Birds of Southern Africa

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.

Ber van Perlo has been traveling and living in Africa, mainly in Kenya, since his retirement from the Dutch National Forest Service in 1981. He has illustrated three bird guides: Megapodes, by René Dekker; Rails: A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World, by Barry Taylor; and A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, by Krys Kazmierczak. “If you are headed to southern Africa for the first time, you can put this in your pocket and take it into the field, and it will give you an excellent overview.”—Stuart Keith, Birding