Birds of Southern Africa and Their Tracks & Signs

About this book

This book is a totally fresh approach to observing birds in southern Africa. It affords you the opportunity to gather previously inaccessible and indecipherable information in the form of tracks and signs left behind by our avifauna. Birds of Southern Africa and Their Tracks & Signs explores the unique details of the spoor, or tracks, of many species of birds. This is done in multiple ways including by observing their droppings, examining their feeding behaviour as well as their general nesting structures.

It's remarkable how tracks and signs in nature help you to enrich your knowledge of bird species, providing knowledge as straightforward as the shape of the individual nests of our various species of weaver, or the ability to recognise and understand the role of a drum-site in the life of a bearded woodpecker, or even being able to see the subtle signs of a cardinal woodpecker on the various acacia pods which host its larval food.

Louis Liebenberg has generously provided some sketches of spoor he has made for his own publications, making these clear schematics available to assist with identification. Skulls, feathers, beaks and egg shells are also occasionally encountered, and a few examples of these will be included, as they also tell a story of a bird which has passed by. This approach to southern Africa's birdlife will add tremendously to how we experience our wonderful avifauna.

Customer Reviews

Biography

Lee Gutteridge is an experienced, enthusiastic and well-known wildlife author, nature guide and trainer. With 25 years of experience in the bush, he has come to realise that guiding is not just about knowledge but more importantly about how we share it with our guests from around the world. He personally trains many recognised and highly experienced guide and tracker teams at some of the southern and central African region's top lodges, with programmes focusing on a wide range of subjects including track identification skills.