Regular marked price: $35.00Discount Price: $23.10
Cost Savings: $11.90 (34%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 598
EAN num: 9780691096827
ISBN number: 0691096821
Label: Princeton University Press
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 432
Printing Date: September 23, 2002
Publishing house: Princeton University Press
Sale Popularity Level: 47237
Studio: Princeton University Press
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Birds of Southern Africa is the best and most authoritative guide to the birds of one of the world's most fertile birding regions. Two hundred colour plates comprising over 4,000 expert illustrations help birders to distinguish all of southern Africa's approximately 950 bird species. The illustrations have labels highlighting diagnostic features, and many birds are depicted in flight as well as still. Special attention is given to plumage variation by age, sex, and season.
The informative text, written by eminent ornithologists, is fully integrated with the colour plates to facilitate use in the field. Detailed species accounts emphasize the essential characteristics of each bird, including information on behavior, calls, and habitat preferences.
All species names and divisions are in line with the latest recommendations of the International Ornithological Committee, while well-known and local common names are also included. Both beginners and advanced birders will appreciate the regional checklist, quick reference guides, and excellent family summaries. Up-to-date distribution maps feature dual shading to indicate areas of low and high abundance, while cross-referencing is made easy with colour coding and a simple numbering system.
Absolutely up-to-date and both beautifully and comprehensively illustrated, this field guide is a terrific reference as well as a superb visual record of the rich variety of a region that is home to one-tenth of all bird species.
User popularity level:

Rated by buyers
-
We wanted to label all the photos of birds we took in South Africa. This book made it easy to locate the drawings of the birds. . .drawings that were very lifelike. . .and attach the names to the photos. We highly recommend this guide.
Rated by buyers
-
This guide looks perfect for my needs. I have looked it over carefully, even though I haven't had a chance to use it in the field. I definitely like the quick reference guide to bird types inside the front and back covers and the color-coded reference to bird groups. Look forward to using this guide in the field.
Rated by buyers
-
Warning: using this field guide will make you dissatisfied with many other field guides. You will enjoy studying and using this guide.
The illustrations are large and detailed, distinctly more accurate than most guides. In addition most are just beautiful works. They are grouped in species settings with juveniles, alternate plumage, flight and significant field marks highlighted.
On the opposite page: written description, habitat, abundancy status and call descriptions with a range map plus the Afrikaans name.
As an example of the illustrations: the Laughing Dove is illustrated by two flight poses and a profile. The profile has arrows noting 'no hind collar', 'cinnamon back' and 'black-flecked necklace'. The written text notes marks that distinguish this bird from a Cape Turtle-Dove.
The cover is plastic coated and the pages have a lesser water resistant coating.
A lot of attention to detail went into creating this book --colored coded page edges according to bird group, groups of waterbirds and hawks in flight for comparison, a checklist near the index and internet addresses of birding resources in the area.
All this in a work that I carried in a large pants pocket every day.
It just makes me wish such books were available for many more areas.
Rated by buyers
-
Well worth the money to enjoy your trip to South Africa even more. Even with a good guide (like we had with Transfrontiers) it is well worth taking a strong field guide like Birds of Southern Africa. That way when your guide is trying to tell you what you are looking at, you can see the picture up close and get a better idea. We have done many trips to various parts of Africa and this is one of the best guides we have used.
Rated by buyers
-
This book is superbly illustrated, with clear descriptions of each type of bird and makes identification fairly straight forward.
While I have not used it in the bush yet, I expect it will be invaluable in identifying each bird I may encounter.
Find other books like this one: