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I bought myself this book yesterday :

Attracting Birds to your Garden in Southern Africa
by Roy Trendler and Lex Hes.

Beautiful book. It tells you how to plan an indigenous garden, how to feed and prepare bird fare, providing water, Nesting, Maintaining an indigenous garden and bird friendly pest control.

It has a complete section on birds common to SA gardens with full colour pics (most by Nigel Dennis) - similar to a fieldguide - showing distribution etc. It has a complete table of indigenous plants and which birds are attracted by what plant.

It gives addresses of birding clubs all over the country and a list of recommended reading materials.

I paid R150 for it.

This one gets a 10/10 from me.

I am currently reading "Winged Migration" a very interesting book. It is a coffee table book and I thought it would only be about bird migration, not so. It is full of very interesting and unusual facts about all birds
eg. I thought Lovebirds were so named for their affection but apparently they mate for life and if one partner should die the other partner very often dies within days
Mallard ducks have been recorded gang raping a female and holdind her head under water
There are stacks more strange and interesting facts like this in the book.
Has anyone on the forum read the book before ?

Bought this book recently while in SA. Found it very interesting, especially if you're reasonably new to birding. Chapters include Mechanisms of Flight, Feathers, Breeding, Nests, Songs & Sounds, Bird Menus, Migration plus others, but what really blew me away was the chapter entitled Foster Families, about parasitic brooding.

Very easy to read, well-organised, good photos, lots of helpful information.

By Rael and Helene Loon
ISBN 1 77007 151 2

Got mine today and although it was a bit expensive for a soft-cover 204p book, it is a brilliant book. Fascinating reading!

Some birding theme books I have bought recently that I would highly recommend :

Gripping Yarns by Bill Oddie

If David Attenborough is the voice of international wildlife, then Bill Oddie is the face of British wildlife. This is actually a collection of his articles from a birding magazine, so its a very easy pick-up\put-down book. While he's an avid, knowledgeable and respected birder, he doesn't take himself too seriously. As a result, the articles are both informative and, at times, hilarious. Although the references are largely to British birds, the spirit of the book would appeal to anyone with even a vague birding interest from any continent.

The Big Year by Mark Obmascik

This is the true story of 3 Americans who independently decide to do a "big year" ie. attempt to break the record for the most number of bird species ticked in North America within a calendar year. Very well written, it moves at a fast pace as it describes the lengths these birders will go to in order to break the record and follows their progress as they begin to realise they are competing with each other for the record. Both riveting and humorous.

Southern African Birdfinder by Callan Cohen, Claire Spottiswoode and Jonathan Rossouw

This book describes 39 birding routes covering over 300 birding sites in Southern Africa, with advice on where to find 1400 species. The range of coverage is pretty impressive and it has handy extras like a map of the region covering the routes, useful contacts and a bird checklist referencing back to the pages where the sites are covered. Unfortunately, most of the sites will only be visited by me in my imaginary parallel world, but I wouldn't be surprised if this book becomes a must-have for any birder in southern Africa.

I have my eye on this book and must maybe hint at my SO to get it for my birthday. This book is a "follow-up" of their book "Essential birding - Western South Africa" which deals mostly with Western Cape sights which I have. All this info is also included in the new book. The descriptions of places to see a specific bird is very accurate as I’ve found many birds at the exact locations mentioned

Certainly one of the top 3 bird books in my crowded book case

I dont know about you but I've been birding for 50 years and have a life list of around 620 or so but the LBJ's still haunt me. I have been on Geoff Lockwood Courses, Bought bird tapes but the Cisticolas, Pipits and Larks still confuse me big time and I only really add one of these hard to identify Feathered jobs if an "expert" in LBJ's is there with me. Sure birds like Monotonous Lark etc with their distinct call are easy especially in the Western half of the Northern Kruger where they are abundant but 99% of the others are hard. I went to the monthly Club meeting of the PE bird Club on Tuesday and bought a copy of "Pipits of Southern Africa" by Faansie Peacock. Its a concise and extremely full book on this amazing family of birds and it is destined to be on the shelf of any serious birder....GET IT...You wont be sorry (I paid R170 so it will probably be slightly more in the bookshop when it appears there.

It's been out for a few months now. Definitely worth it.

Try his Pipit website or visit Netbooks for the book.

From what I heard Faansie's book is sold out and I have not yet bought a copy

Yip it is Francois.

But as I understand it, you can contact him via his website (link in post further up) and your name will go on a waiting list. If Faansie does decide to print more copies, if demand is big enough, you've got your foot in the door.

Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufmann

An absolute classic. Destined to later become one of the world's foremost experts at bird identification, this goes to the beginning when Kaufmann was a 16-year-old and embarked on a bid to break the North American record for number of bird species ticked in a year back in the 70's. What makes the story interesting is that he did it on a shoestring budget, hitchiking his way across the continent. The book is not as esoteric as it sounds and would actually have wide appeal. Its just an excellent memoir and makes you want to hit the road.

Awesome book. Bought me one in Lower Sabie.



http://www.primeorigins.co.za

Hallo Wildtuinman

Received the book yesterday and couldn't put it down last night. Beautiful pic's and reading. I'm definitely going to use it next week. Going for two day's to the KNP.

Cheers

Hans

Birds: The inside story by Rael and Helen Loon (:tongue: @ name)

Has anyone got any comments on this book. I briefly browsed through it the other day and I'm thinking of getting it.