The Birds of Nepal, and a Book
Bird watching is trying to gain wing in Nepal, spurred by a unique manual prepared by an American father-and-son team.
Nepalis are not known to be great book readers to begin with, and due to the neglect of English education, publications in English receive scantier attention. So it is a wonder that a book on birds written in English commands a high premium in Kathmandu´s handful of English bookshops.
Birds of Nepal, written by the father-son duo Robert L. Fleming, Sr & Jr, has been sold out for five years, and the stray copy that surfaces now and then is snapped up by bird enthusiasts for up to USD 250 (NPR 15,000), much over the cover price of NPR 250.
The book by the American authors also has the distinction of introducing the ornithology of Nepal to the world, and getting the Nepalis themselves interested in the bird life which is so abundant in their country.
Senior and Junior
The story behind Birds of Nepal goes all the way back to 1928, when Robert Fleming Sr moved from his native state of Michigan, USA, to Mussoorie, India, to teach at the well-known Woodstock School. It was in Mussoorie that he met his wife Bethel, a medical doctor. During vacations, the couple would take off for isolated corners of the Indian Himalaya to do what the family enjoyed most—bird watching.
Mr Fleming Jr, who joined in on those forays when he was old enough and is today a well-known wildlife expert who leads nature tours in Asia and Africa, says his father had a great love for beauty in nature. He remembers his father trying to inculcate a similar appreciation by carrying him up to a flower and enunciating "pretty", going to another flower repeating "pretty", and so on.
During the course of their 25 years in Mussoorie, the Flemings used to receive many bird enthusiasts at home, including the grand old man of Indian ornithology, Salim Ali. It was during one of Mr All´s visits that a young Mr Fleming Jr, got a chance to impress him. Hoping that Mr Ali would be able to identify a bird he had shot at 3310 m in the Dodi Tal area of Garhwal, he brought out the specimen. Mr Ali promptly identified the bird as Gould´s Short wing (Brachypteryx stellata), but was suitably surprised to know that it was found so far west, whereas he had once led an unsuccessful expedition in its search in Sikkim, almost 1200 kilometres to the east.
One Tenth of Birdkind
Nepal had long beckoned to the Flemings, for it was terra incognita as far as ornithology was concerned. It was next to impossible to visit Rana-ruled Nepal in those days, so Mr Fleming Sr used some influence he had with the American embassy in Delhi to gain entry. His first foray was up along the Kali Gandaki valley in Central Nepal, a birdwatcher´s paradise, then almost untrodden by Westerners. Mr Fleming came back, with family, in 1951 and 1952.
As a missionary couple, the two were drawn to the idea of helping improve and develop Nepal´s almost non-existent educational and medical facilities. In 1953, the family moved to Nepal as part of a team to establish the United Mission to Nepal, an inter-denominational Christian help group.
Once resident in the country, the Flemings were to find enough variety of birds to match their passion. As they write in the introduction to Birds of Nepal: "There are few places in the world where snowy-white egrets perch in front of giant peaks, both turning pink in the setting sun. And very few places where one can observe birds at 8235 metres and still be on the ground."
A tenth of all known birds of the world can be found in Nepal. It is not only the altitudinal difference that makes the country so bountiful in bird species, Nepal is also unique for its geographical positioning in Asia. Zoo-geographically, it lies at the centre of the continent, providing habitats that sum up the range of Asia´s climates, from the hot and humid rainforests of Indochina to the cold, dry deserts of Central Asia.
Ornithological Delight
By 1968, the data on Nepal´s birds the Flemings had collected was voluminous enough to make a book. But a publication on birds is useless without accompanying visuals, and so they solicited the help of eminent Nepali artist Lain Singh Bangdel. Under Mr. Bangdel´s supervision, two young artists, Hem Poudyal and Hira Lai Dangol, set to work on the illustrations.
Having the material ready was one thing, but finding a publisher quite another. There were numerous rejections from publishers who thought such a book would never sell. In the end, the family decided to self-finance the book, "more a labour of love than a commercial venture," recalls Fleming Jr. His father sold off his grand piano to make the payments, saying he could do with a smaller one.
It was 1976 before the book finally came out and quickly made its mark as a classic. It went in quickly for two editions, 1979and 1983. Besides being very informative, the book was also a visual delight with the fine paintings of Mr Poudyal and Mr Dangol to illustrate the text. Apparently, this was only the third book of its kind published anywhere that had text and pictures on facing pages which makes it very user-friendly in the field (the other two were The Birds of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East and A Guide to Field Identification: Birds of North America).
Mr. Fleming Sr was to live in Nepal until 1979, by which time Birds of Nepal had succeeded in imprinting Nepal firmly on the minds of enthusiasts all over, whether bird watchers, ´bird banders´, or ornithologists. "We have to be grateful to the Flemings because their book not only publicised Nepal as a treasure house of bird species but it also spurred interest in bird-watching among Nepalis," says Kama Sakya, co-founder of the Kathmandu-based Bird Watching Club.
Valley Naturalists
Bird-watching has not as yet caught up as a popular national pastime in Nepal. The required conditions for the hobby—affluence, leisure, and awareness—are still not there to the extent required. However, one increasingly finds excursion groups with a copy of Birds of Nepal on hand negotiating some of the thick woodlands on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
Villagers of Nepal are, of course, natural birdwatchers. Says Mr. Fleming Jr, "The city dwellers will be able to recognise crows and sparrows, whereas outside the city I only have to open the book and people instantly point out the birds they know. But their interest is only poetic. It is only when one makes a deliberate attempt to see different birds, seeks them out and makes a study of them, that one becomes a true birdwatcher. I am glad our book has been able lead Nepalis in that direction."
At present, there are at least two groups actively watching birds. There is one formed by the naturalists and guides working in and around the Royal Chitwan National Park, and there is the Bird Watching Club. Now called Bird Conservation Nepal, the latter has remained active since its inception in 1982, under the steady stewardship of the country´s leading ornithologist, Hari Sharan Nepali. "Over the years, more than 200 people have drifted in and out of the club but we have a core group of dedicated bird watchers," says Mr Nepali.
The club´s activities are mostly centred in and around the Kathmandu Vallley, but the valley provides an abundant variety of birds so there is never a dull moment. The Flemings once had a bird count competition going with a friend in Sri Lanka who had the whole island to find his birds while they restricted themselves to the valley. "The tally ran neck-to-neck all the time," recalls Mr Fleming Jr.
Mr Sakya is pleased that many of the youngsters who had joined the club have gone on to become naturalists and wildlife experts. He believes that as a birdwatcher´s paradise, Nepal should be able to take economic advantage by hosting the hundreds of thousands of bird enthusiasts the world over. (Mr Sakya is also a successful hotelier.)
That indeed is what Mr Fleming Jr does when he is not leading nature tours elsewhere—he brings tour groups of bird watchers to Nepal. For the next six months, however, he will not be travelling. He will be home, preparing the fourth edition of Birds of Nepal for press, and there is a lot of work up ahead. For, while the first edition listed 787 bird species, with new sightings, the number is now more than 830. Mr Fleming Jr will have to do it all alone this time, his father having died in 1987.