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If you ever need to polish your CV for a birding-related job (lucky you), I’ve got some good news. There is one more special skill that you can list, whether you’re aware of it or not. Because if you’re a birder, you’re automatically also an ecologist. Birders spend a lot of time thinking not only about birds, but also about habitats. Tree species. Slope. Rainfall. Soil type. Even at a glance, we can assess a habitat and say “this looks good for so and so”. And is there anything more gratifying than having “so and so” pop out a second later?
I once managed to pull off this party trick perfectly in Mozambique. It was a stormy afternoon, edging on towards dusk, and a persistent low-pressure had brought a skyful of Common Swifts hawking over a forest clearing. A mix of past experience and instinct told me that this setup was perfect for Eurasian Hobby. So I ventured a cocky prediction. I got some strange looks from the birders with me, but within minutes I was vindicated as a hobby zipped overhead.
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ABOVE: As the name implies, a stunning and portable guide for birders, naturalists and ecologists interested in Africa. Photo from the Princeton University Press website.
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ABOVE: The plan is to produce regional Habitats books for all the continents. Those for Australia and Europe are coming up next. Photo from the Princeton University Press website.
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After all, finding the bird is largely just a matter of finding the right habitat. And this is something that professional bird guides, especially, know to be true. Through decades of field experience, the best guides can eyeball a passing habitat at 80 km/h and say “Stop here. And let’s look for Red-shouldered Vanga”. Or Socotra Grosbeak. Or Standard-winged Nightjar. Or Silverbird. And lo and behold, there’s the bird. Honestly, its a skill that borders on magic.
Three such globe-trotting guides—Ken Behrens, Keith Barnes and Iain Campbell—have recently published a landmark new book that challenges the way we think about birding: Habitats of Africa – A Field Guide for Birders, Naturalists and Ecologists. These three gentlemen, who rank among the world’s most experienced and travelled naturalists, all share a passion for biogeography. They have long since passed the point of just “pin-birding” and ticking targets off a list. They see the meta picture. The wood for the trees. The code of the Matrix.
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ABOVE: The primary navigation of the book is based on a few large-scale, colour-coded biomes. Under each of these you’ll find multiple subdivisions.
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Is it possible to classify a whole continent’s habitats? The standard lenses through which ecologists classify this are usually based on geology or botany. But such single-discipline maps are really not the right fit for birders and general naturalists. Will “Swartland Granite Renosterveld Type FRg2” have a different set of species than “Hantam Plateau Dolerite Renosterveld Type FRd2”? In terms of plants, sure. Insects, maybe. But in terms of birds, mammals, frogs and reptiles…probably not.
And that’s the key attraction of the Habitats of Africa book. The authors have somewhat miraculously managed to marry a confusing matrix of vegetation and soil maps into something that birders can actually understand. Habitats defined by the creatures that inhabit them. So pretty much exactly what the definition of a habitat is. But a second criterion also comes into play: the visual distinctiveness of the habitat. So, for example, Indian Ocean Rainforest may look pretty much like other forests around the world, but the unique suite of animals that live there makes it worthy of distinction. On the flipside, Mopane Savanna may not have any unique or endemic species, but it looks so different than any other woodland type that the authors classify it as a distinct habitat.
ABOVE: This a page from the Saharan Reg Desert section, showing a cute little Sand Cat and the sought-after Trumpeter Finch.
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Actually, there’s an even bigger big-picture. Habitats of Africa is just one of the guides in whole series of Habitats of the World books. In addition to the overarching global one, there are now specialist guides that deal with habitats of North America and Africa, and those for Europe and Australia are imminent. Asia and South America are in production. All in all this covers 650 habitats worldwide. Not only will this make your birding infinitely more insightful, but understanding habitats is vital to effective conservation planning.
All of Africa? Surely not! Indeed, all of continental Africa, from the Agulhas Strandveld in the Western Cape right up to the Maghreb Fir and Cedar Forests in Algeria. And while they were at it, the authors also threw in Madagascar, Socotra, and a scattering of islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The skeleton of the book is 9 main large-scale terrestrial biomes: grasslands, savannas, alpine tundras etc. Under each of these there are finer subdivisions. 72 Habitats in all.
ABOVE: There are 25 bird families endemic to Africa and its islands, 20 of which ar erestricted to the continent. Show here are woodhoopoes, ground hornbills, African barbets, batises, bush shrikes, rockjumpers and rockfowl.
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For example, under the Warm Humid Broadleaf Forests biome you can read about Afrotropical Lowland Rainforest in Cameroon; Monsoon Forest in DRC; East Coast Forest Matrix in Mozambique; Moist Montane Forest in Ethiopia; Indian Ocean Montane Rainforest in Madagascar; Seychelles Granite Forest in, well, the Seychelles; and even the unique Mavunda thickets of western Zambia—the only known locality for the mysterious White-chested Tinkerbird. And the home of the hyper-localised Magaret’s Batis and Rosevear’s Striped Grass Mouse. And let’s not forget about Freshwater and Saline Habitats, respectively.
Soberingly, the last chapter deals with modified Anthropogenic habitats. Given Africa’s unsustainable population growth, the latter chapter is becoming the dominant habitat type on the continent. Damn that’s a depressing sentence.
ABOVE: Maps and graphs about throughout the book. This one shows the fine scale habitat divisions in Southern Africa.
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ABOVE: The introduction for each habitat type shows a distribution map, vegetation structure diagram and climate graph.
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Each habitat has a distribution map, a climate graph and an engaging silhouette graphic that shows the vegetation structure (no idea how these were made, but I love ‘em). Text-wise, there is an introduction to the habitat and some easy-to-read explanatory notes on climate, structure and dominant plants. An important paragraph on Conservation is followed by a comprehensive discussion of the mammals, birds and herps. The distribution of the habitat is explained and a few special sites where this habitat can be accessed are provided—a really inviting prospect!
All of this is illustrated by a wealth of breathtaking photographs! All manner of beautiful and fascinating species that epitomise the habitat in question. Transforming the text from words on a page to a creature’s actual home. Making it real. A lone Ethiopian Wolf trotting over a vast plateau in the Bale Mountains that makes your lungs yearn to breathe the same mountain air. A dapper Ocelot Gecko pausing to peer at the photographer in Madagascar’s Spiny Forest. A Central African Slender-snouted Crocodile with only its ancient eyes protruding in a Swamp Forest. Our closest relative, the Bonobo, taking a bath in a Lowland Rainforest river. And a White-necked Picathartes bounding over a cave floor in Ghana. If nothing else, paging through this book will make you amped to go birding in Africa!
ABOVE: The Karoo may not boast the diversity of tropical habitats, but is a critical habitat for arid-country endemics such as bustards, chats, larks and cisticolids, not to mention geckos and tortoises!
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ABOVE: The Sahara is certainly not just one continuous sandy wasteland! The bottom image shows an oasis near Laayoune in Western Sahara.
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After a month of paging through the book, immersing myself in the text and delving into the graphs, tables and maps, I am left with two somewhat conflicting feelings. On the one hand Africa and her incomparable landscapes now feels a lot more familiar and accessible. The Congo’s rainforest is no longer just one big green block on a map to me. And I now understand that the Sahara is actually several different types of specific deserts. On the other hand, I have realised that I’ve only seen a tiny fraction of our continent’s natural splendour. Time to remedy that! You gonna join me?
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