Month: April 2018

Review: ebook version – Craig Robson “Birds of South-East Asia Concise Edition”

Hi all,
For the last few years the concise edition of the Robson guide to the Birds of South-East Asia has been available in electronic form as a PDF ebook or an EPUB/MOBI ebook.
This is a big improvement over the paperback version of the full guide that I used on my first birding trip outside of Australia to Thailand in 2015 (and my second trip to Cambodia in 2016).
I think I have the EPUB/MOBI version (but I am not 100 percent sure of this) – it opens from Google Play Books on my android phone.
Compared to the full guide, the ebook version I have now:
(i) Doesn’t weigh anything or take up any space.
(ii) Is quicker and easier to use in the field. The full guide is too big to put in a pocket – I had to choose between stopping and getting it out of my backpack frequently or carrying it around in my hands (which did not work well with using my binoculars or camera). 
(iii) Is significantly easier to scroll through to find the right plate than in the paperback full guide.(iv) Has expanded text on the pages facing the plates with:- A brief description of range (making the continued omission of range maps far less of a problem).- A more detailed description of appearance.- A brief description of habitat.- A short description of voice.[The paperback full guide text facing the plates has a short description of appearance and nothing else. The main text is good, but hard to use quickly since it is separated from the plates in it’s own section at the back of the book].(v) Doesn’t have the detailed full text for each species at the back of the guide (IMHO a gratuitous omission in an ebook).
(vi) Has somewhat fewer birds per plate – 142 plates for the concise ebook vs 120 in the paperback full guide.(vii) Still has no calls – it isn’t a real app, just an ebook.
This post isn’t an actual review – more of a heads up to let people know that the ebook version is available.
If I remember correctly, I got mine from [click blue text to see link] Birds of South-East Asia
(on the linked page, click the blue “View other formats” text to see the ebook options)

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Birds of South-East Asia

The up-to-date text covers the identification, voice, habitat, behaviour and range of all the 1270 species and d…
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Several other good field guides are now available in ebook format eg Birds of Borneo by Susan Myers.

For field guides for which there still aren’t ebooks or apps available, I now get them shipped to 1dollarscan.com – they cut them up (I don’t get the paper guide back), scan them, and then I download them as a pdf.

Cheers,Michael Kearns

On Saturday, 21 April 2018, 11:23:20 am AEST, Laurie Knight < l.knight@optusnet.com.au> wrote: G’day

I purchased a copy of Robson’s guide via Fishpond prior to my visit to peninsula Malaysia a couple of weeks ago.  I already had 2 field guides for the birds of Borneo [Phillipps and Myers], but they only covered a fraction of the species on the mainland.

The positives are that:
1. Robson’s guide covers 1327 species on mainland SE Asia [Burma through to Vietnam] so it covers a fair bit of territory
2. It isn’t overly heavy.

The negatives are:
1. The taxonomy is dated
2. The pictorial plates are separate form the text [very inconvenient]
3. The order in which the species are displayed on the plates is sometimes mixed up
4. The brief descriptions opposite the plates do not give the size range for the species and the drawings are generally not to scale
5. There are no distribution maps [a big omission for visiting birders]
6. There are fewer flight drawings and no use of arrow heads to indicate key field marks.

The bottom line is that there is a usability cost to the large geographic coverage and it is far less useful than the Borneo guides.  I would rate it 5 out of 10.

I imagine that an app version could be developed that could be far more user friendly.

Regards, Laurie.

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Scrubwrens

Hello Kev,

It would be interesting to me to know the eye colour of the White-browed Scrubwrens from the Adelaide hills. If anybody knows, please inform us.

Adult White-brows from the east coast have yellow eyes.

All the Spotted Scrubwrens I have seen and photographed have blue eyes – a very different look.

It has been suggested to me that this might be a latitude thing.

Cheers

Graeme

This is a Kangaroo Island Spotted – might well be closer to White-browed but DNA isn’t the last word.

