Book Review: The Jewel Hunter, Chris Gooddie

The nice people from Princeton University Press popped this book through my letterbox (metaphorically - it's too big to go in  my letterbox and too thick for even my postman to fold in two, though I suspect he tried) the other day. It's been out a while of course, long enough for a good number of 'proper' reviews to be written, to which I refer you if that's what you're looking for.

In case you don't already know, the 'jewel' in the title refers to pittas - all 32 currently recognized species, and a few other races besides, in the world, and the 'hunt' was the quest to see them all in a year. The author, Chris Gooddie, describes in the opening chapter how this hunt was conceived as the solution to a serious bout of mid-life crisis. You may have followed the blog Pittasworld (now defunct) which outlined his plan and brought together a scintillating collection of photos and art. You may even have met Chris and friends as they trawled the forests of Fraser's Hill, Taman Negara, Danum Valley or Sepilok during his "Year of the Pitta" a couple of years ago. He evidently lived to tell the tale, and kudos to him for following up on his promise to write it all down - hence, The Jewel Hunter.
 
First and foremost, I was glad to get this book so I could work out where the bird was on the cover - I'd spend quite a bit of time squinting at small images (like the one above) of it, trying to make out what the picture was. Now, I can reveal that it is actually a ... well, get yourself a copy if you can't figure it out!

I'd read quite a few reviews of the book before reading it, some of which were less than glowing, so I can't say I came to it with great expectations. However, by the middle of the first chapter I was thoroughly hooked! The book is an absorbing account of Chris's many and various experiences, not only of birds but also of the people and places he encountered along the way. The content is at times witty, at others sobering, often quirky, and always identifiably British!

There are a number of reasons why I really enjoyed this book:
1. I got a real feeling of being there (minus the many and considerable discomforts of actually being there!)
2. By the time I was halfway through, I knew that this was a book I would be urging my wife and daughter to read "so you can understand me". Actually, I'm hoping that it might make my birding extravagances look reasonable by way of contrast, thereby gaining me a bit more 'licence to bird' ("at least you're not as mad as that Chris Gooddie nutter.").
3. I learned a lot. Although probably quite a lot of us have our own theories about how to go about seeing pittas, I would wager that, having read this book, there'll be a few new techniques you'll want to try out - there certainly are for me.
4. Linked to 3, reading the book made me feel like going out and finding pittas. Any book that makes you want to go out into the field has got to be good.
5. Some of the pitta photos make mine look really good! Mind you, that's because they are all by the author, all taken within the aforementioned yearlong period, and often taken while he was either suffering from dysentery, soaked to the skin, several days up treacherously muddy mountain trails, seriously bleeding from leech bites and falls, or all of the above (not to give too much of the story away!)
6. It has lots of lists -from why pittas are the best things in the world, to how to make a propah cup of English tea (not that I ever make lists you understand).

So - did he succeed in seeing all 32 species of pitta? You'll have to buy the book to find out. I would lend you mine, but you'll need to take your place in the queue!

Finally, to whet your appetite a little further, I decided this was as good an excuse as I need to present my own humble collection of pitta photos - only Malaysian ones in my case!

 

Blue-winged Pitta, Kedah.

 

Mangrove Pitta, Pulau Pinang.

 Hooded Pitta, Kedah.

-

Garnet Pitta, Pahang.

 Black-headed Pitta, Sabah.

 Blue-banded Pitta, Sarawak.

 Blue-headed Pitta, Sabah.

 

Giant Pitta, Sabah.

 Rusty-naped Pitta, Pahang.

 

Bornean (left) and Malayan Banded Pittas.

Review: The Crossley Id Guide: Eastern Birds

First off, I should make clear that the “Eastern Birds” referred to in the book title are those found in the east of North America, not Asia!

The publisher’s blurb makes some bold claims about this book – “revolutionary,” “The first real-life approach to bird identification,” “reality birding”. In addition, one could add “ambitious” – it aims to satisfy “beginners, expert, and anyone in between” and “promises to vastly improve all birders’ abilities to identify birds.”

