Product Description

A guide to the birds of southern Africa, this title features an advanced technique for improved field identification, and an extensive taxonomy featuring corrected misidentifications and recorded species splits that have occured since the previous edition. Also updated from the second edition are names based on recommendations of the International Ornithological Committee and name hyphenations. The checklist, reading list, family summaries, cross-references to species accounts and societies and club details have also been updated since the last edition. The guide features distribution maps that feature dual shading to show relative abundance of a species in the region, as well as crosses to indicate occurances of vagrants. Many of the plates have been cleared of superfluous foliage detail and a feature of the illustrations is the insertion of labels indicating distinctive features for quick identification.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23261 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

About the Author
Ian Sinclair has travelled widely in pursuit of his abiding interest in birds, and has written and co-authored a number of books on bird identification. Phil Hockey is a professor at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, and a recognised authority on the biology of southern African birds, with a special focus on coastal species. Warwick Tarboton is a well-known bird expert, writer and photographer who has authored several books. He was awarded the Gill Memorial Medal for 'services to ornithology south of the Zambezi'.

Customer Reviews

An excellent field guide for anyone visiting Southern Africa
When you turn up a guide's house in Zimbabwe and find a book in his expedition packing list you know it's worth carrying with you. A very well laid out and easy to use field guide with reliable colour plates and distribution charts of the species described next to the colour plate, so no flicking back through the book to find the SBJ you think you're looking at lives in a different part of Africa. The plates also include descriptions of behaviour and habitat that are missing from Colins Illustrated Check List to further aid identification.

Very helpful, intuitive
Found this really useful in the Kruger park. Quick to get to the pages you want, good images. Have used both Roberts and Newmans in the past and they are both great guides but I found this easier

Well used in Botswana
I think the illustrations are well ahead of "Newman" and I found it easy to use. It is so important to have the distribution maps on the same page as the plates.

There are so many changes to names and locations that I think it is beneficial to have more than one guide to hand. Our party also had the "Collins" and, between the two we could resolve more than we could with one book. I still cannot do Cisticolas/Warblers though!