Birds of East Africa (Second edition). Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe. Illustrated by John Gale and Brian Small. 2020. Helm Field Guides, London and Dublin. 216 x 140 mm, 640 pages, over 3500 colour illustrations on 289 colour plates, colour distribution maps. ISBN: Hardcover: 978-1-4729-8431-9 (£54.00), Softcover: 978-1-4081-5736-7 (£33.75), ePub: 978-1-4729-7330-6 (£33.75). There is also an ‘eGuide to Birds of East Africa’ based on the first edition, which includes additional features available in a multi-media format, such as calls, but that product is beyond the remit of this review.
This is the second edition of this highly successful field guide. The first edition appeared in 2002 and was entitled Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa. There has also been a shift in publisher from T & AD Poyser to Helm Field Guides in the Bloomsbury Publishing stable. The guide covers Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. This hits rather a ‘sweet spot’ in terms of geographical coverage, with the other relevant major field guides covering either smaller or larger areas. The first edition considered 1388 species and this has risen to 1448 species here, some 70% of the Afrotropical avifauna. Additional species come from new records of typically vagrants (sometimes overlooked species), taxonomic ‘splits’ and discoveries of overlooked historical records. The second edition is only 38 pages longer than the original and otherwise retains the same dimensions. The first edition’s cover illustration of a pair of Red-and-yellow Barbets (Trachyphonus erythrocephalus) has been replaced with an even more striking rendition of a pair of Double-toothed Barbets (Pogonomis bidentatus).
The table of contents is better and more concisely presented than in the first edition. The introductory sections have been commendably re-designed, re-organised and updated. An illustrated section in the introduction to the first edition covered seven species uncovered during the final stages of book production. Six of these receive full treatment in the appropriate places in the second edition. The seventh (Spotted Sandpiper; Actitis macularius) is included in a new illustrated section on ‘vagrants’, covering 17 species in all, at the end of the second edition. The sketches and perhaps labelling of the ‘Bird topography’ segment seem a little cruder than might be expected. A statement in the introduction (and expanded on in the relevant species account) that the Black Cuckooshrike (Campephaga flava) is mainly a migrant species to East Africa from southern Africa is interesting as the species is largely considered by most workers in the latter region as resident or only a local migrant.
The taxonomy and nomenclature of the first edition were largely based on Britton’s Birds of East Africa (1980), whereas this new edition largely follows the Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) and the BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist in this regard. What is not discussed though is the issue of the order in which species are presented. This remains essentially unchanged from the first edition and hence from that followed by Britton. As such it ignores the radical changes to our understanding of avian systematics brought about in recent decades by molecular techniques. This is a conundrum faced by bird field guides globally though. For example, one of the two leading southern African field guides has similarly stuck with the more ‘traditional’ order of species presentation, while the other has largely implemented the recent advances in our knowledge of phylogenies. The danger in the more conservative approach lies in deepening the divide in conceptual approach between birders and ornithologists, although admittedly implementing these changes could also exacerbate the schism!
The green banner titles to bird groups in the species accounts render these pages more visually appealing and modern-looking than in the blander first edition. The greatly enhanced distribution maps also add to the improvement in the appearance of these pages. The first edition showed the range only in a single colour on a very simplistic base map of the region. New refinements include the use of three colours to differentiate between resident and breeding, intra-African breeding migrant, and non-breeding visitor/migrant, as well as combinations of these three categories. The maps also show major rivers (and lakes) and highland areas (>2000 m), which greatly assist with both interpreting, and orientating to, distributional limits.
The species texts and illustrations are overall little changed from the first edition, although a great deal of re-organisation has been implemented. The major substantive changes stem from records of new species in the region and taxonomic splits as mentioned above. Many warbler illustrations have been greatly improved with new renditions and the illustrations of white-eyes and penduline-tits have been replaced and expanded to two plates. The illustrations by Norman Arlott, which were found in the latter parts of the first edition (e.g. wagtails, longclaws, cuckooshrikes, cisticolas, apalises, flycatchers, batises, wattle-eyes, tits and estrildids) have been replaced but, it must be said, not necessarily much improved. Examples of expansions of illustrative coverage within existing material elsewhere is the addition of a rufous morph Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) and additional subspecies of Olive-flanked Robin-Chat (Dessonornis anomalus mbuluensis) and Arnot’s Chat (Myrmecocichla arnotti leucolaema). There are several other such upgrades. Black lines on some plates used to separate species in the first edition have been discarded rendering the plates more aesthetically attractive. It seems worth stressing that the illustrations are of the high quality so essential for a field guide – they by-and-large capture the unique essence of each species. Particularly commendable is that this applies even to difficult groups, such as seabirds, raptors, shorebirds and LBJs, where so many field guides disappoint.
A novel inclusion at the end of the second edition is a list of the 71 regional and national endemic bird species in East Africa by country, which also includes an additional 29 Albertine endemics shared with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Another new feature at the end is a list of 121 threatened species in East Africa, although such lists notoriously become rapidly outdated. A closing section on Important Birds Areas of East Africa has been updated (from 182 to 193 sites) with improved mapping of these areas. The first edition had two separate indexes for scientific and common names. These have been combined in the second edition into a single index and a useful concise ‘quick index’ to the main groups of birds has been added.
The avifaunal assemblage of East Africa is amongst the most diverse and spectacular in the world. This field guide does this treasure-house full justice and no birder visiting the region, or interested in its birdlife, should be without this volume, which has benefited materially from this revision.
David G. Allan
Retired Curator of Birds
Durban Natural Science Museum
South Africa
Header photo: White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides), USFWS
Editor’s note:
Published in the US, US Territories, Canada, and Philippines as PUP version cited here. Published elsewhere as the Helm Guide: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/field-guide-to-the-birds-of-east-africa-9781472986627/.
Suggested citation:
Allan, D. Review of the book Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi (2nd ed.) by Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe. Association of Field Ornithologists Book Review. https://afonet.org/2023/05/birds-of-east-africa-second-edition/.
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