Tadao Shimba was born in Tokyo, Japan, and developed an interest in nature when visiting his mother's home town in the foothills of the beautiful Japanese Alps every summer. This interest developed seriously in the ensuing years, and he has gone on to record many rare birds, including a number of new species records for Japan. Tadao is now among the best-known and most highly respected birdwatchers in Japan.

The species accounts are concise and useful... Of course, it stands or falls by the quality of the photos, and they're uniformly excellent.

• Map of the region IntroductionHow to use this book Bird topography IdentificationsAppendices Acknowledgements ReferencesIndex of Scientific namesIndex of English names

Tadao Shimba was born in Tokyo, Japan, and developed an interest in nature when visiting his mother's home town in the foothills of the beautiful Japanese Alps every summer. This interest developed seriously in the ensuing years, and he has gone on to record many rare birds, including a number of new species records for Japan. Tadao is now among the best-known and most highly respected birdwatchers in Japan.

The species accounts are concise and useful... Of course, it stands or falls by the quality of the photos, and they're uniformly excellent.

• Map of the region IntroductionHow to use this book Bird topography IdentificationsAppendices Acknowledgements ReferencesIndex of Scientific namesIndex of English names

Tadao Shimba was born in Tokyo, Japan, and developed an interest in nature when visiting his mother's home town in the foothills of the beautiful Japanese Alps every summer. This interest developed seriously in the ensuing years, and he has gone on to record many rare birds, including a number of new species records for Japan. Tadao is now among the best-known and most highly respected birdwatchers in Japan.

The species accounts are concise and useful... Of course, it stands or falls by the quality of the photos, and they're uniformly excellent.

• Map of the region IntroductionHow to use this book Bird topography IdentificationsAppendices Acknowledgements ReferencesIndex of Scientific namesIndex of English names