Birds of the Horn of Africa

For a region that has such fascinating bird life, is it perhaps surprising that the countries that make up the Horn of Africa have not been better served by good bird books. But that is changing with the publication of two new volumes: the excellent Birds of the Horn of Africa and an atlas of bird distribution in Ethiopia and Eritrea (see below).

The introductory chapters of the eponymous field guide are very readable and informative, but at the same time very concise, leaving the bulk of the book to the plates and species accounts. There is an obvious similarity with the very popular Birds of Kenya and Tanzania, and indeed this was conceived as a companion to that book. There is a fair amount of overlap of species within the two regions and it therefore makes sense to use many of the plates from that earlier work. However, some of these were totally repainted, including the cisticola plates, which must be some of the best depictions of that confusing group I’ve seen.

Where species differ racially from those illustrated in the Birds of Kenya and Tanzania, the images have been altered accordingly. The end result is a beautiful set of plates, all clearly laid out with a nicely uniform feel to them, as the works of John Gale and Brian Small complement each other well. The Horn of Africa is a great area for larks, with a number of endemic and rarely seen species, and the plates for this group are some of the best in the book. The text and map for each species is directly opposite the plate, exactly where they should be, and the excellent design and layout make the guide a joy to leaf through.

The taxonomy is about as up to date as it can be for a region that has more than its fair share of taxonomic conundrums. As an example, the various races of Tropical Boubou are now split into Ethiopian, Erlanger’s and East Coast Boubous, and the Bulo Burti Bush-shrike, known only from one bird trapped in 1991, is now assigned as a morph of Erlanger’s Boubou, all based on recently published work.

As there was no previous guide specific to this part of the world, and given some of the obscure birds to be found there, this book goes a long way to helping clear up some of the ID mists that have blurred the vision of visiting birders in the past. The identification and distribution of Green, Violet and Black-billed Wood-hoopoes is an example, and while the plate entitled Dull Resident Chats may not be the most exciting to look at, it does finally give us a decent illustration of Sombre Chat.

Endemic species such as this are the ones that inevitably attract the most attention and enigmatic birds like Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco, Stresemann’s Bush Crow and White-tailed Swallow are not only fascinating to look at but also have an equally interesting history, restricted as they are to tiny parts of the region.

The book illustrates two species of cliff swallow – one jointly discovered by one of the authors – about which almost nothing is known, highlighting the fact that there is still much to be discovered about the birds of this region.

The list of hypothetical species requiring confirmation at the back of the book is a tantalising titbit and hopefully this guide (and the atlas) will spur more people to visit, and to go beyond the borders of Ethiopia, which to date is the one country in this region on which most birders concentrate.

For those of us who have been going there for many years, this gem of a book is a real breath of fresh air.

Tech spec

• The Birds of the Horn of Africa by Nigel Redman, Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe (Christopher Helm, London, 2009).

• 496 pages, 213 colour plates.

• ISBN 9780713665413. Pbk, £29.99.

Available from Birdwatch bookshop

First published in Birdwatch 205:53 (July 2009)