Customer Reviews

Birds of Western Africa (Princeton Field Guides)

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

 

 

This birding guide is outstanding and a must have for any birder or nature lover that visits West Africa. The color plates of over 1250 species are excellent and the range mape are conveniently located. There is pertinent information for each bird that is helpful. This portable guide receives high marks.
Ted Peterson

This new edition of the Birds of Western Africa is a great companion on any trip to the region for anyone interested in the variety of birds you will encounter. I used it on a trip to Ghana in May 2008 and found it to be indispensable for identifying the more challenging and rare species as well as the common ones. The illustrations are really excellent and capture the more subtle plumage variations even in the greenbuls and bulbuls. Far and away the best plates in any African bird guide. Period. The text is concise and highlights important details including habitat and vocalizations so essential to recognizing birds in the field. Birds of Western Africa is convenient to carry with you on field trips and a great reference to have before and after planning your trip to Africa. Highly recommended.

This guide covers 23 countries in Western Africa south of the Sahara. From Mauritania in the northwest to Chad and the Central African Republic in the southeast down to the Congo in the south. It also includes the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Gambia. Such a large region includes nearly 1,300 species, nearly all are illustrated in this guide. The guide is small enough to be carried in your pack or cargo pocket and clearly was made for ease of use in the field
The emphasis of this guide is the illustrations and range maps. The 148 colour plates are clear, and very well illustrated and organised.Range maps follow each plate and are included for each species. Every raptor is illustrated in flight as well as adult male and females (if dimorphic) and juvenile forms. as a result the plates are crowded and the illustrations smaller than in other plates. And the shorebirds are shown in breeding and non-breeding plumage, so the plate are also a bit crowded. Sub-species are not well represented again due to available space.But this is really just nit-picking a very well done illustrated guide.
I would preffer more detailed written descriptions for each species, they really are sparse and not very helpful for indentification, but that would increase the size of this guide, quite a bit. The real test of a guide is how helpful it is in the field and I feel that focusing on the illustrations was a correct choice, considering the size of the area covered and number of species included.
The last few plates are very helpful in showing island forms, different from species illustrated elsewhere in the book, and there is a nice page showing the shape of the nests of each species of weavers.As usual this book meets the high standards I have grown toexpect from Princeton field guides,and I can highly recommend this guide to anyone travelling to Western Africa or as an addition to anyone's birding library.

We are owners of over 50 bird books, mainly field guides. This book looks excellent. It is well laid out and well organized. We are looking forward to using it on our upcoming trip to Africa

I took this book with me to Ghana and really enjoyed the ease with which I found myself able to identify the birds I saw - it was really helpful having the maps that showed the range of each species - I'm a beginner at birdwatching and now I think I'm hooked!

Good book for travel. Not too big, yet very comprehensive. Maps are a big help.
The drawings are excellent.

Excellent feedback from the receiver as it was a gift. Clear, systematic and complete.

This guide is not as comprehensive as the Ridgely guide "Birds of Ecuador-Field Guide" but is only about 1/2 the size. The index is separated into two parts-English names and scientific names. The English index is in a large size font wich is easy to read. The scientific names are in a smaller italic font, which is not easy to read. I have no idea why they chose to do that. Some of the bird plates are unusually small for a fild guide--too small really, especially raptors. The bird descriptions are rather brief, just 3 or 4 lines at the most and there is no description of the birds' commonality. It is more of an illustrated check list than a field guide, very similar to the Princton illustrated checklist "Birds of Sothern South America" by La Peña and Rumboll. But unlike La Peña the distribution maps are on the pages following the illustrations instead of in the back of the book, a plus.

We do not see many birds native to West Africa in Kentucky where I live. My sister who is a missionary lives in West Africa requested this book for her birthday. We were very outdoor oriented family. We spent countless hours exploring the woods and creek where we were raised. Sis has discovered the joys of a very basic lifestyle and loves bird watching. Finding gifts for her is difficult and when she asks for something I go out of my way to find this. It is great to have resouces for books the you would not be able to find in smaller towns.