101 Curious Tales of East African Birds
Book by Colin Beale.
London, Pelagic Publishing. 2024. 222p. flexbound. $33.00.
Beale, biology professor at the University of York, has selected 101 species that demonstrate wide-ranging aspects of ornithology. This is a book to be read. A reader. For each species there is a well-explained tenet of biology it displays, and two color photographs.
Examples: Augur Buzzard: ultraviolet vision in birds. Yellow-throated Sandgrouse: arid adaptations. Marabou Stork: air sacs and bird breathing. Black-shouldered Kite: nomadism in savannahs. White-breasted Cormorant: underwater vision. Jackson’s Widowbird: typical sexual dimorphism. Grater Painted-Snipe: reversed sexual dimorphism Speke’s Weaver: racist bird names. Narina Trogon: colonialism in bird names.
This is all backed up by 238 citations. These are not listed alphabetically, but by the order in which they appear in the text. The species chapters do not appear in taxonomic order.
Each species gets a full page describing its exemplary biology phenomena with a quality color photograph occupying the entire facing page and a smaller photograph on the page with the text.
This is fine reading for anyone who wants to go past a simple listing approach to birding. Beale’s book might be enhanced by indicating below the photographs the when where and by whom, instead of listing the photographers on p. 215, with Per Holmen and Tom Conzemius, the two most frequent contributors. In too many books the artists and photographers get the short end of the stick. Indications of sex, age, and so on accompanying each photo would also be desirable.
On p. 210 the citation 130 “lack” should be the celebrated ornithologist David “Lack”. A simple map of East Africa might further enhance this fine book.
It is encouraging that this thought-provoking title can take its place among the legion of African identification guides and the many other titles, commendable though they may be, that because of their focus and scope do not give full attention to the fascinating biology and behavioral complexity exhibited so well by African birds.
- Harry Armistead