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Field Guide for Birds of Japan (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Foreyes
- Start date
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Most people now use Birds of East Asia by Mark Brazil
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birds-East...-1&keywords=Birds+of+East+Asia+by+Mark+Brazil
A Fieldguide to the Birds of Japan
Wild bird Society of Japan isn't bad but hard to get now
The benefit of this book is that you won't have to wade through non Japanese birds
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_s...rh=i:aps,k:A+Fieldguide+to+the+Birds+of+Japan
Andy
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birds-East...-1&keywords=Birds+of+East+Asia+by+Mark+Brazil
A Fieldguide to the Birds of Japan
Wild bird Society of Japan isn't bad but hard to get now
The benefit of this book is that you won't have to wade through non Japanese birds
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_s...rh=i:aps,k:A+Fieldguide+to+the+Birds+of+Japan
Andy
Last edited:
Not available yet, this author is also working on a fieldguide to Japan only - not sure though if this is just using the plates from the current East Asia guide or new plates completely.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
In English, it's between these two books. (There is an English photo guide, but it's 'not much good'.)
If you plan to bring the book with you to Japan, then I always recommend people to get the Wild Bird Society book, even though it's old, and missing a few species you might see, and the illustrations have been criticised. This is for several reasons.
Firstly, it only has Japanese birds. Only half of the birds in Mark Brazil's book are found in Japan (some only once or twice ever), so you can waste a huge amount of time finding your Japanese bird among the Siberian and East Chinese birds.
Secondly, and a main reason, is that it has the Japanese names of the birds in roman letters with the birds, and also an index of Japanese names in roman letters. So, if you meet a Japanese birder, and they tell you they have seen such-and-such a [Japanese Name] bird, you can look it up in the index. Brazil's book has only English names. And, in fact, most Japanese birders will be familiar with the Japanese version of the WBSJ book which is identical, but with Japanese descriptions, so they will be able to look up the bird for you. Almost no Japanese birders will be familiar with Brazil's book.
And a third reason is that from a simple ID point of view, some of the illustrations are often better than Brazil's. They may not be so artistic, or accurate, but they point out ID features often better than Brazil's book. (I think the colour printing is not so good in Brazil's book. Some pages seem to have a colour cast, and others to be too saturated.)
When you get home, however, the descriptions in Brazil's book will give it the edge (a large edge), and the illustrations will be more accurate for detailed study.
There is now an electronic version of Brazil's book on Apple's iBooks software for the iPad, iPhone and computers, which contains call and song recordings for most birds. I got this a couple of months ago for portability and because I though the calls would be useful. I have an iPad 3 from 2012. On this machine, the book software is so slow as to be utterly utterly utterly useless. It works fine on my MacMini desktop which is a year or so older than the iPad, but I can't carry this around. It might work OK if you have the very latest iPad - I don't know. On the iPhone or an iPad mini, the illustrations would be far too small to be useful, but if you just want the calls, then maybe...but you are going in autumn when the birds are not really calling or singing much.
When I go to distant parts, I tend to want to spend my time looking for birds (and animals), and then relaxing and seeing what the place is like and enjoying the food and drink. I often don't take a book at all. I can only experience the place while I'm there; I can look up stuff in the books when I get back. In a ten-day trip I will often take 3,000 photos (quite a few are duplicates, of course).
So, if I were advising someone coming to Japan for the first time, I would say get the WBSJ book (probably second hand; it's been out of print for twenty years) and study it before you come to see what might be there, and take it with you for a quick check in the evening, and to communicate with Japanese birders while you're there. And also get Brazil's book, but leave it at home, and use it when you get back.
The books aren't cheap, but compared with a trip all the way to Japan getting both is not such a big deal, and will enrich your trip.
