A bird's eye view : the collected essays and shorter writings of Salim Ali volume I / Salim Ali ; edited by Tara Gandhi.

Includes bibliographical references.

VOLUME I -- PART I: FUNDAMENTAL ORNITHOLOGY -- PART II: BIRD ECOLOGY -- PART III: BIRD SPECIES -- PART IV: BREEDING AND NESTING -- PART V: BIRD MIGRATION -- VOLUME II PART VI: BIRD BEHAVIOUR -- PART VII: ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY -- PART VIII: HISTORY OF INDIAN ORNITHOLOGY AND NATURE STUDY -- PART IX: BIRD SURVEYS -- PART X: KAILAS-MANASAROWAR TREK -- PART XI: VIEWS, REVIEWS, AND INTERVIEWS -- BOOK REVIEWS -- INTERVIEWS

Salim Ali, without question India’s greatest ornithologist, was a prolific writer. Apart from his many books (the best known being The Book of Indian Birds), he wrote a large number of scientific papers, essays and popular articles for a variety of journals and magazines. He also broadcast radio talks and gave public lectures as well as interviews. This body of Salim Ali’s work has never before been gathered together into a book.This first-time collection of all these shorter writings, painstakingly ferreted out and put together by Salim Ali’s former student Tara Gandhi (with the permission of the Bombay Natural History Society, Salim Ali’s intellectual and spiritual home for many years), presents a fascinating array of topics as diverse as the Indian landscapes and birdlife that were his passion. Whether it is the colours of a bird's feathers or the ecology of the Himalaya mountains or an insightful conservation message, Salim Ali’s evocative writing style makes reading this volume enormously pleasurable. Of its intellectual and academic importance to the world’s ornithologists, to India’s scientists and to all bird lovers, there can be no doubt.