Dedication: To Smriti, and ...

... to all those people whose lives have been changed by birds found in South Asia, and who have taken the trouble to share their experiences, through various media, with others. I hope that this compilation contributes in facilitating the study of these wonderful co-habitors of planet Earth, and in the process, we learn a bit more on how to survive our own environmental follies.

This website was originally designed and implemented in 2011 by Anush Shetty and Pavithra Sankaran, with input from Sainath Vellal. In 2015, Tarique Sani, of SANIsoft, took it upon himself to continue support and augment the features of the website. He has made searching the website not only more powerful, but also added backend features that allow me to update the database in a couple of simple steps. Support from Suhel Quader has been unstinted and generous, in enabling the 'partnerships' at both the stages of this website's life. To all of them I am deeply grateful.

It is impossible to thank all those who have helped me directly/indirectly with this bibliography. However, I would like to thank the following persons/organisations:

Akbar Abdulali, Alan Peterson, Alison Harding, Amar Bhagat, Anand Prasad, André Cyr, Andrew Robertson, Anwaruddin Choudhury, Aparajita Datta, Arati Dikshit, Arjun Guneratne, Arpit Deomurari, Asad R. Rahmani, Asiatic Society of Bengal library staff, Asiatic Society of Bombay library staff, B. C. Choudhury, Bhavbhuti M. Parasharya, Bhavya Udeshi, Bikram Grewal, Bill Harvey, Biodiversity Heritage Library [biodiversitylibrary.org], Bombay Natural History Society library staff (Mangesh Ghodke, Nirmala P. Reddy, Nishikant Dighe, Pragati Nathgosavi, Prashant Kumbhar, Sadanand Shirsat, Sharvari Bapat, Shubhangi Puradkar, Tarendra Singh), C. S. Yoganand, C. Sashikumar, C. Srinivasulu, Capt. N. S. Tyabji (Deceased), Carol Inskipp, Charles Thomas Hash, Christine Alder, Desmond Allen, Dhirendra Devarshi, Edward C. Dickinson, Farah Ishtiaq, G. Maheswaran, Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Ghazala Shahbuddin, Harkirat Singh Sangha, Harshvardhan Bajoria, Hashim Tyabji, Hem Sagar Baral, Humayun Abdulali (Deceased), Isaac Kehimkar, J. C. Daniel (Deceased), J. N. Prasad, J. V. D. Moorty, Jafer Palot, James J. Jobling, James Sutton, Jevgeni Shergalin, Jochen Martens, Joe Tobias, K. S. Gopi Sundar, Kamlesh Gandhi, Krys Kazmierczak, Kumar Ghorpade, Kumaran Sathasivam, L. Shyamal, Lavkumar Khachar, Lester Perera, Lt. Gen. Baljit Singh, Manoj Sharma, Marek Kuziemko, Mary LeCroy, Mary Peacock, Mohd. Ali Khan, Murray Bruce, Norbert Bahr, Osmania University's Department of Zoology library staff, P. A. Azeez, Pankaj Sekhsaria, Paul Holt, Per Alstrom, Pheroza Godrej, Prasad Ganpule, Praveen Jayadevan, Pushp Kumar (Deceased), Rachel Reuben (Deceased), Ragupathy Kannan, Rajah Jayapal, Ranjit Manakadan, Ravi Sankaran (Deceased), Ravi Singh, Raza Kazmi, Rene Dekker, Richard Schodde, Rishad Naoroji, Rohan Karunanayake, S. A. Hussain (Deceased), S. Balachandran, S. Subramanya, Saraswathy Unnithan, Satish Pande, Sharad Apte, Siraj Ahmed Taher (Deceased), Srinath Sudunagunta, Steven Gregory, T. Ganesh, Taej Mundkur, The Goethals Indian Library & Research Society, Tim Inskipp, V. Nagulu, V. Santharam, Vasanta Nanduri, and Zafar Futehally.

To my family: Babuji (father, Murarilal Pittie: 1941–2010), Chandra Sudha Pittie, Smriti Pittie, Prakriti Pittie, Prashast Pittie, Shruti Somani, and Ambareesh Pittie, who have always been puzzled by the amount of typing I do on the computer, thanks and gratitude are trivial and insubstantial words that limit my feelings towards them. All I would like to say to them is this, "I could not have done it without you."

Aasheesh Pittie

24 February 2015