Bird (and wildlife and plant) guides to South Africa

I may be taking a short trip to South Africa in November. Previously, I have only birded Africa in Cameroon and Tanzania, although I have always had half an eye on South Africa and Kenya. Which are the best field guides for South Africa? I know there are several options for birds and different incarnations of Sinclair's "Sasol Birds of Southern Africa". Which is the most useful field guide? What about Newman's? I have an old Kingdon mammal guide, but is there anything more recent for mammals? Any advice on other field guides - plants, insects, herps - would be much appreciated. Many thanks!

Chrisharpe, here are some books you may want to consider for your trip. As you mentioned, there are various iterations of Sinclair's books, especially with the Sasol. For birding anywhere in the 6-country region of southern Africa, I recommend the following in order of preference:

1) Larger Illustrated Guide to Birds of Southern Africa by Sinclair/Hockey, 2nd edition, 2005 (978-1770072435)
This book is a tad big for a field guide, but the illustrations are superb, making the book worth toting around. It also contains ID tips written onto the plates, next to the specific part of the bird. These are handy.

2) Illustrated Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa by Sinclair/Hockey/Tarboton, 1995 (0691044694)
This is nearly the same as the above book, but a little older. It is hardcover, weighs the same, but is slightly shorter and less wide. It lacks the ID points on the page and is missing some of the birds added over the last decade.

3) Birds of Africa South of the Sahara by Sinclair/Ryan, 2004 (0691118159)
Very good illustrations (same illustrator that did the above books), but, it covers almost twice as many birds as you'll encounter due to the book's wider range. Also, this book doesn’t focus on just the southern subspecies like the above guides do.

4) Newman's Birds of Southern Africa by Newman
Newman is another good choice, but I prefer the illustrations and text of the Sinclair/Arlott book.

In case you care to take some extra time – and spend a few more – here are some excellent photo books for at-home preparation:

a) Complete Book of Southern African Birds by Ginn/McIlleron/Milstein (0947430113)
This is a big, heavy book with wonderful photos. Each bird is typically shown in multiple photos. The amount of text is more extensive than the below book, too. This is a pricey book.

b) Southern African Birds: A Photographic Guide by Sinclair/Davidson, 1995 (1868257851– not to be confused with the little 144-page paperback of the same title and author.
This book is also tall, but not nearly as thick. The photos are smaller – but still nice-sized – and typically have only one per species. However, they are still very good. This is a pricey book.

As a side note, an excellent book to help with those pesky pipits is Pipits of Southern Africa, 2006 by Peacock (0620359676). I love identification oriented books that spell out and illustrate minute detail. This is a prime example of a birder's extensive and laborious field observations. Unfortunately, this book is more difficult to find. A few websites in Africa have it. The author also sells it directly at http://www.pipits.co.za/Book.htm

For some other book ideas, you may want to look at my library with the tag of "birds-africa(southern)".

As for butterflies, take a look at Field Guide to the Butterflies of Southern Africa by Migdoll. For mammals, Field Guide to the Mammals of Southern Africa by Stuart is good. I don’t have any recommendations for the herps or plants.

Many thanks for that comprehensive review Soleglad. I will check these books out on the Internet, but it's most helpful to have comments from someone who has them in the hand. I go to the UK Bird Fair every year (http://www.birdfair.org.uk/) and that is an excellent place to check out any sort of book on birds or nature. I've often leafed through the Southern Africa guides, but will compare them in earnest this year and pick up what I need. It's also a good place to buy books as profits help bird conservation and the books tend to get discounted towards the end of the event.

There's one book I don't see on your note, and it's the one I have had on my wish list since it appeared: Sasol Birds of Southern Africa by Sinclair, Hockey & Tarboton, 2002, ISBN 1868727211, 448 pp, Struik Publishers. Is this identical to one of the above, or is it a newer field guide? (Several hours later...) OK, I think I figured it out - this looks like a newer edition of the Illustrated Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa - and may well be a good smaller guide for the field....?

