100 Common Bird Calls in East Africa

Identify bird calls with this handy guide and CD, which together feature 500 distinctive southern African species. The CD gives the best-known song or call of each species; the book provides clear and accessible text, with a brief account for each species, including a description of the song, associated behaviour, similar-sounding species, the bird’s favoured habitat type, and a distribution map.

The introduction describes interesting aspects of bird vocalisations, the differences between true songbirds and non-songbirds and why calls often change with the seasons and time of day.

Derived from an old Longman publication on bird watching and identification in southern Africa, this book focuses on the essence of how to go about identifying birds. Topics covered include size, shape, bill length, and other physical features that provide clues to the birds’ lifestyle and identity. Full colour photographs and simple line drawings support the text. This book is suitable for beginners of all ages as well as younger birders – in fact, for anyone daunted by the prospect of getting started in the captivating pastime of birding.

This Commemorative edition of Newman’s Birds of Southern Africa at once updates a classic and pays tribute to one of the region’s best loved birding authors, the late Kenneth Newman. With the support of bird expert Faansie Peacock, the author’s daughter, Vanessa Newman, has thoroughly revised, updated and expanded this new edition to reflect the latest research, both in terms of text and illustrations. Covering all the birds recorded from the Antarctic to the Zambezi River, its range includes the birds from the southern seas as well as those of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique. The familiar, user-friendly format of Newman’s Birds uses colour coding to indicate major bird groups and, as always, large accurate paintings of each species reflect the bird as it is seen in the field, now labeled with diagnostic features. A revised introductory section takes readers step-by-step through how to use this latest edition of Newman’s Birds of Southern Africa in the field.

Also available in Afrikaans as Newman se Voëls van Suider-Afrika.

Peacocks & Picathartes is a celebration of the diversity of African birds, focusing on families that occur only in Africa as well as iconic families and species that, despite having close relatives in other parts of the world, seem to embody something of Africa.

Watson’s anecdotal style captures vividly his encounters with prized species, such the secretive White-necked Picathartes and the elusive Congo Peacock. He conveys the sheer delight mousebirds take in ‘being what they are’, and reveals the surprise discovery in 1991 of a new partridge in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains.

Drawing on precolonial and current-day avian accounts, he offers his own insights based on a lifetime of personal observations in the wilds of Africa – recounting unforgettable expeditions, quirky bird behaviour, jittery taxonomy, moments of rare good luck – and much more. Both informative and entertaining, this book captures the essence of African birdlife, and will appeal to bird enthusiasts across the spectrum.