The Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi (Princeton Field Guides)

Book Description

Birds of East Africa is the first comprehensive field guide to this spectacular birding region--and one of the best to any region in the world. Covering all resident, migrant, and vagrant birds of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, this small and compact guide describes and illustrates a remarkable 1,388 species in convenient facing-page layout. Featuring 287 new color plates with 3,400 images painstakingly rendered by three experienced artists, the guide illustrates all the plumages and major races likely to be encountered. Set opposite the plates are range maps and concise accounts describing identification, status, range, habits, and voice for each species. Introductory sections provide notes on how to use the species accounts, the nomenclature adopted, conservation issues, where to send records, and maps of protected and other important bird areas.

Between them, Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe have more than 40 years' experience leading bird tours and conducting conservation work in East Africa. The region shelters a remarkable diversity of birds, including many seriously threatened species with small and vulnerable ranges. The region's birds form a constantly colorful, noisy, and highly extroverted part of the landscape. The book is sure to become an indispensable guide for anyone interested in studying or conserving birds in East Africa, as well as the many visitors who simply want to enjoy the sheer beauty of its birds.

First comprehensive field guide to the countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi
Covers 1,388 species, with 3,400 color images on 287 plates
Concise species accounts facing the plates describe appearance, status, range, habits, and voice
A color distribution map is given for each species
Information on habitats, protected areas, and conservation issues
The essential guide to the birds of this spectacular region
An overview of East African birds
East African environment
Seasonality
Plumage
Species accounts
Common alternative names
Conservation and threatened species
The local scene
Glossary, references, and an index

Key Features:

Small and compact
Comprehensive species
All distinctive plumages and races illustrated
Color plates
Illustrations
All species ranges mapped
Key protected and important bird areas mapped

Customer Reviews:

Birds of East Africa Princeton Field Guide.......2007-09-20

At Last a concise well illustrated easy to manage field guide for bird watchers travelling to East Africa. Previous reviews although excellent are to heavy and bulky for international travellers with serious weight limitations on the luggage they are allowed.
The illustations are excellent and there is adequate factual information and good maps to accompany them.

Birds of East Africa book.......2007-07-03

This is a great book of African birds. Excellent plate pictures. Makes it very easy to identify. Book in excellent condition and received it as expected. Definitely would order from this seller again. Thanks.

Birds of east afrika.......2007-02-12

I was three weeks in Ethiopia and I took 1500 pgotos of Ethiopian birds during my trip. This book gave a magnificant basis for identifying and clssifying my material. Pictures are good, with good details and colours. I sincerally recommend this book to everybody who are interested in bird watching in East-Africa.

a must for the birder.......2007-01-17

everywhere you go in east africa you see birds. if you like them- you better be prepared for the trip! i got the guide a month before, and tried to get as familiar as possible with the birds before arriving to tanzania.
when we went on safari our guide pulled out his worn and faded zimmerman- the descriptions on one part, the illustrations on another and the distribution maps at the end. when i pulled my guide and gave him a try- he was very attached to his zimmerman but had to admit that the stevenson is indeed a worthy companion, with all the info about a species is on the same page...
compared to my european guide it is heavy and big- but the european contains only about 750 spp, while this one has more than 1200!
the illustrations are bright and clear.
i used it during my 30 day trip to tanzania and got more than 200 positive identifications, so i must go again to get the rest...

recommended!

Have guide book, will travel.......2006-11-05

This guide has the best illustrations of the 20+ bird guides I own. If any book can make the problem of learning and distinguishing the roughly 1400 species in the region - Uganda, Kenya, Tanganika, Rwanda, Burundi - possible, this book is the one. A little heavy for the field, but contains only the essential material: species accounts and range maps on the left page, illustrations on the right. Even after some study I will still have to refer to the guide to identify which of the 38 species of Cisticola I am looking at, but with this guide the chances are very good.

Birds of Southern Africa (Princeton Field Guides)

Average customer rating:

Exactly what I wanted
Excellent Comprehensive Field Guide
Birds of Southern Africa
Birds of South Africa
Birds of Southern Africa

Birds of Southern Africa (Princeton Field Guides)
Ian Sinclair , Phil Hockey , and Warwick Tarboton
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691096821

Book Description

Birds of Southern Africa is the best and most authoritative guide to the birds of one of the world's most fertile birding regions. Two hundred color plates comprising over 4,000 expert illustrations help birders to distinguish all of southern Africa's approximately 950 bird species. The illustrations have labels highlighting diagnostic features, and many birds are depicted in flight as well as still. Special attention is given to plumage variation by age, sex, and season.

