Bird Calls For Beginners by Doug Newman

This small book lists just 60 of South Africa’s birds – but it comes with a CD of amazingly clear recordings of their calls, and this is what makes it valuable.

Just one thing: the new bird names. I think the ornithologists have kind of forgotten the basics.

There’re dozens of reasons why we have the zoological classification system (those weird Latin-sounding names) but the most important one is so that everybody in the world – no matter what languages we speak – will know one species from another. So a Phoeniculus purpureus remains a Phoeniculus purpureus.

But you won’t find a Phoeniculus purpureus in this book: Mr Newman kinda forgot to include the zoological names.

Which is crazy – because I remember the animal as a red-billed wood-hoopoe, although Mr. Newman clearly wants us to know that its COMMON name has officially been changed to green wood-hoopoe.

Hah! Tell that to the Germans (Steppenbaumhopf), the Afrikaans (Gewone Kakelaar) or the Xhosa (Intlekibafazi – it means ‘the cackling of women’).

See what I mean?

So – stick with the generally accepted common names of things and change zoological classifications if new knowledge demands. But if you’re going to put out a field guide, don’t leave out the most basic and vital information – which is every species’ proper name.

Buy it here