Hype apart, the first thing that strikes me about this book is that it really is different from any other identification guide I have seen. For a start, the plates use digital technology to arrange dozens of separate photographic images of birds into stunningly arranged montages – each plate showing one species in a realistic setting in an array of postures, ranges and plumages. The results are visually impressive. Each fresh page is a birder’s Utopia – a bush bursting with warblers, a sky full of raptors, a seascape crammed with seabirds. The plates invite us to pore over them - there’s so much to see and notice - and to interact with the images, building up an impression of the characteristics of each species from the many images. Often, it is some of the tiny, distant images of a species which portray the distinctive character or ‘jizz’ of a species more than the close-up profiles.



Then there is the text. The very first section of the Introduction announces “I DON’T LIKE TEXT”, by which I presume Crossley means the traditional, rather dry ‘id-speak’ which often fills typical field guides. However, that’s not the way Crossley writes. A few examples will give a flavor of the text accompanying the photos. “The infamous parking-lot “beggar” (Ring-billed Gull). “Bold plumage and crested “professorial” look (Northern Lapwing). “Big and very fat with a potbelly and short tail” (Prothonotary Warbler). “Sits quietly for periods of time, always looking around so it knows what’s going on” (Red-headed Woodpecker). These unconventional descriptions not only show how intimately Crossley knows his birds, they are exactly the kind of nuggets of wisdom one would hope to gain from an expert birder, but which are so often absent from field guides, perhaps because they are too ‘subjective’. Occasionally Crossley’s esoteric descriptions border on the unhelpfully tangential (such as “it would have been at home in the movie ‘Avatar’” for Swallow-tailed Kite) but generally they are succinct and spot-on, at least for the species I am familiar with.



From a personal viewpoint, as someone who has wrestled with the challenges of teaching others about birds, what I love most about this book is Crossley’s approach. He has clearly thought long and hard about how we learn bird identification. For the beginner he has made a number of helpful innovations. Firstly, birds in this book are grouped according to similar characteristics related to obvious commonalities such as habitat (e.g. Upland Gamebirds), behavior (e.g. Swimming Waterbirds) and size (e.g Miscellaneous Larger Landbirds). Secondly, he has provided a photographic key in the opening pages of the book which attempts to show every common species to scale, alongside a page number. This is generally helpful though, occasionally, where there are birds of widely disparate sizes on the same plate, this necessitates the use of a magnifying glass to see some of the smaller species (e.g. the ‘peeps’ on the Walking Waterbirds page). Thirdly, he opens each section of the book with a very helpful introduction, which summarizes the common characteristics of each group and gives tips on how to approach identification. For example, he counsels anyone wishing to start identifying terns, a notoriously confusing and difficult group, to begin with the basics. “Learn the familiar species well, based on size, shape and behavior, and study the patterns of color that remain consistent. Beware: if you get caught up in the minutiae of color, you will become very confused!”

The Introduction to the book includes a superb section on “How to become a better birder”. I would recommend several readings of this, and will certainly be dipping into it again and again as I prepare my own training workshops. The website features short video clips of Crossley talking about several aspects covered in this section and they are well worth a watch, here.



For the more expert and experienced birder there is also much to be gained from this book. Apart from a wealth of information in the plates and text on sexing, aging, different color morphs and regional variants, there is an online web resource which contains additional information on many species (E.g. check out the additional information on Upland Sandpiper here.

So, does the book live up to all the superlatives that have been lavished upon it? I’d have to say, “Absolutely!” This book really will change the way many people approach birding, and, while we won’t all end up with the amazing breadth and depth of knowledge of Richard Crossley, it should make us better at identifying the birds we see.

The website promises that this book, on the birds of Eastern North America, is the first of several more ’Crossley Id Guides’ in the pipeline – including birds of the Western United States, British birds and the enigmatically titled “Mystery Guide.” So, the question for birders in this part of the world is, when will we see a Crossley Guide for South-eastern Birds (which will refer to South-east Asia!)?