The informative text, written by eminent ornithologists, is fully integrated with the color plates to facilitate use in the field. Detailed species accounts emphasize the essential characteristics of each bird, including information on behavior, calls, and habitat preferences.

All species names and divisions are in line with the latest recommendations of the International Ornithological Committee, while well-known and local common names are also included. Both beginners and advanced birders will appreciate the regional checklist, quick reference guides, and excellent family summaries. Up-to-date distribution maps feature dual shading to indicate areas of low and high abundance, while cross-referencing is made easy with color coding and a simple numbering system.

Absolutely up-to-date and both beautifully and comprehensively illustrated, this field guide is a terrific reference as well as a superb visual record of the rich variety of a region that is home to one-tenth of all bird species.

Customer Reviews:

Exactly what I wanted.......2007-06-08

This book is superbly illustrated, with clear descriptions of each type of bird and makes identification fairly straight forward.
While I have not used it in the bush yet, I expect it will be invaluable in identifying each bird I may encounter.

Excellent Comprehensive Field Guide.......2007-03-30

I'm so glad I bought this guide before visiting South Africa recently. I took it with me everywhere and it shows! It is easy to find the bird group you are looking for from the table of contents as well as quick references (both names and diagrams) that direct you to the appropriate page. The drawings are very well done. I especially like how distinguishing features and subtle differences between similar species are pointed out both in the written descriptions and diagrams, making for easier identification. Also, in species where juveniles or breeding birds differ considerably in plumage, additional diagrams are added to depict this.

With this many species, space is limited, and I have read complaints that there is not enough information about the species, so I suppose that is something to consider if you are looking for in-depth descriptions, but I don't think that was the intention of the authors for this guide. As a field guide it is excellent and reasonably sized to carry around with you in a backpack (not a pocket guide!). If I want to know more about a particular species, I look it up on the internet later. I looked at some other books at a local bookstore in South Africa and I was glad I had bought this one. Definitely recommended.

Birds of Southern Africa.......2007-03-09

Book was purchased for our forthcoming trip to Botswana. It seems to give excellent coverage of the birds
we're likely to encounter there and with little repetition of birds we've seen before in Kenya and Tanzania.
The maps are well done and illustrations are excellent.

Birds of South Africa.......2007-02-24

Sinclair's book is a big improvement on the earlier fieldguides for the area that I had (Newman and Prozesky). The art is better and the info is compactly displayed. I can't claim to be knowledgeable about this avifauna, nor have I used the book in the field. However, the book is just the sort of new work that I was looking for in preparation for a visit to South Africa.

Birds of Southern Africa.......2006-08-30

I own all the field guides for this area and the Sinclair book is the best. The illustrations are excellent and the text and range maps are opposite the illustrations making it easy to use in the field. I do question the inclusion of some species where there are only two or three records for the area covered as this makes someone visiting the area go through a lot of alternatives to make an identification. Also better explanation of the summer ranges of certain species would help.

Birds of West Africa (Collins Field Guides)

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Birds of West Africa (Collins Field Guides)
W. Serle , Gerard J. Morel , and W. Hartwig
Manufacturer: Harpercollins Pub Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0002192047

Birds of Western Africa (Princeton Field Guides)

Average customer rating:

Best West Africa field guide.
Birds of Western Africa

Birds of Western Africa (Princeton Field Guides)
Nik Borrow , and Ron Demey
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Africa | Travel | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0691123217

Book Description

This new field guide uses all 147 color plates from Princeton's A Guide to the Birds of Western Africa, with concise, authoritative text on facing pages, to create a compact, lightweight field reference covering all 1,285 species found in the region--from Senegal and southern Mauritania east to Chad and the Central African Republic and south to Congo. It is the first field guide to cover this region exclusively and in such comprehensive depth, and will enable birders to identify any species found in any of the twenty-three countries and territories covered.

Birds of Western Africa also has an updated color distribution map for each species, conveniently placed on interleaved pages within the color plates. The plates, all original and painted by the same leading illustrator, comprise over 3,000 figures--including a number of new images painted for this field guide--and depict almost all the species described. The entries opposite the plates focus on key identification marks for all main plumages.

Both authors have gained extensive field experience over many years in western Africa. Their knowledge and expertise shines through in this unprecedented and outstanding field guide to one of the world's most exciting birding regions.

