Back in January and February 2005 I was fortunate enough to be shown around the Middle-eastern state of Kuwait by George Gregory, a British birder who’d been working in Kuwait for fourteen years, was a key member of the Kuwaiti Bird Monitoring and Protection Team, and who probably knew more about its avifauna than anyone else.

During some excellent conversations about taxonomy, ID, and how the locals jocularly categorise the rather scary driving standards all too apparent on the Kuwaiti highways, George talked about a book he was hard at work on. It would be, he said, a summary of the status of Kuwait’s birds past and present, and an in-depth review of all the more “unlikely” records that are bound to accumulate when a region is being scantily covered by mainly amateur birdwatchers (my words, not his). He spoke with a great deal of passion - and a certain degree of weariness. Many records, he explained, were missing as they’d been destroyed during the Iraqi invasion of 1990 - not a problem that many county or local recorders come across I don’t suppose! Time was pressing, he said, as he was soon returning to the UK (to take up a voluntary position as a ringer at Gibraltar Point Bird Observatory) and wanted to get the book published as soon as possible…

I offered to review it when it was finished (the least I could do in return for all the effort George put into showing me round) and thought nothing more of it, until I came home from a trip away this month and found a parcel waiting for me: inside was George’s book, and a very polite request to “perhaps mention it” on my website…

“A mention” hardly does justice to the amount of work that must have gone into this book, so how about a proper review instead?

This is a self-published book. That’s often not a recommendation, sadly, as “glory publishing” can result in a cheaply-packaged and poorly-realised end-product, but this is definitely not the case with “The Birds of the State of Kuwait”. From the stunning cover lay-out and photograph (Crab Plovers, by Pekka Fagel), to the clear and uncluttered text inside this book is as well-produced as anything from large, well-known imprints and has a similarly professional look and feel. If this is what can be achieved with a desk-top publishing package, hopefully it will encourage many other “niche” writers to produce books.

I say “niche” because this is possibly how this book will be categorised. It isn’t a field-guide of course, and Kuwait is not on the “must visit” lists of many birders, but it nevertheless deserves a much wider ownership. This is a detailed and expert work, and will be required reading for anyone interested in the region. What many birders from Europe may not appreciate, also, is that Kuwait sits in the bottom right-hand corner of the Western Palearctic avifaunal region, and as this book points out is by far the easiest place in the WP to see a good number of otherwise “difficult” species - birds like Socotra Cormorant, Crab Plover, Basra Reed Warbler, and Grey Hypocolius.

Enough to whet the appetite? I would think so…

So to the book itself. Organised and well laid-out, the introductory sections look briefly at the history of ornithology in the State (including a passing reference to the fact that the notorious fraudster Richard Meinertzhagen’s book “Birds of Arabia is a source of much information on Kuwait birds”), brief details of 37 of Kuwait’s best birding sites - many of which unfortunately contain the dreaded words “Access by permit only”, and a series of small photographs showing habitats and sites mentioned in the main text.

The bulk of the book consists of a detailed review of the status of all the birds recorded in Kuwait (arranged in Voous order). In many cases the original descriptions of rarities are also provided. The review is split into three sections: a lengthy “Main List”, a brief “Captive Origin”, and an interesting “Species requiring Confirmation” (which a great deal of detective work seems to have gone into). Within the “Main List” an innovative element is the inclusion of a table (set across the page) which breaks the entire year into ten day blocks and gives the highest count recorded for each block from the years between 1998 and 2005 for all of Kuwait’s birds bar its residents and vagrants. It’s a very compact way of presenting the information most birders want will from a book like this - “When’s the best time to see…”.

Most impressive, though, is the huge amount of breeding information that’s been collated here. Hundreds of records have been rounded up, and the book presents a detailed overview of what is breeding in Kuwait and where - mostly in areas not accessible to the public it should be said, so there is little danger of disturbance. This data is of course what makes this book so valuable. It is in effect a guide explaining to the region’s ruler’s and future conservationists where any efforts to protect Kuwait’s breeding birds needs to be focussed - and as, for example, Kuwait holds the world’s largest colonies of Crab Plover (a Kuwaiti flagship conservation species if ever there was one) those efforts will be increasingly important. Development pressures are huge throughout the Gulf, and “not knowing” where important breeding sites are situated is just not an option (and should not be a valid excuse) any more.

Sadly, of course, as the book makes plain, it’s not just development that threatens Kuwait’s birds: hunting is widespread and indiscriminate. Any bustard, for example, foolish enough to venture into Kuwaiti territory is likely to be dispatched before it’s had the chance to even catch its breath. It’s a situation that populations of some species simply can’t survive. Does this book do anything to counter this problem? If it persuades more overseas birders to visit and put pressure on the region’s rulers to protect what should be a valuable eco-tourism commodity, then perhaps…

So is there anything about this book I don’t like? Actually, no, there isn’t. I have one minor quibble though, and that is that the lovely photographs used in the frontispages are not labelled at all. It would have been good to know where and when they were taken, and (as a photographer who’s images have appeared all over the web without any credit whatsoever) by whom. Perhaps the requisite information could be added easily enough in the form of an insert?

I enjoyed looking through this book, and as the next time I go to to Kuwait there’ll be no George to shepherd me around, I’m sure I’m going to find it very useful in the future too.

Summary:
Softback, 219 pages, numerous photographs. This important book fills a large gap in the knowledge of the avifauna of the Middle East. It is beautifully produced and packed with information. An essential reference to anyone with an interest in the birds of Kuwait, or indeed anyone planning a visit to the region.