Birds of the Masai Mara

The Masai Mara is one of the most popular National Parks in Kenya, primarily because of the spectacular migration of Wildebeest which pass through around July to October.  However there are plenty of birds too.  This book is a photographic guide to about 200 of them – less than half of what you could see.  They are arranged by habitat: plains, marsh and water, woodland and scrub, village, forest etc.  The text is often light-hearted, contains identification points (and avoiding jargon) but also some notes on habits and ‘interesting’ facts.  The photographs on the whole are excellent portraits without necessarily being outstanding photographically.

It is really aimed at the average tourist with a passing interest in birds and for those it is probably sufficient.  However birders will want a guide that contains all possibilities (the overall Mara list is well over 500 species); and one arranged so that all in each family are together – after all some species occur in more than one of the habitat divisions here.

Book reviewed by Peter Lack