Essential Birding Western South Africa: Key Routes from Cape Town to the Kalahari

Callan Cohen & Clair Spottiswoode

Struik, Cape Town, 2000
ISBN: 1-86872-524-3
136 pages, A5 paperback, colour photographs
Price approx. R80

Bird-watching has become one of the most popular pastimes in South Africa, both for residents and international tourists. The demand for more precise information on where to look for certain birds and how to plan a birding route, is seemingly insatiable, and this handy book tackles the whole of the western part of the country from Plettenberg Bay to Alexander Bay and inland to the Kalahari, in this regard. Over 120 top bird-watching sites are described, including the best places to find birds in the Cape Peninsula.

There are detailed maps and site descriptions and precise information on where to search for local specials. The information on pelagic birding - looking for albatrosses, petrels, and the like - is especially useful and will no doubt result in a large number of green and wobbly-legged birders returning to shore with new "ticks" in their bird books!

The book is printed on high quality paper and is packed full of colour photographs. Although many of these are very small in size, the reproduction is excellent and they will complement illustrations in field guides for identification purposes.

The authors have done a great job and will surely stimulate others in different parts of the sub-continent to produce equivalent guides.

Posted: Birds by CC Africa, Date: 22 November 2006