Exploring the Avian Diversity of Sub-Saharan Africa

George Spencer Young: I've used Birds of Africa South of the Sahara for three years now, mainly for identifying birds seen in travel videos. I originally purchased this book because of it's comprehensive coverage and I have not been disappointed in that respect. Likewise, the range maps are easy to use and seem fairly accurate, much less spotty than those on e-Bird. In contrast, many of the paintings are off on one field mark or another. Sometimes it's just a matter of different races of the same species being different, but other times a key field make will be different between the book's plate and all of the photos on e-Bird. For my uses this isn't a big problem as I can use the book to narrow down the choice to a few species and then check details on a number of e-Bird photos. If you're in the field without Internet this issue could pose a problem. By the time you know the species well enough to recognize that a key field mark is wrong in the book, you probably know the species well enough not to need the book. I'm in no position to judge the textual information, but I certainly find it informative and easy to access. --- I'm not sure what other book I'd recommend in place of this for someone...

United States on Oct 09, 2023

Amazon Kunde: Excelente guia sobre as aves de África, recomendo!!

Spain on May 18, 2023

Ein begeisterter Nesbo-Leser: This book is probably the best field guide out there. The reason why I have decided against it is that ironically it is not suitable to be carried when you are out in the field because it is massive and very heavy. This is not the book’s fault though.

Germany on Feb 23, 2022

Amazon Customer: This guide is probably halfway between being a field guide and an armchair where-do-I-just-have-to-visit book. Field guide features are excellent, including quality illustrations, notes on important field marks on the illustration page near the feature (eg, for turacos, the crest shape and size are placed near the crest), and maps on the facing page. The text is concise with some notes on geographic variation and subspecies if warranted. A nice feature is a thin gray line separating each species' illustration, which makes it easy to tell which species are which when multiple plumages are shown. The downsides to the field guide function are partly what I consider to be hindrances to the perfect guide (which I haven't seen yet, despite my library containing several dozen field guides from around the world). These include numbers on the illustrations instead of names, which adds a few precious seconds to the hunt for information in the field. The plates are not overly crowded (see Zimmerman et al's Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania for an irritating extreme in crowded), so there would have been room to put the names and not just numbers. The maps do not show any seasonal ranges,...

United States on Jul 30, 2020

Paul Naturalist TZ & AUS: This second edition is extremely helpful if like me you know one part of Africa reasonably well but want to expand your knowledge of African Birds. Because I travel in Australasia , Tanzania and am based in the UK I needed a copy in each. Its not perfect and is now not totally up to date, but which book ever is? As new field guides are planned for E Africa and recently a new one was published for S Africa I will also invest in them but always have this excellent book at hand to compare. Is a 3rd edition in the pipe-line? I believe it is.... One book never does it all but if you can only buy one for Africa this one , for now, it a good one.

United Kingdom on Jul 27, 2020

Weatherbird: I live as far from Africa as you can get and have never been there. Still, I am interested in African birds. When I read a book such as Chris Goodie's "The Jewel Hunter" I want to be able to find out something about the birds mentioned in the book. I own two older Collins guides, Willams and Arlott's "A Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa" and Prozesky's "A Field Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa". These are nice books, but it is much more convenient to leaf through "Birds of Africa South of the Sahara: Second Editon". The Sinclair and Ryan is a larger format book with text on the left and the excellent color illustrations on the facing page while the Collins books have the color plates together in the center of the book--separated from the text descriptions of the birds. However, if I were actually birdwatching in Africa, I might balk at carrying a 3 lb (1.36kg) book like the Sinclair and Ryan guide.

United States on Nov 16, 2013

Steve Bosley: I've been fortunate enough to safari throughout Eastern and Southern Africa regularly for the last 30+ years and have always gone armed with the appropriate bird book, some a lot better than others.
I came across a well thumbed copy of this book in the library of a lodge in southern Tanzania and was immediately impressed by the quality of the plates and the detail in the text alongside (it was sufficient to aid identification; not too detailed to lose this novice, but keen reader)
The new edition is the ideal one book for safari - if a bit heavier than the more localised offerings. It also has the advantage of freeing up space on my bookshelf (if only I could bring myself to part with the others!)
The only thing I personally am missing are arrows on the plates indicating the 'killer' identification characteristics, that help the novice (and others I am sure) to get to a rapid identification in the field

United Kingdom on Nov 10, 2012

ofs13: Das Durchblättern des frisch eingetroffenen Buches war keine herbe, aber doch eine ziemliche Enttäuschung. Die Bilder sind nicht so besonders. Nach dem deutschen Notensystem würde ich sie im besten Fall als "befriedigend", im schlechtesten als "knapp ausreichend" bezeichnen. Zu letzterer Kategorie zähle ich einige der Tauben, Eulen und Greifvögel. Besonders suspekt sind mir auch die Lerchen, allerdings mit der wichtigen Einschränkung, dass ich fast keine dieser Art je gesehen habe, nicht einmal als Foto- oder Filmaufnahme. Vergleicht man allerdings diese Farbtafeln mit denen im "Handbook of the Birds of the World" Volume 9, kann man kaum glauben, dass das die selben Arten sein sollen.
Auch scheinen mir bei sehr vielen Flugbildern aus fast allen Vogelgruppen die Flügel viel zu groß geraten, das heisst sowohl zu lang als auch zu breit. Der Vergleich mit den Abbildungen in Svensson et.al bestätigt diesen Eindruck (z.B. Pirol, Turteltaube, Rötelfalke, Rotschenkel).
Fast nie werden irgendwelche Unterarten gezeigt oder erwähnt, obwohl es in Afrika sicherlich viele gibt die sich auch im Freiland unterscheiden lassen. Platz wäre in vielen Fällen da gewesen, denn nach...

Germany on Jun 14, 2008

Laszlo Wagner: 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...

United States on Jun 12, 2004