Birds of South Asia

Pamela C. Rasmussen has had a strong lifelong interest in birds, and received her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas for her work on systematics of Patagonian cormorants. She then worked at the Smithsonian Institution as Scientific Assistant to the Secretary Emeritus, before becoming an Assistant Curator at the Michigan State University Museum and Visiting Assistant Professor in MSU's Department of Zoology, where she teaches. Since 1998 she has described five new species of Asian birds and is currently working with a collaborator on another; two of these appear in this book. Rasmussen's research and fieldwork also resulted in the collaborative rediscovery in India of the Forest Owlet 113 years after the last definite report. While preparing this book, Rasmussen located museum specimens of six species previously unknown or unconfirmed for South Asia; re-evaluated the taxonomic status of many of the region's species; and uncovered numerous cases of wrongly and even fraudulently reported species in the region. She has made many research visits to The Natural History Museum, Tring, U.K. where she is a Scientific Associate, and for this book project has visited most museums with South Asian bird collections.