Bird and butterfly guide (book) for Uganda (1 Viewer)

[Owene]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good but reasonably priced field guide for Uganda (or the surrounding area of Africa).

A butterfly book would also be much desired. Doesn’t have to be anywhere near complete as it won’t be the focus of the trip and I’m starting from scratch with African butterflies and would be happy getting started with the basic species and indeed families

 

[cafe birder]

An introduction to the butterflies of Uganda by Roger Waigh and Johnnie Kamugisha. Published in UK in 2018 by Choir Press.

It's not comprehensive at all but a good field guide to the commoner species with c200 illustrated (out of 1200 recorded).
It was easily good enough for my 10 day visit a few years ago

Have a great trip

Howard

 

[cafe birder]

PS I used the Helm guide to the birds of East Africa as my up to date field guide on that trip

 

[Owene]

thank you very much, i'll look into them

 

[Jim M.]

Birds of East Africa, second edition, by Fanshawe and Stevenson is the best/up-to-date bird guide for the area. (Probably what Café birder is referring to – put out by Helm in the UK I believe, by Princeton in the U.S.). But it is heavy; but also comes as an app with bird calls.

 

[Andy Adcock]

A small guide and again, far from comprehensive.....

Butterflies of East Africa, Pocket Guide, Dino Martins, 2016.

 

[Owene]

Birds of East Africa, second edition, by Fanshawe and Stevenson is the best/up-to-date bird guide for the area. (Probably what Café birder is referring to – put out by Helm in the UK I believe, by Princeton in the U.S.). But it is heavy; but also comes as an app with bird calls.

Ah. Got a feeling that one might end up being a birthday present but the app sounds good Thank you

 

[Owene]

A small guide and again, far from comprehensive.....

Butterflies of East Africa, Pocket Guide, Dino Martins, 2016.

Saw that one on Amazon. Nice and cheap and looked like it might be a good start. I just ordered the Waigh and kamugisha one but will probably try that one too. Can’t have too many butterfly books

 

[Andy Adcock]

Saw that one on Amazon. Nice and cheap and looked like it might be a good start. I just ordered the Waigh and kamugisha one but will probably try that one too. Can’t have too many butterfly books

There's another for Tanzania, J Kielland and Bernard D'Abrera, 1990 but not really a field guide nor very portable.

 

[Steve Babbs]

Saw that one on Amazon. Nice and cheap and looked like it might be a good start. I just ordered the Waigh and kamugisha one but will probably try that one too. Can’t have too many butterfly books

I couldn't find much anything else apart from those two. For anything you photograph and fail to identify, I'd suggest putting it on iNaturalist. Butterfly id is tricky in East Africa: apart from the lack of field guides there are a lot of mimics.

 

[Steve Babbs]

This website is also useful

semulikibutterflies - Research, Conservation and Education, western Uganda

Opportunities to undertake research and promote education for the conservation of the butterflies of Semuliki National Park.

www.semulikibutterflies.com

 

[Owene]

Thank you. Will definitely be reading that site

 

[THE_FERN]

Just to note fanshawe is available as both PDF and an app. Until recently the latter only had fanshawe first ed material. Now something a bit weird has happened with my copy: some bits seem updated, but perhaps munged against the old first ed taxonomy. Anyways, both are rather more portable (and usable) than paper

 

[Butty]

Definitely iNaturalist for butterflies if you have wi-fi of an evening. Website or app. Cost = 0. Practise on any handy household insect pre-trip so you get the hang of how it works.