Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa

This new field guide includes all resident, breeding and migrant species found in Greater Southern Africa – in other words, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. This is a vast area of more than 4.6m sq km and this book describes nearly 1200 species that can be encountered in the region, and that includes quite a selection of seabird vagrants given the region’s extensive coastline and proximity to the southern oceans. The taxonomy follows that promoted by Birdlife and HBW.

The immediate comparison to be made is to the SASOL Birds of Southern Africa guide which first appeared in 1993 and is now in its fifth edition. What you get with the new book is the addition of Zambia and Malawi, neither of which has a recent field guide. Most of the images for the new guide are sourced from the Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa which first appeared in 2002. Some have been adapted to reflect racial differences, and given that at least 200 species breed in Greater Southern Africa but not East Africa, there are a lot of new illustrations. Keith Barnes is the lead author, creating the text for the new species, and working with Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe. All three are widely respected authorities on the continent’s birds.

The book has over 3300 illustrations in total, and in a few groups (seabirds, waterfowl, waders, hirundines etc) there are flight images too. John Gale and Brian Small are the main artists while Faansie Peacock was brought in to create the images of larks, many of which are unique to this region, and are very much his speciality.

One obvious country that could have been included is Angola, not least because it does not have a field guide. However, Helm are on the case and a dedicated field guide to Angola is due to appear next year.

The layout of a succinct text on the left is easy to read and covers plumage, voice and distribution, and is accompanied by a colour map. The plates on the right combine 4–5 species (all facing left) and are very clear. To my eye, they are more realistic than those in the SASOL guide, but that does at least include lines to demarcate between species.

In addition, there is an introduction to the area and its habitats, and at the end, there is a complete checklist to the region with status. 26 vagrants are given brief treatment and there are lists of endemic and near-endemic species and also threatened species.

The biggest question is whether you need this book if you already have the SASOL guide. The answer probably depends on where you are going. If you are heading to Zambia or Malawi I’d say you’ll want to have it. That said, the softback version weighs just over a kilo!