best books (1 Viewer)

[lincsbirder]

Iam hoping to visit the Philippines in early 2011 and would like to invest in a field guide on birds as well as a field guide on mammals. Could someone make any suggestions of the best ones to get?

Many Thanks
Mark

 

[up4life]

first of all go to philippine embassy,london website and they will send you birdwatching in the philippines volume one(volume two may be out by now).this book is free and lists all the birds to be found there and gives directions to places to birdwatch.
my fav book is the guide to the birds of philippines(kennedy,gonzales,fisher)though it is pricey for a paperback at £45.I also have for my back pocket a photographic guide to birds of the philippines again by fisher which is well under £10.

 

[GDK]

Iam hoping to visit the Philippines in early 2011 and would like to invest in a field guide on birds as well as a field guide on mammals. Could someone make any suggestions of the best ones to get?

Many Thanks
Mark

Kennedy et al is the best guide, currently as I write on amazon for under £23

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...w?ie=UTF8&qid=1270126978&sr=8-1&condition=new

There is no easily available published mammals guide that Im aware of. The closest are SE Asia and Borneo. You wont be seeing that many mammals though, unless you really target them above the birding. Any terrestrial mammal larger than a rodent is now unfortunately localised and generally rare.

That said here is an excellent new resource to assist in identification of what you do see:

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/Philippine_Mammals/introduction.asp


and here is an interesting overview by Vladimir Dinets, with some mammal stuff:

http://dinets.travel.ru/philippines.htm

 

[portnoy58]

Hi Lincs birder I have just got back from three weeks in the Philippines and did a bit of birding while there. There is a write up in my blog. If you can get the Guides to Birdwatching Vols 1 & 2 get them; they are really helpful in terms of pointing you in the right direction; and if the embassy in London is giving them away for free then get them! I can confirm Vol 2 is out. getting around on your own can be challenging - it can certainly be done and can be done cheaply, but you need to have a lot of patience because jeepneys etc only go when they are full, they have special prices for special people and taxi drivers etc are invariably looking to screw you....... The field guide is brilliant and even though it is expensive I really recommend it, a true labour of love crammed with an astonishing amount of information......get it now as it is not readily available in the Philippines.

 

[Birding2asia]

Birdwatching in the Philippines Vol 1, posted in full on this blog;
http://travelcentralph.blogspot.com/search/label/Birdwatching

 

[portnoy58]

Thanks - brilliant link

Birdwatching in the Philippines Vol 1, posted in full on this blog;
http://travelcentralph.blogspot.com/search/label/Birdwatching

Thanks that is a brilliant link.