Customer Reviews

The Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi (Princeton Field Guides)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After years of having one of the world's worst bird books, East Africa now has two of the best. The Zimmerman/Turner book on Kenya and Northern Tanzania, the work of 30 years, set a new standard of scholarship and illustration. This book draws on that one, but is even better for the tourist and field birder. It covers all of Uganda and Tanzania, as well as Rwanda and Burundi. It is smaller and lighter to carry. And the illustrations and their placement in related groups on the same page are simply outstanding. This is one of the best bird books in the world and will dominate the market for years to come.

I think I have all the guides to the birds of East Africa in the last 30 years, but this most recent by Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe is certainly the most comprehensive, artistically excellent and usable. Ber van Perlo's Collins Illustrated Checklist "Birds of Eastern Africa" is smaller and lighterweight but no comparison, nor intended to be, in description or plate detail. This new volume, with a 2002(!) publication date has amongst the best plates and abbreviated descriptions, in my opinion, ever published in a comparable volume on birds. Artists John Gale and Brian Small are fabulous (Norman Arlott lacks their skills, but does his subjects justice as well). It is a exceedingly worthwhile complement to Dale Zimmerman's larger format "Birds of Kenya and northern Tanzania" and includes all of Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi as well. Don't miss this book!

I used this field guide during my recent trip to Kenya and Uganda. Although it is by all means an excellent fieldguide I do have some remarks. A number of the plates contained errors, suggesting the artists didn't see these birds in the field. I realise it is virtually impossible for artists to see all species featured in a book such as this in the field, so that a lot of plates are drawn from skins. It is important however to use skins from the region itself, this may make a lot of difference. We came to the conclusion that for a number of species skins from west Africa were used. Especially the greenbuls had some misleading plates. For a number of species the Kenyan Zimmerman-book is probably better, although those plates lack in other respects.
In addition a number of the maps were incorrect, especially for Uganda.
Still, if you go to the region for birding, make sure to get this book, because it is definitely the best field guide around.

This guide has the best illustrations of the 20+ bird guides I own. If any book can make the problem of learning and distinguishing the roughly 1400 species in the region - Uganda, Kenya, Tanganika, Rwanda, Burundi - possible, this book is the one. A little heavy for the field, but contains only the essential material: species accounts and range maps on the left page, illustrations on the right. Even after some study I will still have to refer to the guide to identify which of the 38 species of Cisticola I am looking at, but with this guide the chances are very good.

everywhere you go in east africa you see birds. if you like them- you better be prepared for the trip! i got the guide a month before, and tried to get as familiar as possible with the birds before arriving to tanzania.
when we went on safari our guide pulled out his worn and faded zimmerman- the descriptions on one part, the illustrations on another and the distribution maps at the end. when i pulled my guide and gave him a try- he was very attached to his zimmerman but had to admit that the stevenson is indeed a worthy companion, with all the info about a species is on the same page...
compared to my european guide it is heavy and big- but the european contains only about 750 spp, while this one has more than 1200!
the illustrations are bright and clear.
i used it during my 30 day trip to tanzania and got more than 200 positive identifications, so i must go again to get the rest...

recommended!

This book really sets a very high standard and we can only hope other parts of the world's tropics will get similar guides in due time. The plates are just about as superb as one could possibly wish for. When you compare this book with the new field guides that have recently come out for South America, it seems like there are two worlds! Just compare the flamingos, the osprey, or the parrots with the pictures you find in "The Field Guide to the Birds of Peru" and you know what I mean! There is also an excellent lay-out, with helpful concise text and useful range maps all neatly placed together. And the book is still amazingly compact.

I was three weeks in Ethiopia and I took 1500 pgotos of Ethiopian birds during my trip. This book gave a magnificant basis for identifying and clssifying my material. Pictures are good, with good details and colours. I sincerally recommend this book to everybody who are interested in bird watching in East-Africa.

Because it is so comprehensive, the book is very useful for birdwatching in these central African countries; because it is so comprehensive it is both heavy to carry and less useful for picturing variants in a local area. Notes are very good on changes in breeding plumage etc. Distribution maps are also helpful for quick differentiations. An excellent basic text, and well worth carrying, especially if traveling by jeep. Don't leave home without it!

"Birds of East Africa" by Stevenson and Fanshawe is generally a good field guide. The layout is fairly standard, typical of most good field guides for birds.

Some of the colours seemed a little off to me. The yellow wagtails I saw in Uganda were not as yellow as the plates in the guide, although I may have been seeing juveniles (not shown in the guide).

The poses of the birds were mostly a little static and did not show the birds in typical habitats. The illustrations seemed mostly dead, lacking a sense of the live bird in its habitat.

Usability in the field is an important design consideration, and the design of this guide could be improved. To find a bird quickly, you have to flick through a 6-page table of contents, or refer to the comprehensive (but longer) indices of both scientific and common names. Then you have to locate the right page, but the page numbers are quite small.

Newman's "Birds of Southern Africa" uses a much better system. The major bird groups with reference pages are on the inside of the front cover, making for rapid location. Major groups are colour-coded, as are the corresponding pages. Page numbers are large. All these design features make Newman's mush faster and easier to use than "Birds of East Africa".

Stevenson and Fanshawe have written a good guide, but it could have been so much better with more attention to usability and more vivid illustrations.

As another reviewer mentioned, there's a problem with the editions Amazon is selling. The first edition of this book was published in 2002. As of 5/5/2010 the ISBN number on this page is for the 2006 edition, although I was sent the 2002 edition. Hopefully after my bringing it to their attention they will correct the error (if you look in the information about the publication it says it was published in 2002, so if that's changed they will likely have corrected the problem).