Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi (Helm Field Guides): Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi (Helm Field Guides)

This is the best field guide to the birds of East Africa. What more to say? Superb illustrations and succinct summaries have made this book invaluable for all my East African trips.

Best guide for the region (6/6 people found this helpful)

I own the previous edition of this book before it was published by Helm and Iam assuming that it is the same book (same cover!!)
I was inspired to write this review as I noticed that this book was not getting any love, compared to its nearest rival by Zimmerman. I used this book exclusively during 3 months travelling Kenya and Tanzania and though I did get to look at Zimmerman during this period I think this book is superior in a few small ways:
1. It has text and illustrations on opposites pages rather than a separate plates section. I realise that this is down to personal preference but when using a book as a field guide - having to flick back and forth from plates to text is a no-no for me!!!
2. The illustrations are better. Again subjective but I feel that they are more lifelike and vibrant.
3. It also covers Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
Needless to say this is a fantastic book and though Zimmerman is good, I would recommend this one - I certainly made lots of use of it. It was a constant companion and though quite big and heavy it was certainly robust enough to withstand intensive use in the field. This is possibly the 2nd best guide have owned and definately the best African guide I have seen (it also compares favourable with the Struik guides where they cover the same birds - the illustrations are much better in some cases).

A great leap forward (7/7 people found this helpful)

This field guide is superb and an enormous improvement on the other guides of the area that fall short with poor illustrations, less extensive geographical coverage and/or inadequate text. Critically it brings together in one place excellent illustrations, good maps and most importantly very detailed text. I found the text carefully crafted enabling even members of some of the more difficult groups (e.g. bulbuls and allies) to be relatively easily identified with clear notes to key field marks. It is a pleasure to use for extended periods in the field. My only suggestion for improvement would be to add a few more reference points to the maps.

Accuracy and ease of identification (31/31 people found this helpful)

I've bought several field guides to the birds of this region and this is by far and away the easiest to use for identifying your encounters on travels in East Africa. The plates are clear, with illustrations of male/female and immature variants. Also the description/narrative lies on the page facing the illustrations - this may sound obvious - but it isn't obvious to those who designed the page layout of the Collins field guide. The Collins has the plates on the centre pages and the narratives at the front and back of the book - this layout makes flicking through in the space of time your bird will sit still quite a challenge! Most of us don't have that kind of time, and would prefer to focus on the bird through our "bins", rather than keep our head in the book looking up several different page references.

I only have one criticism of this Stevenson & Fanshawe guide and that is that the goshawk illustrations somehow show the bird with v short legs, when the long legs are one of the key features you notice when you stumble across one.

I know this guide is more expensive than some of its competitors, but it is worth it.

The best bird guide to East Africa's avifauna there is (61/61 people found this helpful)

There are four main field guides to East Africa's avifauna. The oldest, the Collins Guide to the Birds of East Africa, is annoyingly spartan with its pictures, forcing the reader to identify birds via the text. In any case, not all of East Africa's birds are illustrated. Bird distribution is described in the text, and not via more simple to use maps. It was with precisely these shortcomings in mind that Van Berlow set out to illustrate every bird in East Africa (in this case, Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania). His volume, The Birds of East Africa, does indeed contain a full set of plates, and provides extensive distribution maps. The pictures, however, are often small and difficult to discern, and the maps, all located in the back of the guide, accessible only via a rather complicated plate and species number system. The third contender, Zimmerman et al.'s excellent Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania falls short of requirement - in this case - because of its limited geographical range (through no fault of its own!). Another concern is the location of its distribution maps all placed in the text, often well away from the illustration of the bird. When standing in the field with a small and unremarkable avian in front of you, having to flick between illustration and distribution map is increadibly annoying, particularly when the bird then flies off.

Stevenson and Fanshaw's new volume is the fourth guidebook to enter this market and is by far the best. The illustrations are clear, distinct and beautifully detailed; distribution maps (covering Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi) are located alongside each illustration, as is a short and succinct description, so no faffing about between illustration and text. The volume's hard cover makes it an excellent companion on tough birding safaris. I could not recommend this volume more warmly.

Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi (Helm Field Guides): Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi (Helm Field Guides)

Terry Stevenson, John Fanshawe

Reader Reviews:

Your search is over... (2/2 people found this helpful)

Best guide for the region (6/6 people found this helpful)

A great leap forward (7/7 people found this helpful)

Accuracy and ease of identification (31/31 people found this helpful)

The best bird guide to East Africa's avifauna there is (61/61 people found this helpful)

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