World Bird Field Guides
What’s the best field guide for Australia, or Cameroon, or PNG, or …? It’s a question I ask a lot, and one I see many other birders asking. I’ve started this site to document my research and experience with world bird field guides. It’s not a place for book reviews in the usual sense, or for comprehensive bibliographies; it’s a place for straightforward recommendations from one birder to another.
I welcome questions and comments. I also welcome submission of new material. Want to write about a country or region I haven’t gotten to yet? Please do! By submitting material for possible inclusion on this site, you agree to license the content (and that you have the right to license the content) under an irrevocable Creative Commons Attribution license.
Here’s the country index (names and regions from the UN with additions):
Africa | Americas | Asia | Europe | Oceania
Africa
Middle Africa
- Angola (no info yet)
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Congo
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (no info yet)
- Equatorial Guinea
- Gabon
- Sao Tome and Principe
Northern Africa
- Algeria
- Canary Islands
- Egypt
- Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
- Madeira
- Morocco
- Sudan (no info yet)
- Tunisia
- Western Sahara (no info yet)
Western Africa
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Cape Verde
- Cote d’Ivoire
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Liberia
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Saint Helena (no info yet)
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Togo
Americas
Northern America
- Bermuda (no info yet)
- Canada
- Greenland
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- United States of America
Asia
South-Eastern Asia
- Brunei Darussalam (no info yet)
- Cambodia
- Christmas Island (no info yet)
- Cocos (Keeling) Islands (no info yet)
- Indonesia
- Lao People’s Democratic Republic [Laos]
- Malaysia
- Myanmar [Burma]
- Philippines
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste [East Timor] (no info yet)
- Viet Nam [Vietnam]
Western Asia
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain (no info yet)
- Cyprus
- Georgia
- Iraq (no info yet)
- Israel
- Jordan
- Kuwait (no info yet)
- Lebanon
- Occupied Palestinian Territory [Palestine]
- Oman (no info yet)
- Qatar (no info yet)
- Saudi Arabia (no info yet)
- Syrian Arab Republic
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates (no info yet)
- Yemen (no info yet)
Europe
Eastern Europe
Northern Europe
- Åland Islands
- Channel Islands
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Faeroe Islands
- Finland
- Guernsey
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Jersey
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Norway
- Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
- Sweden
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Southern Europe
- Albania
- Andorra
- Azores (no info yet)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Croatia
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Holy See [Vatican City]
- Italy
- Malta
- Montenegro
- Portugal
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Western Europe
Oceania
Australia and New Zealand
- Australia
- New Zealand (no info yet)
- Norfolk Island (no info yet)
Melanesia
- Fiji (no info yet)
- New Caledonia
- Papua New Guinea
- Solomon Islands
- Vanuatu
Great idea and a great resource!
Helpful and informative site, but what about Southern Africa. Roberts’ Birds of South Africa is By far the best and most informative guide to sub-saharan birds. Ian Sinclair has a very good photographic guide as well.
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Southern Africa is certainly missing. We just used Birds of Southern African by Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton (Princeton Field Guides) on a trip to South Africa and found it pretty useful.
If you are still maintaining this list, I can find out about Indian guides.