Please note (August 2014): With the publication of volume 8 in 2013, Christopher Helm initially announced it would be reprinting The Birds of Africa, Volume 3: Parrots to Woodpeckers (originally published in 1988) without modifications and release it as part of an 8-volume set. We have received confirmation from the publisher however that these plans have been abandoned and that both these reprints and the 8-volume set have been cancelled.
By far the most authoritative and comprehensive work ever published on the birds of Africa. The editors and artists have worked closely with the 16 authors of The Birds of Africa, Volume 3: Parrots to Woodpeckers – all internationally acknowledged experts on their bird families – to produce encyclopaedic accounts of each species.
The Birds of Africa, Volume 3: Parrots to Woodpeckers completes the non-passerines, dealing with all species occurring on the continent – residents and visitors alike – in the following families: parrots, turacos, cuckoos, owls, nightjars, swifts, colies, kingfishers and their allies, and woodpeckers and their allies. All are illustrated, and all known biological information is included. The passerines (songbirds) are covered in the later four volumes.
"This is the latest volume of the splendid series, and more than keeps up with the excellent standard of the previous two volumes [...] [It is] another masterpiece. Altogether editors, authors, artists and publishers must be warmly congratulated on producing a real ornithologist's feast. I suggest we all tuck in."
– Michael Rands, Ornithological Society of the Middle East Bulletin