- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Collins (7 Jun 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002201178
- ISBN-13: 978-0002201179
- Product Dimensions: 18.6 x 12.6 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 136,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Southern Africa is becoming an increasingly popular destination for people who want to see first-hand the abundant widlife of this vast continent.
Illustrated Checklist Birds of Southern Africa is the first field guide to illustrate and describe every species of bird found in the Republic of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Angola (including Cabinda); this includes males, females and juveniles.
Featuring over 1,250 species, the text details the kind of habitat the birds are found in, key identification features and notes on the songs and calls of each species.
The 84 colour plates appear opposite their relevant text for quick and easy reference. Maps are included for each species so that any identification can be clarified further.
Comprehensive and easy-to-use, Illustrated Checklist Birds of Southern Africa is a must for all those visiting the region.
From the Back Cover
• The only field guide to describe every species of bird you may see in the Republic of South AFrica, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambiqu, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Angola, (including Cabinda).
• Over 1250 species are illustrated in colour. For many species the female or juvenile is shown in addition to the adult male.
• Each species is described on pages opposite the illustrations for quick and easy reference. The text details each bird’s key identification features, its usual habitat and the sound it makes.
• Each species has a distribution map showing its range and how common it is.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
tHIS IS A CLEAR AND DETAILED GUIDE TO ALL THE BIRDS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA FROM THE COMMENEST TO RARITIES. eACH BIRD IS CLEARLY ILLUSTRATED WITH AN ASSOCIATED MAP TO CLARIFY IN WHICH AREAS PARTICULAR BIRDS ARE LIKELY OT BE FOUND. eXCELLENT VALUE AND A MUST FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE BIRDLIFE OF THE AREA
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
BRIEF AND CONCISE GUIDE
18 Oct 2000
Format:Paperback
Considering how many tourists are attracted to the southern African region by its bird-rich Okavango Delta, Namibian endemics or larks of Karoo, this new aid in bird identification is a most welcome sight. Unlike its South African namesakes (namely Newman's and SASOL), this new edition has one major advantage: it's a pocket-sized book that successfully avoids the bulkiness of its predecessors. Not only the text, illustrations and maps of distribution are of decent quality, but the size of volume is also of importance in the eyes of an average tourist - most likely, his or her bags are already overfilled.
The text is brief, covering Southern Africa in the wider sense. This volume includes not only South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia - but also Angola, Zambia and Malawi. That means there was little space left to explain the preferred habitat of each of the 1,200 or so species covered, but text sharply focuses on major identification marks of our birds: the feather colours, the body shape, the bill length or whatever else is important for a particular bird.
The most important part of every bird identification guide, however, is its illustrations. The bird plates show in full colour every single species, plus a difference between the sexes, the adults and the young, the breeding and non-breeding birds, etc. Some plates with more than ten, even closer to twenty species tend to be overcrowded. The colours tend to be somewhat too bright, too strong - probably a printing error - but it's not that much of a problem as the opposite (faded colours) would be. Generally, despite minor complaints the illustrations are fine enough for accurate identification.
The distribution maps are the least precise part of every guide, usually showing where birders were - that is, showing the current level of knowledge and not the real distribution. Despite this, the maps in van Perlo's are pretty accurate (except, perhaps, the bird distributions in Angola) which is not a surprise since the southern African region is the most researched part of the continent. With the number of species per plate, it was not possible to place the distribution maps on the opposite page, as usual in a majority of similar volumes, so the maps are at the end of a book. It is not practical to waste your observation time turning too many pages to check if the suspected bird lives in particular area, but there is no alternative. This is, perhaps, van Perlo's book's greatest weakness.
If you either briefly visit the southern African region, or live there and want to have a second, brief and concise field guide, look no further: Ber van Perlo fulfilled your need.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Birds of South Africa
2 Mar 2007
Format:Paperback
This book was not at all what I expected. It was impossible, I now know, to determine the quality of this book from the information available on the web site. The pictures are much smaller than I imagined. There are so many on one page that the quality is substandard. I am very disappointed in this book. I will review books in bookstores so I can see what I am buying before ordering another book such as this one online.
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