Roberts Birds of SA - 7th edition

Edited by P.A.R.Hockey, W.R.J.Dean & P.G.Ryan

Published by the Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund in association with Africa Geographic Books.

Available from leading bookshops in South Africa or on-line from www.africageographic.com

For birdwatchers in southern Africa, 'Roberts' Birds' was long regarded as the definitive reference. It was certainly the book which I was dependent upon as a young birder in the 1970s (the 3rd and 4th editions). Back then, it was said that only the Holy Bible was to be found on more South African bookshelves and in more homes than Roberts' Birds! For me, Roberts' was the bible!

In recent years, a number of field guides modelled on European and North American publications entered the South African market, with 'Newman's' and 'Sasol' foremost among them. These publications were concerned only with the business of identifying a bird and where it occurred, with little or no information on behaviour and ecology. Not only did and do these books achieve their objectives admirably, but they suit a new generation of birders who - like their counterparts around the world - are more interested in identification for the purpose of listing, than they are in learning about behaviour. With its detailed texts and incomplete illustrations, Roberts' pretty much fell by the wayside.

Several years ago, however, it was decided to reinvent Roberts and get a new team of editors to produce a complete revision in a new format. This decision was taken by the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund which financed the very first edition in 1940 and are the trustees (i.e. copyright owners) of book. The South African birdwatching community were encouraged to publish all of their observations in regional bird club magazines so that these might be considered by the editors, and were even invited to comment on the draft texts via a special internet site. For numerous poorly-studied bird species, the editorial team challenged birdwatchers to investigate unknown aspects of their ecology and contribute this information. The idea was to create the most comprehensive handbook of all that is known about the birds of southern Africa.

This captured the attention of just about everyone interested in birds, as well as collectors of natural history and Africana books. Not surprisingly, the project went through a long gestation period, and the finished product was a long time in coming. And the longer the publication took, the higher the expectations seemed to rise. It was against this background that the long-awaited 7th edition arrived in bookstores last month.

It is a massive book, with 1296 pages between covers measuring 24 x 32 centimetres. The spine alone is 70cm and the book weighs 5.25 kilograms which is more South Africa's national bird, the Blue Crane (the males of which, we learn on page 309, weigh 5.09 kilogram on average). Clearly it is going to strain the bookshelves of most people, if it fits on them at all.

From a textual point of view, the book is phenomenal with definitive accounts for all of the 951 species occurring south of the Zambezi and Cunene rivers. These have been compiled by individual authors, many of whom are recognised authorities on particular species or groups. The text is compact and written in a somewhat dry style, with numerous abbreviations, so it doesn't make for an easy read. It will, however, answer just about any question that you might have about a particular bird. The text is heavy with references all of which are first abbreviated and then listed in full, in a bibliography of 133 pages! Such a treatment is required of a book which is dependent upon the published work of so many authors, over so many years, but it makes the publication extremely cumbersome for the amateur bird enthusiast and non-scientist (there is also a lot of unnecessary duplication of references, which might have been handled differently by the editors). I have read only a smattering of texts for this review, but did find them a little inconsistent, with some species receiving more comprehensive treatment than others, but this is often the result of the individual author's writing style.

Not being a field guide, the emphasis of the book is not on illustration but there are 80 colour plates featuring all 951 species. A team of seven illustrators have prepared these plates so the style is inconsistent. The brilliant work of Ingrid Weiersbye stands out for me, although Graeme Arnott's plates are of the very high standard we have come to expect of this well-published bird artist. For species where the sexes differ in their plumage, including weavers, sunbirds and many raptors, only the males are illustrated which is disappointing (and odd in the case of species such as the Pygmy Falcon). Interestingly, Arnott has managed to include female chats, rock-thrushes, woodpeckers and batises which is the result of meticulous design on his part.

From within the birding community, there has been fiery criticism of the absence of other languages in the book. I would estimate that well over half of South African birders have Afrikaans as their first language and so it is extremely odd that no Afrikaans bird names are included. Excuses that space was a limiting factor are nonsensical as any book designer could have accommodated these (and the bird names from other widely-spoken languages such as Zulu, Shona and Xhosa) simply by adjusting the point-size of heading fonts. At the very least, the other languages could and should have been listed in an appendix.

For this reviewer, two aspects make the book difficult to use. Firstly, it is just too heavy and difficult to manipulate (this comes from somebody who has many large format bird books in his collection). I will be most surprised if the spine of Roberts' can withstand the weight that it is intended to support and anticipate that the publishers will be getting numerous complaints in the months ahead. The recently published new edition of 'Palgrave's Trees of Southern Africa' also runs to over 1200 pages but the smaller format, and lightweight paper, make it a far easier book to use. Another solution would have been to create two volumes in a slipcase, although this would have increased the cost and thus the retail price. Secondly, because the known sequence in which bird families appear has been changed to fall into line with recent DNA analysis (which has shown more clearly how various species are related to one another) it is quite tricky actually find the account for a particular bird. Yes, of course one can look in the table of contents or the index, but most of us are used to a particular sequence and this habit will take a while to break.

Notwithstanding these criticisms, the new edition of 'Roberts Birds of Southern Africa' is a vital reference and no serious birdwatcher should be without it. At a price of R795-00 it is extraordinary value for money, considering that four paperback novels (or two tanks of fuel in the average motor car) add up to the same thing. Whether your book case can accommodate it, is another matter!

- Duncan Butchart -

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