This field guide review was written by Chris Lotz on April 20, 2025.
This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to put their birding in context, and to learn all kinds of things about the flora, fauna, climate and conservation threats of the habitats that African birds call their homes. Although this book functions as a field guide to the different bird (and other wildlife) habitats of Africa (73 different habitats are described in the book) and can be used to learn more about specific countries one is birding in, I enjoyed reading it cover to cover. I was surprised how exciting a fairly technical book could be; I guess part of it was that it brought back great memories of being back in many of these places I’d traveled to for wildlife viewing. It also brought back childhood memories of how I started my birding journey: simply being truly fascinated by the natural world I grew up in and watching birds as part of the environment, i.e. habitats (I was privileged enough to grow up in Africa). With nicely written text and many excellent photos, this is both an enjoyable and informative book.
The text contains an absolute wealth of information about plant species making up each habitat, what birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and other wildlife lurk inside each habitat, endemism of plants and animals, conservation status, distribution and where to see good examples of each habitat. Each habitat also has a distribution map of where it occurs in Africa, like any good field guide. The book is also full of beautiful photos of the habitats, landscapes, birds and other wildlife; it is superbly illustrated with pictures that certainly make one want to visit each area. The text also contains many informative sidebars such as “Fire: friend or foe” (in the Fynbos habitat section), “Weavers: a megadiverse Afrotropical family”, “Africa’s Great Rift Valley” and so forth.
The introduction of the book explains many technical elements, such as the climate classification system used throughout the book, useful habitat jargon, endemic bird areas, etc. The introduction also contains a sidebar about Africa’s endemic bird families. And, furthermore, it gives regional introductions to the different major parts of the continent, such as East Africa, Greater Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean.
The book is soft cover, and relatively compact considering the sheer extent of what it covers (a description of all the habitats of Africa from Morocco to Cape Town, and of islands including the “Eighth Continent”, Madagascar). So, it can be carried into the field on any African birding trip as a useful companion to learn loads more about the places one is going to, in addition to the birds themselves. However, I personally, will probably save packing space and read the relevant sections before and after each trip to a particular destination.
This is indeed a great book, which I give five out of five stars to. Well done to the three authors!
