Roberts Bird Guide

The Roberts Bird Guide (2nd Edition) has gone to great trouble to concentrate on, and illustrate, difficult-to-identify species and family groups such as raptors, warblers, cisticolas and waders. Special attention has been given to make sure there is far greater coverage of male-female differences and there are also many more juvenile illustrations. Unlike all previously published southern African bird guides, this new edition will be scattered with informative photographs that are incorporated in the text pages and each plate illustration is augmented with an introduction. Apart from the approximately 240 plate spreads, the guide also has 12 photographic and illustrated double spreads that show head enlargements and other details. Plates are annotated far more definitively than other guides – highlighting key identification features, especially for difficult-to-identify species. Plates are richly illustrated with vignettes, which will make any birding experience more informative.

Hugh Chittenden is a photographer, the chairman of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, and the author of Top Birding Spots in Southern Africa. Ian Whyte lived and worked in the Kruger National park for 37 years, is an ornithologist, and is the author of World Without End?: Environmental Disaster and the Collapse of Empires. Greg Davies has been an ornithologist at the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History since January 2010. Ingrid Weiersbye grew up in Zimbabwe, a country where the natural beauty shaped her deep interest in and love for all aspects of nature. Ingrid has painted professionally and exhibited extensively for 38 years, working in acrylic and oils from her studio in Hilton, KwaZulu-Nstsl.