Field Guide To Shorebirds Of South Africa

Do you have a large 'Wader'-sized gap in your bird knowledge? Roy Cowgill and Stephen Davis will help you fill in those gaps and will soon have you identifying South Africa's shorebirds with confidence and ease. This unique new guide will help identify the more common waders in South Africa and will appeal to both experienced birders and novices.

The most comprehensive photographic guide of southern Africa’s birds in one volume, this brings a new dimension to bird ID in the region. It describes and illustrates all 958 birds, plus 17 species from Antarctica and Southern Ocean islands. Over 2,500 photographs show plumage variations and colour morphs. Text by Africa’s top birding authors focuses on identification, call, habitat, status, breeding and diet. Distribution maps show migratory status and bird density, and calendar bars show species’ prevalence and breeding. An indispensable companion in the field.

Birds of Africa South of the Sahara provides unrivalled coverage of African birds in a single volume, and is the first book to describe and illustrate all of the birds found in Africa south of the Sahara Desert (the Afrotropic Region), including Socotra, Pemba and islands in the Gulf of Guinea. * Some 2,105 species are covered, with an additional 70 vagrants briefly described, and more than 2,000 images assembled on 359 plates. * Illustrations portray most distinctive plumages, as well as diagnostic flight patterns and major geographic variants. * Species descriptions give precise identification features, highlighting differences between similar species, as well as briefly reporting habitat, status and calls. * Distribution maps for each species are based on the latest atlas surveys. * The most up-to-date taxonomy is used, with many new species described and illustrated for the first time. Despite its exceptional coverage, this guide is compact enough to use in the field, and follows the standard field guide format, with texts and range maps appearing opposite the color plates.

The Roberts Bird Guide (2nd Edition) has gone to great trouble to concentrate on, and illustrate, difficult-to-identify species and family groups such as raptors, warblers, cisticolas and waders. Special attention has been given to make sure there is far greater coverage of male-female differences and there are also many more juvenile illustrations. Unlike all previously published southern African bird guides, this new edition will be scattered with informative photographs that are incorporated in the text pages and each plate illustration is augmented with an introduction. Apart from the approximately 240 plate spreads, the guide also has 12 photographic and illustrated double spreads that show head enlargements and other details. Plates are annotated far more definitively than other guides - highlighting key identification features, especially for difficult-to-identify species. Plates are richly illustrated with vignettes, which will make any birding experience more informative.

First published in 1993, Sasol Birds of Southern Africa is one of the best-selling field guides on the African continent. This fourth edition has been rewritten and greatly improved, ensuring it remains the region’s most comprehensively illustrated and trusted field guide. In this fourth edition: species accounts have been rewritten and now include group introductions; plates have been newly designed for ease of use and comparison; more than 380 new improved illustrations replace earlier ones; illustrations have simplified labels, pinpointing key differentiating features; distribution maps have been updated, showing the relative abundance of a species in the region, and also indicating resident or migrant status. Other features include calendar bars that show species’ occurrence and breeding periods, a section on ‘how to use this book’, as well as sonograms depicting the calls of difficult-to-distinguish birds that have distinctive calls.