Customer Reviews:

Best West Africa field guide........2007-07-12

This birding guide is outstanding and a must have for any birder or nature lover that visits West Africa. The color plates of over 1250 species are excellent and the range mape are conveniently located. There is pertinent information for each bird that is helpful. This portable guide receives high marks.
Ted Peterson

Birds of Western Africa.......2007-01-19

Excellent feedback from the receiver as it was a gift. Clear, systematic and complete.

Birds of Africa South of the Sahara (Princeton Field Guides)

Average customer rating:

A (pretty) good book
A Wonderful Reference
Comprehensive & Well-organized
A great ornithological overview
for Spotting only, not for info about a bird

Birds of Africa South of the Sahara (Princeton Field Guides)
Ian Sinclair , and Peter Ryan
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691118159

Book Description

This compact and easy-to-use guide is the first book to describe and illustrate all of the birds found in sub-Saharan Africa. Detailing more than 2,100 species, it covers the entire Afrotropic Region, including Socotra, Pemba, and the islands in the Gulf of Guinea.

Stunning color illustrations depict most distinctive plumages as well as diagnostic flight patterns and major geographic variants. Range maps are provided for each species, and the well-formatted text highlights precise identification features and differences between similar species as well as providing concise information on habitat, status, and calls. All information is completely up-to-date, incorporating the latest taxonomy (including descriptions of many new species never before illustrated) and the most recent atlas surveys.

Offering unrivalled coverage of African birds in a single volume, this book will tempt many more birders to one of the world's richest faunas.

Customer Reviews:

A (pretty) good book.......2007-02-16

I used it in Cameroon last year and in Niger this year. Although it suffers some weaknesses, like some breeding/non-breeding plumage difference not documented, and like some upper-parts of raptors not shown, this is definitely one of the books any birdwatcher must have in his pocket in the West Africa bush, and I would not leave without it, although it is a little worn out now. The Borrow & Demey is a good complement.

A Wonderful Reference.......2007-01-06

We purchased this book upon our return from a safari in Kenya and Tanzania because our guides used it. We used it to identify birds in the 650 best of our photos, and found it to be quite complete and reliable. It's a winner.

Comprehensive & Well-organized.......2004-06-12

This book has taken on a monumental task by introducing the entire bird fauna of a huge region in one volume.
I was sceptical before seeing it, thinking that quantity would probably take priority over quality. It did not!
For a start, it is surprisingly detailed and well-organized. The editors have resisted the usual temptetion of cramming too many similar or small species on one page. Usually there are just 5-6 species on each page, sometimes 7 or just 3-4.
What this means is that illustrations are big enough to show detail, plus there are often 4 or more different illustrations for the same 1 species, showing different colour morphs, juveniles, females, birds in flight, head or wing details, etc.
It also means that the maps and text for each species could be placed on the page facing its picture.
The text itself is still amazingly detailed for a book of this scope, giving the essential information on distribution, appearence, habitat, status and voice.
Too good to be true? Well, some of the illustrations show important colour or pattern details wrongly, even contradicting description in the text - in these cases the text tends be more accurate, so have a look at that one, too!
But all in all, this book is a great value introduction to the bird fauna of Africa, though perhaps unsurprisingly, I found it a bit too bulky to carry on the field.

A great ornithological overview.......2004-02-09

This is the first field guide type book that enables birdwatchers to get an overview of what mainland Africa has to offer as far as birds are concerned. The only area that is not covered by this book is North Africa. Most of that is included in every major field guide for Europe. So in the end, just a few species of northern Sudan escape coverage in this way. Compared with other books that claim to be field guides, this one is still relatively compact. Certainly so, when one takes into account the incredibly rich avifauna. A total of more than 2100 species are covered.

The color plates, as a whole, are excellent. As they were drawn by a number of artists, the general impression of "unity" is missing to some extent. But that is a problem of most modern field guides, as it would take too long - in an impatient market - for one artist to come up with a full set of good plates. The original South-African publisher Struik had the possibility to use many pictures from other field guides they publish. This may have been the only way to make such a monumental task feasible at all.

The texts and range maps are opposite the plates. This practical - and customary - arrangement necessitates rather short texts. However, they are very informative, providing the essentials for a field guide like field identification, habitat, abundance, and voice. The range maps do not show seasonal changes, but the texts compensate to some degree with brief hints.

For some areas of Africa, this is the first field guide available, whereas one would probably take recourse to the more compact regional books where they are available. At any rate, the publishers are to be congratulated to this most valuable and well organized book.

for Spotting only, not for info about a bird.......2004-02-07

This is a survey, with a summary for each bird that is useful for bird-spotting. But it does not include details such as the life-cycle or habitat of the bird. Maybe it assumes you have other books for this. It covers such an enormous area and number of birds that these details had to be omitted.

