Title: Guide to Seabirds of Southern Africa
Author: Peter Ryan
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Struik Nature
Cape Town, South Africa 2023
ISBN 9781775848479 / ISBN 978-1-77-584847-9
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 160 pages, throughout colour photographs and images
This guide introduces the seabirds of southern Africa and the adjacent Southern Ocean. Much of the guide is devoted to their identification, but some of their fascinating biology is provided too. Seabirds are birds that derive most of their food from the oceans. The group includes all the penguins, albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters, storm petrels, tropicbirds, frigatebirds, gannets and boobies, and alcids (auks, guillemots and puffins), as well as many species of cormorants, gulls and terns. Skuas and most phalaropes are largely terrestrial while breeding, but they winter at sea and thus also qualify. Some pelicans, ducks, loons and skimmers spend a great deal of time at sea, but none of these groups has marine representatives in southern Africa, so they are not considered here. This revised, updated and expanded edition of Guide to Seabirds of Southern Africa remains the only book to focus exclusively on the seabirds of southern Africa, and includes nine new species for the region.
INTRODUCTION
The ocean environment
Making a living
Seabirds on the move
Raising a family
Seabird conservation
Watching seabirds
How to use this book
PENGUINS
ALBATROSSES
Great Albatrosses
Mollymawks
PETRELS, PRIONS AND SHEARWATERS
Gadfly Petrels
Prions
Shearwaters
Diving Petrels
STORM PETRELS
TROPICBIRDS
FRIGATEBIRDS
GANNETS AND BOOBIES
CORMORANTS AND SHAGS
PHALAROPES
SKUAS AND JAEGERS
GULLS
TERNS
Noddies
Lake Terns
INDEX
GLOSSARY
INTRODUCTION