The following two reviews of Fauna Verlag’s ‘Birds in Africa’ represent the book as a quality general survey of the avifauna for those with a wide interest in Africa’s bird life:
Birds in Africa
Rainer Christian Ertel
Published by Fauna Verlag, Distributed by NHBS
Review published online at the African Bird Club
“When Vögel in Afrika by the same author became available in 2009 (reviewed in Bull. ABC 17: 254 – 255) it was a landmark on the German market as there was no book available covering the entire birdlife of Africa. Now it has been translated into English and is therefore more readily accessible to a much wider audience, but must also face stiff competition from several other
excellent photographic (field) guides. Ertel’s book covers more than 1,300 species using a single photograph for each. Most photographs are of good quality and compared to the German version some images have been improved immensely…” Continue reading the review
Review published in the March 2012 edition of Der Ornithologische Beobachter
“It is noteworthy, and a seal of the quality of the original, that a German natural history book should be translated into English, as has been ‘Birds in Africa: An Introduction to and Survey to the Birdlife of Africa‘ by Rainer Christian Ertel, published 2009 by Fauna Verlag, Nottuln. Nik Borrow – supplement, revision and translation – is a prominent author of books on bird identification in West Africa.
The pages on the right have 8 colour photographs, faced opposite with short texts about the species, with small distribution maps. In both the German and the English version, the scientific names of over 1,300 species can be found in both the German and the English language.”
Translation by NHBS