out 18 of the top birding sites in Vietnam. The first 19 pages of the preliminary sections include an overview of the country?s recent ornithological exploration history, a geographical overview, a summary of key habitat types and a synopsis of the important birding hotspots. There is also an important note on avoiding harm to birds from tape playback and the dangers of baiting at feeding stations and photographic hides resulting in local extinction due to the illegal activity of bird trappers. Conservation in Asia is never easy and even wildlife tourism which is generally a good thing can have unintended consequences.

29 artists are credited with the illustrations, many of which first appeared in HBW. Many of the artists are household names to keen birders who know them for producing some of the finest field guide illustrations in the world. Combine that with first class text, clear distribution maps and QR codes and you are left with an absolutely superb book. The species accounts have the families separated by a shaded header with brief details of the number of extant species in the family and that in the region. The text in addition to describing the bird?s status in Vietnam briefly outlines any sub-species in the region, followed by typical habitat, identification-oriented text, voice and also describes similar species. This is a functional book intended for field use (the flexi-cover option has a water resistant cover). Nevertheless, I find the quality of the overall production and beauty of the artwork also lends the book a certain aesthetic appeal. But then, I enjoy the company of ornithological books and I still have in my collection the books by Ali and Ripley, King, Robson and many more from the Asian region.

Despite multiple visits to some countries in Asia and several natural history book titles on Vietnam in my book collection, I have not yet birded in Vietnam. Vietnam. But with this essential field guide to the birds of Vietnam on my shelf, I think it will not be long before I go to Vietnam.