Birds of Western Africa: Second Edition (Princeton Field Guides)

A BIG THANKS for excellent service, good price, and accurate description of product.

Initially picked this book up a research for a textile project I was working on and it does not disappoint...Well written and illustrated. About the illustration I was apprehensive at first to pick this book up since many were saying that the illustrations were very dark however I think this book holds a secret that not many would know about why the illustrations are so dark. I accidentally had this book open in my office and the sunlight hit the page I was looking at and voilá...the illustrations of the birds are vivid and jump from the page. Whoever thought to illustrate and color the plates for direct sunlight must have been a genius...and it makes sense since if you were out looking for these birds you would outside in direct sunlight. Just wanted to share that and please enjoy the book it is very good.

There are very few guides on birds for the West Africa region. This book did not disappoint but it could be better. The location maps were very helpful. The book covered a lot of species with drawings. Nice.How could the book be even better? The drawings. Some of the drawings were so so, others were good. This second edition is not that old but still has a handful of bird species old names. I realize it's difficult to keep up with name changes, but this is supposed to be an updated field guide. This may not be an issue for a birder in the region but I did notice it.The book is comprehensive enough for me to keep returning to it. I'm still using it to get more familiar for so many species in that region as I'm preparing for my next trip.Overall the book has been very helpful for a trip to Togo where I did some birding.

Birds of Western Africa was very helpful in our recent trip to Ghana. The book was easy to use and contained accurate illustrations and accounts of the species we saw. It would have been helpful to have listings of similar species within the descriptions for easier identification.

This is a fantastic book with true to life color illustrations of all the birds. My favorite features are the maps next to each description, so no more needing to flip to the back of the book and search for maps, as well as the quick index on the last page which makes it very easy to find the type of bird you're looking for by plate number. Highly recommend this book!

A very good guide to birds of this region, however there are a few plates with drawings that are of less quality than i hoped For example, bustards are blurry and poorly drawn, and drawings of the swallows are very dark. However, biggest of all, the plate for drongos doesn't have any labels of which species is which! (I used my knowledge from being a bird enthusiast, but it is quite disappointing to have such a large mistake). For the most part, it is a nice, practical guide to bird lovers and birders for the region.

It is an expanded guide that I will use to add to my Pinterest boards on celebrating birds from around the world.

Its a nice book as you can expect for all Princeton guide book. However it is easy to realize that there are more than two or three drawers (artists) and birds look little different between on chapter and another. Sometimes small birds are bigger than big ones. Not proporcional.Ducks, for exemple, are not good. But owls are excelent.

A superb publication, wonderfully illustrated, and the perfect companion to "The Birds of Senegal and Gambia" by the same authors. In common with that book, each species is covered in one section, so you do not have to switch between illustrations and narrative. A minor quibble is that several species are described despite only very rare occurances, in at least one case only one record ! Maybe future editions could simply list the very rare species with short notes rather than full coverage.

Would have been lost without it in Gambia

This is a good reference book - well laid out and clear.

The high quality you expect from the Princeton series, from the color illustrations to the species descriptions. Was a reliable companion during a brief visit to Brukina Faso and helped me securely identify all the birds encountered there. Also great to browse on cold European winter nights and dream about the wonderful birds in West Africa... Definite recommendation for anyone going to the regions and interested in its bird life.

Sehr schöne große Illustrationen mit den Verbreitungskarten auf einer Doppelseite, sodass auch auf die Schnelle eine korrekte Bestimmung unterstützt wird. Einige Illustrationen insbesondere der Glossy Starlings scheinen etwas dunkel geraten, sodass kaum Details zu erkennen sind, was aber letztlich einer Bestimmung nicht schadet.