Contents

INTRODUCTION
      About this book
      The Himalaya : an overview
            Map
      Environmental factors governing floral diversity and composition
      Flower-hunting in the Himalaya
TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS
EPILOGUE
      Environmental threats to Himalayan flora
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
INDEX

Introduction

About this book

For years, there has been need for a concise field guide to the birds of the Himalaya. There have been some fine publications in the past, dating back to the best years of birding in India during the days of the British and the early years of Salim Ali's fieldwork. Each one of these publications has a definite place in the annals of ornithological literature available to us today. The illustrations are rather varied, some made in the field and others made using stuffed specimens. The notes are copious and rare, written at a time when there was a far greater wealth of habitat and wilderness in India, and bird populations were far more widespread and diverse. However, what all these books lack is the clarity and ease of recognition that only a well-taken photograph can provide. Hence this book, which as the first photographic field guide on Himalayan birds aims to fill in this very gap, and aid in the easy observation and identification of the birds seen during travels in the Himalaya, whether in the terai regions or around our hill stations, or else during treks and travels in the middle hills or even expeditions and ascents in the greater and higher Himalaya.
It will be noted by the learned ornithologist that many of the bird photographs in this book are rare and these birds have been photographed for the first time ever in the wild. On the other hand, it may also be noticed that certain species have perhaps been altogether missed or not given the attention they deserve. The reasons for this may be twofold. The author may not have had the good fortune to have encountered that particular bird under favourable photographic field conditions to have been able to obtain photographs of it. Most photographs taken in this book have been taken by the author himself, the aim being to provide a certain uniformity in both picture-taking and in the approach to identification and observation. The second reason for this anomaly may be ascribed to the fact that the Himalaya are a large chain of mountains indeed. In fact, they are the single largest geographical feature on the face of this planet. What may appear to be a key species to an ornithologist who has great experience in the Darjeeling region may not appear to be so to one who has practiced for a greater period of time in the Simla hills, for example. Thus, there is also the issue of subjectivity. Please bear with the author in this regard, as we have tried to include a wide a diversity of species into a field guide of a size that can also be actually carried into the field, as opposed to existing merely on the shelves of a private library or else a crammed coffee table.

It is hoped that this volume will serve the purpose of novice naturalists, tourists, mountaineers, trekkers or plain first-timers to the Indian Himalaya. This book has taken into account travels into the Himalaya not just in the vicinity of our hill-stations, tourist destinations and more common trekking and mountaineering arenas, but also a certain amount of inner-line travel and exploration in limited access regions.

Once again, this is a field guide that can comfortably fit into the side pocket of a rucksack. In order to achieve portability and make this a true field guide, we have had to compromise on a possibly wider coverage of species. In many cases, we have discussed only a single species that is likely to attract the eye of the average visitor (read non-hardcore birder!) and that are widespread throughout the Himalaya.

In the process of compromising on greater detail that would only have led to the befuddlement of the complete novice, we have had to make certain generalizations, not only in terms of species and genus attributes but also exact identification of species in the accompanying photographs. In such cases where we felt exact identification would only have led to confusion, we have restricted the photograph captions merely to the genus name. In others, where we ourselves were confused (!), we have shared the confusion with our readers and we hope we will receive some feedback from the more knowledgeable birders to help us deepen our common understanding of the science, and further the cause of ornithology.

We have also tried to include local names of some of the birds, as and where this information has been ascertainable.

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