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Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and not complete
Review: This was the only book I could get my hands on before my trip. The plates are good but incomplete. Many birds I saw were not even covered in this book. It's organized taxonomically and the descriptions are pretty good, but I try to ID from a picture, then I read a detailed description. It is a small hardcover book, so it is easy to carry. From the Introduction:
This book is designed to give the layman an introduction to each bird family, and by describing one or more birds from each, enable him to identify most of the birds that can be found readily in the various habitats of Java and Bali. There are colour illustrations of 112 birds, and text references to at least 120 more. A checklist at the back tabulates 433 species on the Java and Bali lists. Once the reader has developed sufficient interest to compare his own findings with this list, he will need to obtain a more detailed field guide. The list is not fully comprehensive, as there are some 50 additional species which reach the islands only rarely, as migrants off-course or as oceanic wanderers, and these are not included. The "Field Guide to the Birds of Java and Bali" by John MacKinnon was recommended to me while I was there and is supposed to be the "most comprehensive" field guide of this area.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and not complete
Review: This was the only book I could get my hands on before my trip. The plates are good but incomplete. Many birds I saw were not even covered in this book. It's organized taxonomically and the descriptions are pretty good, but I try to ID from a picture, then I read a detailed description. It is a small hardcover book, so it is easy to carry. From the Introduction:
This book is designed to give the layman an introduction to each bird family, and by describing one or more birds from each, enable him to identify most of the birds that can be found readily in the various habitats of Java and Bali. There are colour illustrations of 112 birds, and text references to at least 120 more. A checklist at the back tabulates 433 species on the Java and Bali lists. Once the reader has developed sufficient interest to compare his own findings with this list, he will need to obtain a more detailed field guide. The list is not fully comprehensive, as there are some 50 additional species which reach the islands only rarely, as migrants off-course or as oceanic wanderers, and these are not included. The "Field Guide to the Birds of Java and Bali" by John MacKinnon was recommended to me while I was there and is supposed to be the "most comprehensive" field guide of this area.
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