Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi

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Summary: Fabulous new East African bird book.
Review: After years of having one of the world's worst bird books, East Africa now has two of the best. The Zimmerman/Turner book on Kenya and Northern Tanzania, the work of 30 years, set a new standard of scholarship and illustration. This book draws on that one, but is even better for the tourist and field birder. It covers all of Uganda and Tanzania, as well as Rwanda and Burundi. It is smaller and lighter to carry. And the illustrations and their placement in related groups on the same page are simply outstanding. This is one of the best bird books in the world and will dominate the market for years to come.

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Summary: Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa is superb!!
Review: I think I have all the guides to the birds of East Africa in the last 30 years, but this most recent by Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe is certainly the most comprehensive, artistically excellent and usable. Ber van Perlo's Collins Illustrated Checklist "Birds of Eastern Africa" is smaller and lighterweight but no comparison, nor intended to be, in description or plate detail. This new volume, with a 2002(!) publication date has amongst the best plates and abbreviated descriptions, in my opinion, ever published in a comparable volume on birds. Artists John Gale and Brian Small are fabulous (Norman Arlott lacks their skills, but does his subjects justice as well). It is a exceedingly worthwhile complement to Dale Zimmerman's larger format "Birds of Kenya and northern Tanzania" and includes all of Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi as well. Don't miss this book!

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Summary: a good start - but a thorough review is in order
Review: I used this field guide during my recent trip to Kenya and Uganda. Although it is by all means an excellent fieldguide I do have some remarks. A number of the plates contained errors, suggesting the artists didn't see these birds in the field. I realise it is virtually impossible for artists to see all species featured in a book such as this in the field, so that a lot of plates are drawn from skins. It is important however to use skins from the region itself, this may make a lot of difference. We came to the conclusion that for a number of species skins from west Africa were used. Especially the greenbuls had some misleading plates. For a number of species the Kenyan Zimmerman-book is probably better, although those plates lack in other respects.
In addition a number of the maps were incorrect, especially for Uganda.
Still, if you go to the region for birding, make sure to get this book, because it is definitely the best field guide around.

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Summary: The perfect field guide!
Review: This book really sets a very high standard and we can only hope other parts of the world's tropics will get similar guides in due time. The plates are just about as superb as one could possibly wish for. When you compare this book with the new field guides that have recently come out for South America, it seems like there are two worlds! Just compare the flamingos, the osprey, or the parrots with the pictures you find in "The Field Guide to the Birds of Peru" and you know what I mean! There is also an excellent lay-out, with helpful concise text and useful range maps all neatly placed together. And the book is still amazingly compact.