Birds of Senegal and The Gambia
Many birders’ first taste of Africa is on a trip to The Gambia and with so many West African specialities, as well as numerous Western Palearctic migrants in winter, it is not surprising that the country is perennially popular. The more adventurous will also consider going further afield and visiting the surrounding country of Senegal, and this new field guide, partly culled from the same authors’ larger Birds of Western Africa (2002), will serve you well for both countries.
The Gambia is fortunate enough to also be a fairly popular package destination and has at least some of the tourist infrastructure that one might expect. Most birders base themselves at one of the coastal hotels and first experience the distinctive avifauna with relative ease. In fact, The Gambia could be nicknamed ‘easy Africa’ due to the relative safety of the country and accessibility of a large number of West African specialities.
This new guide covers more than 680 species with the inclusion of many recent discoveries and vagrant records, and these are divided among almost 2,000 colour illustrations. The book is in many respects a replacement for the second edition of Barlow, Wacher and Disley’s A Field Guide to the Birds of the Gambia and Senegal (2005) from the same publisher. In comparison, the new book both suffers and improves: for instance, whereas the previous guide had extra species information at the back, the Borrow and Demey volume has the now more familiar format of complete text opposite illustrations. This means that the plates are less crowded, giving each species more room for different plumages and poses to be illustrated, though it also means that species information is limited to identification; still, this isn’t really a problem in a field guide with a companion regional avifauna.
The new book’s paintings are jizzy in places but less accurate in others; for instance, the proportions of some of the Accipiter paintings look a little unnatural. The overall look of the plates is, on average, more sketchy and realistic than the earlier guide, and there are more illustrations of immatures and females where necessary. Kelp Gull, for example, now has most ages depicted instead of solely adult plumage, though the illustration is misleading, being shown almost identical in size to fuscus Lesser Black-backed Gull on the plate.
The occasional interesting snippet in the text, like the 16,000 African Swallow-tailed Kites roosting at Kaolak, Senegal, in January 2007, is also welcome and fires the imagination for another visit to this accessible West African gem of a birding destination. This is an essential accompaniment for the two countries and a noticeable improvement on the already fine earlier guide.
• Birds of Senegal and The Gambia by Nik Borrow and Ron Demey (Christopher Helm, London, 2011).
• 352 pages, 140 colour plates.
• ISBN 9781408134696, Pbk, £29.99.
Available from Birdwatch Bookshop
