India is one of the world's Biodiversity hotspots, hosting more than 12 per cent of all bird species of the planet. Birds of India describes the 575 most common bird species that are seen on the Indian subcontinent.
This book is meant for a wide audience with a general interest in birds. The text is easy to read and covers the main visual identification characteristics of the birds. It describes their calls, typical manners and distribution. Most of the birds are depicted in striking colour photographs. The first chapter introduces the reader to India's wealth of avian species and the variety of landscapes and nature reserves where they are seen.
Jan Willem den Besten was born in The Netherlands in 1970. He started to visit India in the early 1990s and after completing his degree in Environmental Education at Deventer in 1994 he set up a recycling programme in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India. Since 1996 he resumed his childhood hobbies of bird-watching and photography and started to map the birds of the area. Den Besten's articles on birds are published in scientific magazines and he is involved in various education and training programmes. In 2003 he founded the Kangra Bird Club.