Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa

Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe
T&AD Poyser, London, 2002 ISBN: 0-85661-079-8
Hard cover, 142x220mm, 604 pages, approx. US$54

Until recently, birdwatchers in East Africa had just one field guide to choose from and this book - authored by John Williams - did not even illustrate all of the species. Although popular - it ran to seven editions - it was clearly insufficient for one of the world's richest bird areas. In 1995, Ber van Perlo's Illustrated Checklist was published and in 1996, "The Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania" by Zimmerman, Turner and Pearson. Although the latter is undoubtedly a classic, it does not cover species found in western Uganda or southern Tanzania. The van Perlo book is useful and compact with good (albeit) tiny illustrations, but has scant text and suffers from having distribution maps separated from the illustrations.

But now, at long last, we have the definitive field guide to all the birds of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. One thousand, three hundred and eighty eight species depicted in marvellous colour plates with an excellent descriptive text and accurate distribution maps. The 286 plates have been illustrated by Brian Small, John Gale and Norman Arlott. It is very hard to fault these paintings as they accurately depict the postures and plumage of every species. John Gale might be singled out, however, as his birds are extremely life-like and energetic; the owls, barbets and bulbuls are quite brilliant in their execution and plate 102 where the small owlets are depicted in scale alongside the huge Pel's Fishing Owl is a delight. For virtually all of the non-passerines, both adult and immature plumages are featured, and their is very often one or more painting of the species in flight. Important sub-species (races) are also illustrated.

The introductory section is the only disappointment, in that more space could have been devoted to describing the region's major bird habitats (to accompany the excellent colour map) and perhaps brief coverage of the best birdwatching localities. This criticism aside, and speaking as an avid collector (and user) of bird field guides from around the world, I can honestly say that there is none finer.

- Duncan Butchart -

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