Basics: 1984, softcover, 123 pages, 440 species in 50 plates, 144 more species described, no range maps, minimal text

Fitting with its name, this small book could fit into your back pocket at 7 x 4.5 inches. The book mimics what many birders have done to large illustrated field guides, which is to cut out the plates and bind them into a plate-only guide. That’s what is presented here.

The 46 color and 4 black-and-white plates have been taken directly from the larger book, Birds of Borneo, 3rd edition, 1981 by Smythies. The only difference in the plates is they’ve been shrunk down to approximately 60% the original size. The plates illustrate 440 species and, interspersed throughout the pages, are 144 more non-illustrated birds that are accompanied by a very brief description.

Each bird is typically shown with just one illustration of good quality and color. Just over half of the birds are given text other than just their common and scientific names. If given, the description is a single line of key identification points. This means that if the illustrations -- of just one plumage -- do not confirm you identification, you will receive little more help from the description, if it's even given.

This small guide will be helpful, but a more recent book on this area will offer more species and more text. To date, there is only one complete field guide to Borneo (MacKinnon/Phillipps 1993). The Birds of Borneo, 4th edition by Smythies, 1999, is still the most complete book, despite its large non-field guide size.

I’ve listed several related books below…
1) The Birds of Borneo, 4th edition by Smythies
2) A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali by MacKinnon/Phillipps
3) A Guide to the Birds of Wallacea by Coates
4) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Borneo by Davison
5) A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia by Strange ( )