Hahaha, if I'm already getting confused just trying to get a field guide, what hope for identifying the birds?

Yes, you've got it! The Sasol guides have put out several editions and variations of basically the same book with several ISBNs. At times, the name "Sasol" is not even on the book. There is nothing critically different between all the versions (e.g., 1995 vs. 2005). Any of them will serve you quite well in southern Africa.

As a caveat, take note of the other Ian Sinclair books, also published by Struik. He has a line of photographic books with similar titles. These are very different from the illustrated guides and I would recommend to NOT make these photo-guides as your primary field guide. They typically display only one photo per bird. Some birds are shown with drawings when a decent photo could not be found. Now, these are still good photos and I like them, but the text is weaker and the one-photo-per-bird is limiting.

Now, go find your book and memorize all those cisticolas and warblers!

OK Soleglad - many thanks for that. With one or two exceptions (Kaufman's Birds of North America, Swash & Still's Birds, Mammals, and Reptiles of the Galapagos Islands) I tend not to like photographic books as field guides, so your points are well taken. I'll hopefully be able to compare all those guides and purchase what I need at the Bird Fair. Many thanks again!

I did a lot of research on this and finally managed to get hold of the field guide all my birding friends (and the African Bird Club) recommend. It's the Sasol Birds of Southern Africa by Sinclair, Hockey & Tarboton, 2002, ISBN 1868727216, 448 pp, Struik Publishers. To be fair, Peter Hayman and Norman Arlott deserve recognition as authors since they produced the plates - a job often more laborious than writing the text. I've been using the book and it seems to be pretty good.

I don't know if Soleglad can confirm this, but I suspect that this Sasol guide is identical to the much more easily obtainable "Birds of Southern Africa" by Sinclair, Hockey, Tarboton, Hayman & Arlott, 2002, ISBN 0691096821, 432 pp in the Princeton Field Guides series.

Any suggestions for other natural history guide for South Africa? I have the Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals, but I see there are plenty of guides to reptiles, insects, botany, etc.

I believe (but cannot confirm) those two books are the same since I don't own either of those versions. Additionally, I believe those to be very similar (if not the same) as another book (1st & 2nd editions) by the same name and authors/illustrators but of different ISBNs. These are also Struik publications. I mentioned these in Message #2 above, 16 July 2008.

I own these latter two books, along with a third version that is an enlarged format of the 2nd edition. Either way, these are excellent fields guide and are definitely among my favorites for southern Africa -- especially the enlarged version. These books are in my LibraryThing listing at:

1) Illustrated Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa (0691044694)
http://www.librarything.com/work/451285/book/5293669

2) Birds of Southern Africa (1868720330)
http://www.librarything.com/work/451285/book/5293662

3) Larger Illustrated Guide to Birds of Southern Africa (9781770072435) -- see review at http://www.librarything.com/work/4400298/reviews/23568821

I recently bought another excellent field guide for southern Africa, which is Roberts Bird Guide (http://www.librarything.com/work/4440011/book/39373867) by Hugh Chittenden (ISBN 9780620383134, 456pp, 2007). It is the condensed version of the massive 1,296 page book by Hockey, Dean, and Ryan (ISBN 0620340533).

This field guide by Chittenden includes brief ID comments directly on the plates next to the birds. I find this technique to be very useful, which is also done in Morcombe's Field Guide to Australian Birds. However, the Sasol guide does a better job of comparing similar species in the text. The illustrations are of equal quality, but I think I give a slight edge to the Chittenden book.

This link will show all my Southern Africa related bird books: http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Soleglad&deepsearch=birds+of+so...

As for other nature related books on southern Africa, here are some titles that I have not seen myself:
1) Field Guide to the Mammals of Southern Africa (177007404X)
2) Field Guide to the Butterflies of Southern Africa (1868256243)
3) Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa (1868727246)
4) Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of the Witwatersrand and Pretoria Region (0869778145)