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South Korea

This page lists books about birds and birdwatching in South Korea.

The books are listed by publication date with the most recent at the top.


Asia

For bird books that cover all of Asia see:

Asia

 

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-east Asia

Tadao Shimba

Seitai Kagaku Shuppan

2017

Japanese with English bird names.

"Based on Christopher Helm's A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-East Asia published in 2007, the second Japanese edition of this field guide shows 673 species of wild birds found in Japan and Northeast Asia. In comparison to the first edition many new photos have been included. 673 species of wild birds, including 60 species that have been newly recorded in Japan. Covers Japan and the Korean Peninsula, Northeastern China, and Far East Russia."

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A Field Guide to the Birds of Korea

Woo-Shin Lee, Tae-Hoe Koo, Jin-Young Park

2nd edition

LG Evergreen Foundation

2015

"A magnificent field guide, the first covering the whole of the Korean peninsula. The illustrations (depicting all species recorded in the Peninsula up to June 2014) are superb, with species descriptions and maps given on facing pages. At the front of the guide is a useful checklist of Korean birds. This second edition features approximately 50 more species than the first edition, for a total of 21 orders, 80 families, and 541 species. It includes information on when birds were first recorded on the peninsula, new subspecies, updated taxonomy incorporating new splits, and contains updated common names."

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Korea Through Her Birds: Windows Into A World

Robert Newlin

Seoul Selection

2014

"Korea’s birds deserve a wider audience. The country’s geographical location, topography, temperate climate, and wealth of diverse habitats combine to support an extraordinarily attractive avifauna. Many visitors to Korea see the impressive metropolitan centers of Seoul or Busan, and others may visit Jejudo Island’s black sand beaches or hike the popular mountain trails. Fewer see the more hidden parts of the country: the western offshore islands, the scattered and diminishing wetlands, the picturesque east coast fishing villages, the mountain hamlets and the river valleys. We can glimpse these places through the birds that live there. Moreover, we can glimpse something else—hints of Korea’s people, culture, and history. A picture of a bird yields a narrow but genuine window into a country’s identity. What a country’s arts or folklore or language says about nature—or says by means of nature—has a special authenticity. Above all, there are the birds themselves, in all their many types of beauty. This book seeks to introduce the birds: through photographs, through descriptions of their lives, and through the ways our different cultures, Western and Asian both, perceive them."

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Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia

Mark Brazil

Princeton University Press

2009

"With 234 superb color plates, and more than 950 color maps, Birds of East Asia makes it easy to identify all of the region's species. The first single-volume field guide for eastern Asia, the book covers major islands including Japan and Taiwan, as well as the Asian continent from Kamchatka to the Korean Peninsula. The region's major bird families are presented and distinct species are noted, from the well-known Steller's Sea Eagle - the world's largest eagle - to those less familiar to Western ornithologists, such as the Scaly-sided Merganser, Oriental Stork, and Mugimaki Flycatcher. The maps provide useful information about the seasonal migratory patterns of all bird varieties."

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Birds of Europe, Russia, China, and Japan: Non-Passerines: Loons to Woodpeckers

Norman Arlott

Princeton Illustrated Checklist

Princeton University Press

2009

"This is one of two companion field guides that illustrate and describe all of the approximately 1,800 bird species found in the Palearctic - the huge region that includes Europe, Asia north of the Himalayas, Africa north of the Sahara Desert, and the Middle East excluding the Gulf countries. This volume covers non-passerines - non-songbirds, including raptors, owls, swifts, hummingbirds, cuckoos, and pigeons. It includes every non-passerine species and subspecies, in every adult plumage - all illustrated and described by Norman Arlott, a leading bird artist with many years of field experience. The two volumes of Birds of Europe, Russia, China, and Japan are the only field guides to illustrate and describe every bird species in the Palearctic. And, for many parts of this region, these books provide the first and only field guides."

