| A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of Malaysia – Including Sabah and Sarawak | Geoffrey WH Davidson & Yeap Chin Aik| John Beaufoy Publishing | 2026 | Edition 4 | Paperback | 178 Pages, 300 colour photographs, 2 colour maps | ISBN: 9781913679996 |
The Publisher’s View:
A Naturalist’s Guide to the Birds of Malaysia is an easy-to-use, introductory photographic guide to 280 bird species commonly seen in Malaysia (including the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo). It is suitable for all levels of birder and is perfect for resident and visitor alike.
High-quality photographs from some of Malaysia’s top nature photographers are accompanied by detailed species descriptions, which include nomenclature, length, plumage, distribution, habits and habitat. The user-friendly introduction covers climate, vegetation, biogeography, opportunities for naturalists and the main sites for viewing the listed species. The fully updated 4th edition contains a new checklist of all of the birds of Malaysia encompassing, for each species, its common and scientific names as well as Malay names, its status in each state, as well as its global status, following the BirdLife/IUCN Red List for birds 2025.
The Authors: Dr Geoffrey Davison spent all his working life in Southeast Asia, as a university lecturer in Malaysia, a conservationist with WWF, and then with the National Parks Board in Singapore. His interests range across ornithology, tropical forest ecology and animal taxonomy. He has written numerous scientific papers, as well as a number of books about birds and wildlife in Southeast Asia, including Wild Malaysia.
Dr Yeap Chin Aik began birdwatching in his early teens and is currently the Co-Founder and Project Manager of the Malaysian Nature Society’s (MNS) Hornbill Conservation Project. He has written several scientific papers and is one of the main compilers of Directory of Important Bird Areas in Malaysia: Key Sites for Conservation.
Fatbirder View:
Fatbirder followers will know that I am not a fan of photographic fieldguides… diagnostic features may not be obvious, poses are different, light and weather conditions all combine to make comparison of hard to separate species difficult.
For the most part these photographs are good as is the print quality. The text is as good as any other guide.
However, some fall very short… take the page with plates of Grey Wagtail and a race of Yellow Wagtail – they really are poor. The birds themselves look drab, something neither species can be accused of, and they do not contrast with their background so the overall effect is a rather muddy illustration, an injustice to charming species.
Unfortunately, there are others too, most because the photos do not scale sharp enough at this size, although some are just poor photos.
It’s rather disappointing when the series itself is comprehensive, affordable and very portable.
Fatbirder