Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of Borneo - 2nd Edition

Second edition of my little red book was published by the same publisher, John Beaufoy Publishing Ltd. of United Kingdom in 2016.

This is the book cover and as in the first edition, only endemics are shown there.

The checklist at the end of the book has been updated with the latest records up to the closing date.

The second edition also contains 280 species all illustrated with color photographs taken in the wild in Borneo.

For purposes of having a more Bornean representation, 25 of the migratory species in the first edition have been replaced with resident species.

The species taken out were:
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)/Migratory raptor
Cattle Egret (Ardea Alba)/Migratory water bird
Intermediate Egret (Egretta intermedia)/Migratory water bird
Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva)/Migratory wader
Common Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula)/Migratory wader
Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)/Migratory wader
Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius)/Migratory wader
Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica)/Migratory wader
Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)/Migratory wader
Common Redshank (Tringa totanus)/Migratory wader
Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis)/Migratory wader
Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)/Migratory wader
Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola)/Migratory wader
Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus)/Migratory wader
Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)/Migratory wader
Long-toed Stint (Calidris subminuta)/Migratory wader
Broad-billed Sandpiper (Limicola falcinellus)/Migratory wader
Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)/Migratory coastal bird
Aleutian Tern (Sterna aleutica)/Migratory coastal bird
Whiskered Tern (Chilidonias hybrida)/Migratory coastal bird
Tiger Shrike (Lanius tigrinus)/Migratory forest bird
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)/Migratory forest bird
Dark-sided Flycatcher (Muscicapa sibirica)/Migratory forest bird
Blue and White Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cyanomwlana)/Migratory forest bird
Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea)/Migratory forest bird

The species added were:

Roulroul (Rollulus rouloul)/Resident

Crimson-headed Partridge (Haematortyx sanguiniceps)/Endemic
Tabon Scrabfowl (Megapodius cumingii)/Resident
Red-breasted Hill Partridge (Haematortyx sanguiniceps)/Endemic
Blue-headed Pitta (Pitta baudii)/Endemic
Blue-banded Pitta (Pitta arquata)/Endemic
Sunda Teal (Anas gibberifrons)/Resident
Bornean Banded Pitta (Pitta schwaneri)/Endemic
Mangrove-blue Flycatcher (Cyornis rufigastra)/Resident
Bornean-blue Flycatcher (Cyornis superbus)/Endemic
Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassina)/Resident
Blue-banded Kingfisher (Alcedo euryzona)/Resident
Sooty-headed Bulbul (Pycnonotus aurigaster)/Resident
Rufous-bellied Hawk Eagle (Hierraetus kienerii)/Resident
Buff-banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis)/Resident
Banded Bay Cuckoo (Cacomantis sonneratii)/Resident
Striped Wren Babbler (Kenopia striata)/Resident
Chestnut-naped Forktail (Enicurus ruficapillus)/Resident
Olive-backed Woodpecker (Dinopium rafflesii)/Resident
Crimson-winged Woodpecker (Picus puniceus)/Resident
Bornean Green Magpie (Cissa jefferyia)/Endemic
Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi)/Resident
Grey-chested Jungle Flycatcher (Rhinomyias umbratilis)/Resident
Spotted Fantail (Rhipidura perlata)/Resident
Horsefield’s Babbler (Trichastoma sepiarium)/Resident

In addition to the change in birds, some images have also been replaced with better images captured since the publication of the first edition.

My brief write-up for the first edition (published 2012) is here.

Happy birding and thanks to all my friends who have made this second edition a reality.

Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of Borneo

My little red book has been published by John Beaufoy Publishing Ltd of UK, it should be widely available in early August 2012, price is 9.99 Sterling Pound.

It contains 280 species, all illustrated by photographs taken by me in Sabah, Borneo. Common English name together with scientific, Malay and Indonesian names are included.

The book has 176 pages, 3 maps, more than 350 photographs and an up-to-date checklist showing the status of each species in each State of Borneo.  Its size of 12.8 cm X 18 cm X 1 cm and weight of 285 gms make it convenient to carry in the field. The cover photos are made up entirely of Bornean endemic birds.

The inside pages typically look like this.

It also includes chapters containing brief description on geography, vegetation and climate as well as birding locations in Borneo.

It represents a giant step in my effort to photodocument the birds of Borneo, many thanks to my publisher who invested in such a venture, as we all know book publishing is a different ball game altogether in this age.