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a sad loss Perry de Rebeira

Some of you banders and some others in the community will know Perry de Rebeira illustrator of Birds of Rottnest Island and author of Bander’s Guide to Birds of Western Australia. He sadly passed away yesterday after a visit to his beloved Eyre Bird Observatory. A sad loss to the banding community or his knowledge, skills and mentoring to so many of us. They do not make them like him often. RIP. Geoff Shannon

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phenological mismatch & climate

This was indeed predicted years ago, in work with the IPCC … & Perhaps it’s an emerging affect on local small/common birds here too –
Hungry birds as climate change drives food ‘mismatch’ — ScienceDaily –
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180423135100.htm

Judith
SEQ 500m
​jlukin01@postoffice.csu.edu.au

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Emu vols 106-109

Hi all,

I have Emu vols 106-108 (2006-2008) and two issues of Emu vol 109 (2009) that need a home. If you’re interested and can pick up from South Melbourne, then they’re yours!

If I can find the two missing issues from vol 109, I’ll include those too.

We have lots of back issues of Vic Babbler, Australian BirdLife, Wingspan, Bird Observer and Geelong Naturalist too.

Paul Dodd
South Melbourne

Sent from my iPhone

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wo new additions pending

I haven’t seen the reference that Phil based his comment on, so would be
really interested to know more about the impending split. In WA, the
scrubwren extends eastwards along the coast, especially in the dune
scrub/mallee woodland ecotone. It is a very common species in habitat
around the Eyre Bird Observatory, for instance. The mallee woodland/dune
scrub ecotone ends pretty much at the WA/SA border, where I’m guessing is
the eastern extent of the Spotted Scrubwren.

Stephen Ambrose
Ryde NSW

—–Original Message—–
From: Birding-Aus [ Their environments, habitats, ecologies (physiological and
> behavioural), sizes and plumages are so different.
>
> Stephen Ambrose
> Ryde NSW
>
>
> —–Original Message—–
> From: Birding-Aus [ from
> splits:
> White-bellied Whipbird (Psophodes leucogaster) of South Australia from
> Western Whipbird, the old Mallee Whipbird of Schodde & Mason Spotted
> Scrubwren (Sericronis maculatus) of primarily Western Australia from
> White-browed Scrubwren, long expected.
> Even more reason for a trip to South Australia now, I am slipping
> behind with my needed species again.
> Phil Gregory
> oreornis@gmail.com oreornis@gmail.com> ornithological
> writer/tour leader/tour facilitator Field Guides / Sicklebill Safaris
> / Cassowary House / Cassowary Tours PO Box 387 Kuranda QLD 4881
> Australia
>
> Ph: +61 7 40 937 318
>
> Email: info@s2travel.com.au info@s2travel.com.au>
> Website1: www.sicklebillsafaris.com
> OR www.birder.travel
> Website 2:
> www.cassowary-house.com.au
> Website 3: www.cassowarytours.com.au
>
>
>
>
>

>
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Possible re-scheduled Albany Pelagic Trips – Sat 5th and Sun 6th May

Hi all,

The pelagic trips off Albany were cancelled over the weekend for weather unfortunately. We do have an opportunity to reschedule to the 5th and 6th May if we can fill the boats. As these are replacement trips, I’ve given first option to those booked on the cancelled trips, but there are spaces available on the Sunday, and there may be a couple of the Saturday

If you’d like to come along, please let me know ASAP as I need to make a decision on whether to go ahead in the next few days.

Cheers,

John

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Bush stone curlew

Hi all
Was rather surprised to see a Bush stone curlew standing in the open in a mini garden section of Tweed City shopping centre today at the main entrance of Tweed City near the round about on the left as you start to head under the building to park…
Couldn’t see a second one but…it’s VERY busy there with traffic driving right beside them and anyways…
Not sure if it should be relocated by Wildlife people in the Tweed Heads area or not…very random as I’ve personally never seen one at that location in all my days
Just thought I’d let people know
Kirri 😊

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