Field Guide to the Birds of Bangladesh

I can still recall my excitement at the arrival of Birds of the Indian Subcontinent in 1998. At nearly 900 pages that book was immense, and has been repackaged many times to create cut-down versions on Bhutan and the Eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Northern and Southern India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka … and now Bangladesh. For this book, Paul Thompson joins the team, and he knows Bangladesh better than any other UK birder having been based in Dhaka since the 1990s.

Sadly we tend to hear about Bangladesh for the wrong reasons such as occasional civil unrest, and some will recall the widely-reported, but isolated attack on tourists in 2016. Most travelling birders probably take such incidents at face value as these days they can happen almost anywhere in the world. However, it is worth noting that the UK Foreign Office currently advises against travel to the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the far south-east – an area closed to foreigners until 1998 and definitely worthy of more attention from birders once it is safe again.

The book follows the typical format of text facing plates with around six species per double-page spread. The taxonomy follows HBW/BirdLife and 705 species are featured. Of these, 534 are resident or migrants and get the full treatment, with at least one detailed illustration (more in the case of some non-passerines), a description of plumage and voice, useful tips on occurrence and habitat, and additional information on alternative names and taxonomy if needed. All of these benefit from an excellent colour distribution map. An additional 24-page section at the back deals with 178 vagrants which are shown as a much smaller illustration along with the description but no map. The vast majority of the illustrations have been taken from the original Indian Subcontinent book which was the work of 19 artists. Wherever possible, the correct races for Bangladesh have been depicted and a small number of additional illustrations have been created.

There is a 21-page section on the country itself, highlighting key areas to visit and the typical habitats and the birds that they support. I suspect that for many purchasing this book, Bangladesh will be a completely new country to visit. In theory it has no endemic bird species, but actually, there is nowhere else in the world where people are currently seeing Masked Finfoot Heliopais personatus, so the focus on Bangladesh is likely to increase over the coming years and let’s hope that the conservation authorities can protect these birds.