Shorebirds of Kerala (Including Gulls and Terns): Pictorial Handbook

During the early 1980s, when we used to observe the birds at the estuaries, seacoast and other wetlands of North Kerala, we had always been perplexed at the identity of several species of Shorebirds encountered. The bird-books available at the time, we found to our consternation, were totally inadequate to deal with this complex group of waders. Later, the book Shorebirds: an Identification Guide to the Waders of the World (Hayman, et al. 1986) appeared on the scene. Apart from being extremely useful to correct identification, this classic made us aware of the intricacies of the various plumages, phases etc. concerning the Shorebirds. The fact that more than 12 species of shore birds hitherto unrecorded in Kerala were found to occur here since 1987 underlines the importance of this book and the interest generated in this difficult group of birds in the region, though only a handful of birdwatchers possessed a copy of the book. We wanted to share the identification skills we had newly acquired and the culmination was a workshop on the field identification of shorebirds held at Madayipara, Kannur district in August 1995 in which several birdwatchers from different parts of Kerala participated. But, even after almost two decades since then, we find that shorebird study in Kerala is still in its infancy. There are still only a few individuals who grapple with the shorebird identification problems, there are no regular monitoring programmes for the major wintering areas and there is no ringing data at all on our shorebirds. The present volume, which is a regional guide on the shorebirds, gulls and terns will generate sufficient new interest in this interesting group of birds.