FrieslandCampina Engro Pakistan Limited’s Birds of Pakistan is a sustainability initiative to draw the attention of the world to the exquisite beauty of the varied, exotic species of birds found in Pakistan. It also highlights the need for preservation and highlight the need for preservation of their depleting natural habitats due to ecological changes. This initiative supported UN Sustainable Development Goals for protecting life on land and the impact of climate change on the planet.
The beauty that lies in Pakistan is unobserved by mainstream media, and its diverse geography, climate and culture often doesn’t receive media attention the way other aspects of the nation does. The birdlife of Pakistan is rich, full of diverse exotic beauty and stunning topography. This book is thus an attempt to capture the full glory of these birds in their natural habitat – each photograph is attribute to their freedom and beauty.
From the world’s biggest permanent freshwater glacier Baltoro (Gilgit-Baltistan) to the hot deserts of Thar (Sindh) and Makran Coastline (Balochistan), Pakistan is the only country in the world with the most altitudinal variation. K-2, the second highest mountain (8,611m) in the Karakorum Range, in the north of the country and more than 1,000 kilometers long coastline in the south are two extremes. This huge variation in topography within approximately 2,600 kilometers from the northern tip of the country to the southern border reflects unique flora and fauna as well as geography, cultures and people, and therefore, makes this land an aspiring and challenging place for explorers and nature lovers.
More than 780 species have been recorded in Pakistan so far, including permanent residents that stay all year long, others that come to breed and raise their young ones, wintering birds that spend most of the winter season in Pakistan and migratory birds that pass through in spring and autumn along the Indus. The many canals, irrigation channels and lakes around the Indus Basin offer a large landscape to bird watchers and wildlife photographers. The selected bird photographs in the book provide altitudinal as well as geographic diversity and represent all the provinces in Pakistan. They have been grouped according to their families, following, to some extent, the sequence given in the “Birds of Pakistan” – Helm Field Guides. The book carries a total of 121 photographs of birds, representing 93 species. With a rapidly growing use of land for humans, whether for industry, agriculture, housing societies or entertainment, the natural habitats for birds are rapidly changing and disappearing, a fact that is represented in the book in all its urgency. We hope that this book will make people fall in love with the birds in the same way that we have and will contribute in the preservation of natural habitats and champion the right of birds to fly and sing without fear.