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Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia

Mark Brazil

Christopher Helm

2008

"This is the first single volume guide ever devoted to the eastern Asian avifauna. The eastern Asian region, centring especially on the major islands off the continental coast (including Japan and Taiwan) and the immediately adjacent areas of the Asian continent from Kamchatka in the north and including the Korean Peninsula are an important centre of endemism. Birds endemic to this region include representatives of many of the major families, from the world's largest eagle - Steller's Sea Eagle - to the tiny Formosan Firecrest. The east Asian continental coast and the offshore islands also form one of the world's major international bird migration routes, especially for waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors, while the east Asian continental mainland itself is home to a wide range of species little known to western ornithologists such as Scaly-sided Merganser, Oriental Stork and Mugimaki Flycatcher. The guide features the most up-to-date text available, which, in conjunction with extensive colour plates throughout, facilitates the field identification of all of the species known from the region. Colour distribution maps enhance the text by providing a visual analysis of the summer, winter and migratory ranges of all species."

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Birds of Europe, Russia, China, and Japan: Passerines: Tyrant Flycatchers to Buntings

Norman Arlott

Princeton Illustrated Checklist

Princeton University Press

2007

"This is the first of two field guides illustrating and describing all of the approximately 1,800 bird species found in the Palearctic - the huge region that includes Europe, Asia north of the Himalayas, and Africa north of the Sahara. This area spans the countries of the former Soviet Union, all of the Russian Arctic, China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and the Middle East excluding the Gulf countries. This first volume covers all the passerines (perching birds, from tyrant flycatchers to buntings) or songbirds and will soon be followed by a companion guide to the nonpasserines (divers to woodpeckers). These volumes are the first and only field guides for many parts of the area covered, and mark the first time all of these birds have been included in a single pair of books. This first volume covers every passerine species and subspecies in the area, in every adult plumage - all illustrated and described by Norman Arlott, a leading bird artist who has many years of field experience with these species."

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A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-east Asia

Tadao Shimba

Christopher Helm

2007

"Despite its rich avifauna and popularity with tourists, Japan has long been lacking a good English-language field guide. This new photographic guide will be the first book to cover the Japanese avifauna in English for over 25 years, and the first photoguide to the country in English. It will also include the birds of neighbouring mainland regions of eastern Asia, namely Korea, NE China and eastern Siberia. Over 520 species are illustrated with hundreds of stunning colour photographs. The text succinctly describes the key identification features and each species has a distribution map. This guide will be an essential companion for anyone visiting Japan or eastern Asia."

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A Field Guide To The Birds Of Korea

Woo-Shin Lee, Tae-Hoe Koo, Jin-Young Park

Illustrations: Takashi Taniguchi

Translation: Desmond Allen

LG Evergreen Foundation

2000

"With illustrations by Takashi Taniguchi, distribution maps by Satori Hamaya, translation and English adaptation by Desmond Allen, and editor in chief Noritaka Ichida (WBSJ), this is a magnificent field guide, the first covering the whole of the Korean peninsula in English and Korean editions. The illustrations (depicting all of the 450 species recorded in the Peninsula up to November 2000) are superb, with species descriptions and maps given on facing pages. Species names are given in Latin, English and Korean. At the front of the guide there is a useful checklist of Korean birds."

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Wild Birds Of Korea

Yoon Moo-Boo

Kyo Hak Sa

1995

A guide with photographs of over 200 species.

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The Birds of Korea

M.E.J. Gore, Won Pyong-Oh

Royal Asiatic Society and Taewon Publishing Company

1971

Bilingual: Korean / English

450 pages covering 230 species with 41 colour plates.

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A List of Birds collected in Corea

C.W. Campbell

Colour plate (Thriponax kalinowskii): J.G. Keulemans

Ibis: Volume 34, Issue 2, pages 230-248

1892

Opening lines:

"The collection which forms the subject of this paper was made in 1688 and 1889 during my residence at Soul, the capital of Corea, and at Chemulpo, the western Treaty port."
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Last updated November 2011