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If you’re living in East Africa, hands-down the birding book to get is the Helm Field Guides Series, Birds of East Africa by Terry Stevenson & John Fanshawe. It covers Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi…in-depth. Beware it’s size, which makes it somewhat cumbersome to take along while traipsing through the forest. But don’t worry, its usefulness (i.e. good illustrations and accurate distribution maps of every bird imaginable in East Africa) quickly outweighs its heft.

Our trusty copy of the field guide has already served me well. With it I’ve now correctly identified the following birds from the last few weeks: the two woodland kingfishers playing in our pool, the black-and-white-casqued hornbills (misidentified earlier as trumpeter hornbills; as it turns out trumpeters aren’t found in uganda) and great blue turacos on my recent drive to Masaka, and the crested (?) guineafowl and flock of 10 crested cranes I saw smack in the middle of Kampala city. 101paige 101africa 101ht