Sasol Birds of Southern Africa

by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey & Warwick Tarboton

Struik, 2002
Softcover, R164,00, ISBN 1 86872 721 1, 150mm x 210mm, 447 pages (available from good book shops or direct from http://www.struik.co.za/)

Again billed as the ‘region's most comprehensively illustrated guide' this third edition of a very successful field guide is a timely one and the book's launch followed hot on the heels of the new Newman's (reviewed in the September edition of Wild Watch). As with its competitor the Sasol guide has taken the opportunity to publish the most recent advances in bird taxonomy, naming and distribution. This means that the data of the largely inaccessible (at least to the average birder) Atlas of Southern African Birds is now easily available and this, combined with even more recent records, is one of the strengths of the book.

More controversial over the last four or five years has been the debate of name changes to a host of southern African species that are known by other names in their ranges north of the Zambezi and Kunene. Most birders, even yours truly, now accept the need for these changes and all the new names as well (fortunately) as the old are represented in this latest edition - even to the point of correcting the spelling of Arnott's Chat (formerly Arnot's). No less controversial is the ‘lumping and splitting' debate that will continue to rage. Nonetheless all the currently accepted changes such as the splits in the Kelp and Cape Gull, the Olive and Karoo Thrush and the endlessly complicated Longbilled Lark complex (5 species from just 1 a few years ago) are included in the book. In the intervening years there have also been some new species recorded in southern Africa - Citrine Wagtail, Great Knot and Western Reef Heron are just three examples - and these are illustrated and their status and distribution described. Valuable new additions to the illustrations are labels pointing out diagnostic anatomical and plumage features for ease of identification. Maps now also distinguish areas of high and low abundance for each species - an important feature that pays heed to the dictum ‘birds have wings'.

Sasol originally appeared in 1993 and did for field guides much the same as Newman's did on its appearance ten years earlier. It is continuing to revolutionise a rapidly growing market for field guides and is indeed the most ‘comprehensively illustrated guide' to the region's birds. A PVC covered edition is also available and if you plan to use your Sasol in the field then this is what you should be getting. Having said that ... birders remain an idiosyncratic lot and if Newman's is your tipple then there will be no persuading you otherwise. The Sasol devotees will no doubt have their copies already and those of you holding out for the new Robert's have still got a bit of a wait in store.

-Chris Roche-

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