Average customer rating:

Birds of Prey of Africa & Its Islands
Alan Kemp , and A. C. Kemp
Manufacturer: New Holland Publishers,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Birds of South Africa
BRIEF AND CONCISE GUIDE

Birds of Southern Africa.
Ber van Perlo
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691090343

Book Description

Birds of Southern Africa fills the blanks most others leave in their coverage of this region by describing all 1,250 bird species one might see not only in South Africa but in Zambia and Malawi (both long neglected elsewhere), Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. And this is the only guide to illustrate the birds of Angola (including Cabinda), home of the striking White-headed Robin Chat of river basins and the Angolan Cave Chat, a dweller of rocky hillsides.

The 84 color plates depict vagrants, ocean wanderers, and many other birds that occur across a huge region characterized by widely varying habitats from woodlands and forests of various types to deserts to swamps. The text opposite the plates concisely describes similar species and subspecies by physical traits, habitat, and voice. All the larks are shown in flight as well as perched, and every swallow is pictured in flight from below. The most distinctive immature and non-breeding plumages are included. This book will be an invaluable resource to any birder contemplating a trip to southern Africa.

Customer Reviews:

Birds of South Africa.......2007-03-02

This book was not at all what I expected. It was impossible, I now know, to determine the quality of this book from the information available on the web site. The pictures are much smaller than I imagined. There are so many on one page that the quality is substandard. I am very disappointed in this book. I will review books in bookstores so I can see what I am buying before ordering another book such as this one online.

BRIEF AND CONCISE GUIDE.......2000-10-18

Considering how many tourists are attracted to the southern African region by its bird-rich Okavango Delta, Namibian endemics or larks of Karoo, this new aid in bird identification is a most welcome sight. Unlike its South African namesakes (namely Newman's and SASOL), this new edition has one major advantage: it's a pocket-sized book that successfully avoids the bulkiness of its predecessors. Not only the text, illustrations and maps of distribution are of decent quality, but the size of volume is also of importance in the eyes of an average tourist - most likely, his or her bags are already overfilled.

The text is brief, covering Southern Africa in the wider sense. This volume includes not only South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia - but also Angola, Zambia and Malawi. That means there was little space left to explain the preferred habitat of each of the 1,200 or so species covered, but text sharply focuses on major identification marks of our birds: the feather colours, the body shape, the bill length or whatever else is important for a particular bird.

The most important part of every bird identification guide, however, is its illustrations. The bird plates show in full colour every single species, plus a difference between the sexes, the adults and the young, the breeding and non-breeding birds, etc. Some plates with more than ten, even closer to twenty species tend to be overcrowded. The colours tend to be somewhat too bright, too strong - probably a printing error - but it's not that much of a problem as the opposite (faded colours) would be. Generally, despite minor complaints the illustrations are fine enough for accurate identification.

The distribution maps are the least precise part of every guide, usually showing where birders were - that is, showing the current level of knowledge and not the real distribution. Despite this, the maps in van Perlo's are pretty accurate (except, perhaps, the bird distributions in Angola) which is not a surprise since the southern African region is the most researched part of the continent. With the number of species per plate, it was not possible to place the distribution maps on the opposite page, as usual in a majority of similar volumes, so the maps are at the end of a book. It is not practical to waste your observation time turning too many pages to check if the suspected bird lives in particular area, but there is no alternative. This is, perhaps, van Perlo's book's greatest weakness.

Book Description

This volume is the first of a set of seven which, when complete, will cover the entire avifauna of Africa, one of the most varied and interesting in the world. While many regional guides to African birds exist, this will be the first comprehensive guide to the bird life of the continent as a whole, including North Africa.

The entire set covers all species of birds found in Africa, including migrants from the Palearctic and vagrants. Resident birds are described in full detail, with sections on their range and status, description, field characters, voice, general behaviour, food and breeding biology. Visitors are also given extensive coverage, with emphasis on their status and behaviour within Africa.

These volumes are sure to be acclaimed as the authority on the avifauna of Africa for many years to come. The quality of the text and the beauty of the plates will assure them pride of place on the shelves of ornithologists and bird-watchers everywhere. Indeed, anyone with an interest in natural history or ecology will find here a source of much interest and enjoyment.

Customer Reviews:

Good.......1999-11-17

Your price on this book ~ The Birds of Africa (Vol 5) ~ is no better than buying it anyplace else including from the publisher.

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