This must-read series by Wildlife Trust of India features 10 eminent wildlife experts who share their list of top 20 wildlife titles. This time we have Aasheesh Pittie, a birder with more than 40 years of experience!

Birdwatcher, bibliophile and doyen of all things Hyderabadi, Aasheesh Pittie is the long time editor of the ornithological newsletter  ‘Indian Birds’. Pittie is the author of classic reference works such as ‘Birds in Books’, ‘Three Hundred Years of South Asian Ornithology’ and ‘The Written Bird: Birds in Books 2’. He has also compiled a searchable bibliographic database of over 35,000 works on South Asian ornithology. Most lately Pittie is the author of the delightful collection of bird essays entitled The Living Air – Pleasures of Birds and Birdwatching.

We asked Aasheesh to list the top 20 books he would recommend for anyone interested. Here’s his list of top 10 titles about birds in India and another 10 on global topics.

His pick of the top reads on birds of India:

1. Birds in our lives by Ashish Kothari
2. Of birds and birdsong by M. Krishnan (Eds: Shanthi & Ashish Chandola)
3. Birds of India: A literary anthology by Abdul Jamil Urfi
4. The fall of a sparrow by Salim Ali.
5. A bird’s eye view: The collected essays and shorter writings of Salim Ali – Two volumes. (Ed: Tara Gandhi).
6. The song of the Magpie Robin: A memoir by Zafar Futehally (with Shanthi Chandola and Ashish Chandola)
7. Common birds of India by E. H. Aitken
8. Enjoying birds by Ranjit Lal
9. Winged fire: A celebration of Indian birds by Valmik Thapar.
10. Wild treasures: Reflections on natural history world heritage sites in Asia—An anthology – Eds. Prerna Singh Bindra, Sonali Ghosh & Anuranjan Roy

His pick of the top reads on global bird topics:

1. The Peregrine by J. A. Baker
2. Birds and people by Mark Cocker
3. A world on the wing by Scott Weidensaul
4. Bird sense by Tim Birkhead
5. Slow birding by Joan E. Strassmann
6. Birdscapes: Birds in our imagination and experience by Jeremy Mynott
7. The beak of the finch by Jonathan Weiner
8. The history of ornithology by Valerie Chansigaud
9. The Redstart by John Buxton.
10. Where have all the birds gone? by John Terborgh

Also read the curated lists by:

Dr. Mahesh Rangarajan

Dr. M K Ranjithsinh