A Guide to the Birds of Western Africa

Rating:
Summary: Great Plates
Review: This book has to be an enormous improvement over the "old" guide to the birds of west Africa. In October & November of 2001 I used just the plates of this guide while in west Africa. They are fantastic. There are many views of each species, they are all in color, the citations are quite comprehensive and all plates are grouped together. This is the only book you will need in Western Africa - and I havn't even seen the text! But while using just the plates I was able to identify nearly every bird that I saw in one nation in the region.

Rating:
Summary: Great Plates
Review: This book has to be an enormous improvement over the "old" guide to the birds of west Africa. In October & November of 2001 I used just the plates of this guide while in west Africa. They are fantastic. There are many views of each species, they are all in color, the citations are quite comprehensive and all plates are grouped together. This is the only book you will need in Western Africa - and I havn't even seen the text! But while using just the plates I was able to identify nearly every bird that I saw in one nation in the region.

Rating:
Summary: I birded Ghana on my own with this guide..94 Lifers!!!
Review: This is a great book for the bird fanatic going on a trip to West Africa. I recently took a 3 weeks' trip birding on my own in Ghana, hitting all the most famous bird spots, and thanks to this book, managed to tick 94 Lifers. Unless you are fortunate enough to get a dedicated Birder Guide, most of the game guides, required accompaniment on walks in all of Ghana's parks and reserves, will not know all that much about bird species. I was able to ID most of my birds with the plates alone, but one or two were defined by the excellent behavioural hints in the text descriptions (e.g. they perfectly described the song flight of the Zitting Cisticola, which I observed every day while in Accra, while the bird itself was difficult to distinguish from the other cisticolas, the one time I got a good look at it perching on a reed). While I still had several "????" birds (who doesn't get those?) and I probably missed a lot more without a professional bird guide, this book enabled me to understand the avian world of West Africa while birding on my own. Yes, it is a heavy tome, but as a painter I was able to sketch birds in the field on a tiny notepad and then look them up in the tome after returning to my lodging. You can take the Princeton paperback "checklist" along as well if you must have a field reference, but don't leave this big book behind! Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: I birded Ghana on my own with this guide..94 Lifers!!!
Review: This is a great book for the bird fanatic going on a trip to West Africa. I recently took a 3 weeks' trip birding on my own in Ghana, hitting all the most famous bird spots, and thanks to this book, managed to tick 94 Lifers. Unless you are fortunate enough to get a dedicated Birder Guide, most of the game guides, required accompaniment on walks in all of Ghana's parks and reserves, will not know all that much about bird species. I was able to ID most of my birds with the plates alone, but one or two were defined by the excellent behavioural hints in the text descriptions (e.g. they perfectly described the song flight of the Zitting Cisticola, which I observed every day while in Accra, while the bird itself was difficult to distinguish from the other cisticolas, the one time I got a good look at it perching on a reed). While I still had several "????" birds (who doesn't get those?) and I probably missed a lot more without a professional bird guide, this book enabled me to understand the avian world of West Africa while birding on my own. Yes, it is a heavy tome, but as a painter I was able to sketch birds in the field on a tiny notepad and then look them up in the tome after returning to my lodging. You can take the Princeton paperback "checklist" along as well if you must have a field reference, but don't leave this big book behind! Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but not a "field" guide.
Review: This new guide is a "must" for all those interested in African birds. For a field guide, however, it is just a considerable bit too heavy. But if previous guides (Kenya and Northern Tanzania, Indian Subcontinent) are any indication, we may expect a smaller version in due time. Meanwhile, let's just enjoy what has come out. The quality of the color plates varies considerably, but they all range from fairly good to excellent. They are all by the same artist which supposedly ought to guarantee for greater consistency. In this case, it certainly is not so. There are plates that are flat, others come to life vividly; there are plates with lots of blank space whereas others (especially the raptors) are crammed. However, all the plates are most useful, often giving flight pictures for different plumages as well. Overall, color renditions seem to be good, as well. But the Plain Swift on plate 63 should be lighter colored than the Common Swift, whereas it is depicted darker. This is, however just nitpicking when compared with all the faults and deplorable plates found in recent field guides for South America. Thus, once again, birders going to Africa can be envied for another excellent guide they now have available. The text has French names as well (including an index), a good feature in an region that is partly French speaking. The excellent range maps would be more helpful if they would be opposite the plates, but their inclusion in the text allowed for more details. In addition, the caption with the plates already gives a rough indication of the range.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but not a "field" guide.
Review: This new guide is a "must" for all those interested in African birds. For a field guide, however, it is just a considerable bit too heavy. But if previous guides (Kenya and Northern Tanzania, Indian Subcontinent) are any indication, we may expect a smaller version in due time. Meanwhile, let's just enjoy what has come out. The quality of the color plates varies considerably, but they all range from fairly good to excellent. They are all by the same artist which supposedly ought to guarantee for greater consistency. In this case, it certainly is not so. There are plates that are flat, others come to life vividly; there are plates with lots of blank space whereas others (especially the raptors) are crammed. However, all the plates are most useful, often giving flight pictures for different plumages as well. Overall, color renditions seem to be good, as well. But the Plain Swift on plate 63 should be lighter colored than the Common Swift, whereas it is depicted darker. This is, however just nitpicking when compared with all the faults and deplorable plates found in recent field guides for South America. Thus, once again, birders going to Africa can be envied for another excellent guide they now have available. The text has French names as well (including an index), a good feature in an region that is partly French speaking. The excellent range maps would be more helpful if they would be opposite the plates, but their inclusion in the text allowed for more details. In addition, the caption with the plates already gives a rough indication of the range.