Birds of the West African Town and Garden

Good colour illustrations and scientific description of recognition, distribution, habits and call of the birds of the West African Town and Garden.
Elgood, John H.
03-0002
No longer available
used
€19.95 *

Title: Birds of the West African Town and Garden
Author: John H. Elgood
Illustrator: Ernest C. Mansell
Series: West African Nature Handbooks
Publisher: Longmans, Green & Co
3rd. impression, London, United Kingdom 1968
Softcover, 14 x 20 cm, 66 pages, 20 colour plates

About: Birds of the West African Town and Garden

In a book of such limited scope as Birds of the West African Town and Garden it has been a matter of great difficulty to select just one hundred birds. The reason for this difficulty is not hard to understand. West Africa is a vast and diverse area. The distance from Bathurst in the Gambia to Lake Chad is approximately 2,000 miles, or about as far as from London to Cairo or from New York to Los Angeles. From the vegetational aspect the area ranges from tropical rain forest in parts of Sierra Leone and southern Nigeria, through a series of different types of savannah to the margins of the Sahara desert.

Rainfall may be as high as 400 inches per annum at Debundscha in the Cameroons, or as low as 10 inches at Katsina in northern Nigeria. Clearly birds that are familiar in Accra are not likely to be so in either Freetown or Kano, for, despite their powers of flight, birds, like other animals, are adapted to life in a definite kind of surroundings or environment. This introduces the second major difficulty in selection. Even within a limited area, the environment will vary greatly. This may be due to natural causes such as the presence of a great river, like the Niger or the Volta, or to a change in altitude. On the other hand variations in environment may be due to human activity such as farming, the development of towns with houses and schools and their surrounding gardens and compounds, or the construction of reservoirs for water storage.

All of these diverse environments have their associated birds. In selecting the birds for Birds of the West African Town and Garden the author has therefore had to adopt some definite policy. The policy has been to include only birds which have been seen by him, at some place or another in West Africa, in a garden or compound. Inevitably the selection, being the author's own, is coloured by his own experiences, largely in southern Nigeria. Nevertheless, widespread kinds of birds have been chosen as far as possible, but many common kinds have been omitted because they are not normally associated with towns and gardens. Both English and scientific names have been given for the selected species, but no local names, as these are too numerous and not sufficiently exact in many cases.

Content: Birds of the West African Town and Garden

Preface
Introduction
Herons and Egrets
Cattle Egret
Vultures
Common or Hooded Vulture
falcons, kites, buzzards, eagles, etc.
Black Kite
Black-shouldered Kite
Lizard-Buzzard
Shikra
Game birds
Bush-fowl
Pigeons
Speckled Pigeon
Red-eyed Turtle-Dove
Laughing Dove
Red-billed Wood-Dove
Green Fruit-Pigeon
Owls
White-faced Owl
Plantain-eaters and Touracos
Grey Plantain-eater
Cuckoos and Coucals
Levaillant's Cuckoo
Didric Cuckoo
Senegal Coucal
Nightjars
Long-tailed Nightjar
Swifts
Little African Swift
Palm Swift
Rollers
Abyssinian or Senegal Roller
Broad-billed Roller
Wood-Hoopoes
Guinea Wood-Hoopoe or Kakelaar
Hornbills
Grey Hornbill
Allied Hornbill
Kingfishers
Pigmy Kingfisher
Senegal Kingfisher
Blue-breasted Kingfisher
Striped Kingfisher
Bee-Eaters
White-throated Bee-eater
Barbets
Tooth-billed Barbet
Yellow-fronted Tinker-bird
Woodpeckers
Grey Woodpecker
Larks
Buckley's Bush-Lark
Crested Lark
Wagtails, Pipits and Long-Claws
African Pied Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Plain-backed Pipit
Yellow-throated Long-Claw
Babblers, etc.
Brown Babbler
Bulbuls
Common Bulbul
Yellow-throated Leaf-love
Flycatchers
Spotted Flycatcher
Senegal Puffback Flycatcher
Wattle-eye or Spectacled Flycatcher
Fagan's Paradise Flycatcher
Thrushes, Wheatears, Chats, etc.
Kurrichane Thrush
European Wheatear
Whinchat
Snowy-headed Robin-Chat
Warblers
Willow-Warbler
White-bellied Crombec
Grey-backed Camaroptera
Red-faced Grass-Warbler
Moustached Scrub-Warbler
Swallows and Martins
European Swallow
Ethiopian Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
Mosque Swallow
Rufous-chested Swallow
Drongos
Common or Glossy-backed Drongo
Helmet-Shrikes
Long-crested Helmet-Shrike
Shrikes
Fiscal Shrike
Woodchat (European and Corsican)
Long-tailed Shrike
Scarlet-breasted Shrike or Gonolek
Bell-Shrike
Puff-back Shrike
Black-crowned Tchagra or Bush Shrike
Orioles
Black-winged Oriole
Crows, Magpies, etc.
Pied Crow
Piapiac or Black Magpie
Starlings, etc.
Amethyst or Violet-backed Starling
Purple Glossy Starling
Chestnut-winged Starling
White-Eyes
Senegal or Yellow White-eye
Sunbirds
Pygmy Long-tailed Sunbird
Copper Sunbird
Splendid Sunbird
Olive-bellied Sunbird
Scarlet-breasted Sunbird
Green-headed or Olive-backed Sunbird
Collared Sunbird
Finches, Buntings and Sparrows
Yellow-fronted Canary
Rock-Bunting
Grey-headed Sparrow
Weavers, Waxbills, etc.
Scaly-fronted Weaver
Chestnut-and-Black Weaver
Village Weaver
Spectacled Weaver
Red-headed Weaver or Red-headed Malimbe
Red-headed Dioch
Yellow-mantled Whydah
Bronze Mannikin
Grey-crowned Negro-Finch
Senegal Fire-Finch
Orange-cheeked Waxbill
Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu
Senegal Combassou or Indigo-Finch
Pin-tailed Whydah