Feel free to write to me if you have any suggestion or encounter any error.

Happy birding.

Edited on 9th October 2013 to add third parties review found in WWW as follows:

In Amazon UK

By IBIS, open the page and search my name.

Comment by Borneo Books.


Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.

The state of books on Birds and Field Guides for Borneo today.

Updated on 1 May 2018

Lastest addition to the fieldguides of Borneo is Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago. Greater Sundas and Wallacea by Eaton, J.A., van Balen, B., Brickle, N.W & Rheindt, F.E, published by Lynx Edicions, Barcelona in 2016. 

IT can be ordered here

In the not so distant past, as recently as middle of 2007, anyone who wished to acquire a field guide of the birds of Borneo had to content with the venerable A field guide to the birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali by Johhn MacKinnon and Karen Phillipps, first published in 1993 and was out of print and unavailable for a number of years since its last reprint in 2001.  It went for reprint again in 2006 and I immediately ordered myself a copy from the UK once it was made available in 2007.

It remained the only field guide for the Bornean region, no other Southeast Asia field guide cover the Bornean species. The Pocket Guide to the Birds of Borneo published by The Sabah Society in 1985  is useful to a limited extent and it is long overdue for updating.

Those more ornithologically inclined could always refer to Birds of Borneo by B. E. Smythies and revised by Geoffrey Davison published in 1999. It is not a field guide per se as it is a hardbound book with over 800 pages and easily weighing more than 2 kgs. It is,  together with Ornithological Monograph No. 52 by Federick H. Sheldon et al, published in 2001, more suited as a reference source than a field guide that you carry to the field.

In 2008, British Ornithologist's Union published BOU Checklist No. 23, The Birds of Borneo An Annotated Checklist. In which the author  Clive Mann made comprehensive revisions to the taxonomy and nomenclature of the Bornean species.

This book can be ordered here.

In 2009, during the Borneo Birds Festival held at Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sandakan, on 10th October 2009, 2 new field guides for Borneo were officially launched and a photographic guide to the birds of Sepilok Forest was made available for sale.

1. Phillipps' Field Guide To The Birds Of Borneo, by Quentin Phillipps and illustrated by Karen Phillipps. You guessed it right, they are brother and sister. This softcover book is 368 pages, covering 664 Borneo bird species with distribution maps, with detailed coverage of all 51 Borneo endemics. It has more than 2,000 full colour bird images together with maps and descriptions of top 130 birding sites in Borneo. (This field guide follows extensively the taxonomy and nomenclature of BOU Checklist No. 23 by  Clive Mann).

This book can be ordered here.

Edited to add: The second edition of this field guide has been published in 2011. The cover is updated as shown below.

Edited to add: The third edition of this field guide has been published, see publisher John Beaufoy's link here.

2. A Field Guide To The Birds of Borneo by Susan Myers, with artworks by bird artists who drew plates for Craig Robson's Field Guide for Southeast Asia. This hardcover book has 274 pages describing  633 species with color plates and distribution maps. 50 Borneo endemics are described in this field guide. (The taxonomy and nomenclature of this field guide follows that of Robson's 2008 edition of  A field Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia).

This  book can be ordered here.

Either one of them is a welcomed bonus to supplement the limited literature available for birds of this region and we are indeed lucky to have two field guides published for this region in the same period. This shows that both authors have visioned the  need of an updated  field guide for Borneo, and went on to produce one, we thank them for the hard work and effort.

Edited to add: New edition of Susan's field guide is published, link here.

3. A Photographic Guide to The Birds of The Sepilok Forest,  as its name implies, a photographic guide compiled by Cede Prudente, Robert Ong and Borneo Bird Club. It is published by the Sabah Forestry Department in 2009 and included some stunning photos contributed by photographers in Malaysia. Though the book is titled Birds of Sepilok Forest, it contains photos of most of the lowland forest birds in Borneo, it is about 112 pages and comes in a very handy size, it will  be a good starting guide for  new bird watcher and first time bird tourist visiting Borneo.

This book can be ordered here.

During this short span of  two years from 2008 to 2009, we see 4 books published for the avifauna of Borneo, 1 Checklist, 1 photographic guide and 2 field guides. The dilemma now is deciding which field guide to follow in case of different opinion in taxonomy and nomenclature.

Edited to add on 5th August 2012: My small little Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of Borneo has been published. The second edition is in this link.

Happy birding.