He also produced a number of regional field guides, including The Birds of Kerala (the first edition in 1953 was titled The Birds of Travancore and Cochin), The Birds of Sikkim, The Birds of Kutch (later as The Birds of Gujarat), Indian Hill Birds and Birds of the Eastern Himalayas. Several low-cost book were produced by the National Book Trust including Common Birds (1967) coauthored with his niece Laeeq Futehally which was reprinted in several editions with translations into Hindi and other languages. In 1985 he wrote his autobiography The Fall of a Sparrow. Ali provided his own vision for the Bombay Natural History Society, noting the importance of conservation action. In the 1986 issue of the Journal of the BNHS he noted the role that the BNHS had played, the changing interests from hunting to conservation captured in 64 volumes that were preserved in microfiche copies, and the zenith that he claimed it had reached under the exceptional editorship of S H Prater.