BOU CHECKLIST REVIEWS
 The Birds of Morocco
by Michel Thévenot, Rae Vernon c and Patrick Bergier. 2003.
BOU. 594 pages, two 2 coloured maps and 74 colour photographs.
Hardback, £45.00.
Readers unfamiliar with the BOU’s series of checklists may not
visualise the scope of this outstanding work. It is as detailed, thorough,
and authoritative as any ‘Birds of’ volume (of any county or country)
so far produced. Morocco is an amazing and exciting country, as beautiful
and diverse in its habitats, and therefore in its avifauna, as any area in
the Western Palearctic. In fact, even in these days of long- distance
travel, many birders still regard it as the most exotic of destinations.
It has long deserved a single volume devoted to its birds. This book does
it justice and has been worth the wait.
Up to 1960, information on the birds of Morocco was summarised by Heirn
de Balsac & Mayand in their Les Oiseaux du Noord-Ouest de l'Afrique (1962) but, since then, there has been no comprehensive checklist
published - although Etchecopar & HUe's Les Oiseaux du Nord de
l'Afrique (1964, English version 1967) and Heinzel, Fitter &
Parslow's Birds of Britain, Europe, North Africa & the
Middle East (1972) focused the attention of many European
birdwatchers, an increasing number of whom have been visiting the country
for the past 30 years - including the present reviewer. During all this
time, a small group of ornithologists (including Michel Thévenot and
Patrick Bergier) has worked in Morocco, published a number of papers and
annual reports, and painstakingly gathered all the available (published
and unpublished) data on Morocco birds up to the end of 1999. Their
diligence is quite remarkable and it is greatly to their credit that they
have included not only accepted records, but details of rejected species,
possible accidental visitors, and unsuccessfully (or not yet established)
introduced species. The result of their labours is this invaluable
publication which will certainly provide the most reliable of databases
for future workers.
The species accounts in the systematic list, whose 416 pages form the
bulk of the book, are a model of clarity and comprehensiveness, beginning
with a short sentence summarising the species’ status and abundance in
Morocco and, where applicable, the names of races or subspecies and
highlighting future taxonomic problems. Also itemised are breeding details
(distribution, habitat and nesting data), movements and migration, winter
distribution and ringing recoveries. Helpful appendices cover a summary of
the status of bird species in Morocco, a list of omitted species, ringing
and recoveries, and a gazetteer listing all the localities and
geographical features which are mentioned in the text.
Introductory chapters deal with the history of Moroccan ornithology,
geology, climate, flora and vegetation, geographical divisions and
habitats, breeding birds, migration and movement, endemism,
biogeographical affinities of the Moroccan avifauna, changes in status,
and conservation. The 52 scenic and 22 bird photographs give as
representative a selection as one could wish of the country and its
specialities; colour maps clearly show the geology and habitats; five
figures in the text show the geographical position of Morocco in the
context of the Mediterranean Basin and northwest Africa, the topography,
bioclimatic zones, geographical divisions and subdivisions, and the most
important bird localities; and 16 tables cover everything from the total
nubmer of endemic subspecies in Morocco only and in the Maghreb to the
distribution of the main tree species. There are no line drawings of birds
enlivening the text. No matter. The words need no such icing – and Dave
Nurney’s cover painting of Moussier’s Redstart, that most attractive
of northwest African endemics, says it all.
In short, all three authors are to be congratulations on the successful
conclusion of three decades of research into published information and
private notebooks which has produced an invaluable and fascinating
reference work for all Morocco buffs and the definitive database for
future ornithologists.
Bryan Bland
Birding World 16: 483
Published with permission of Birding World
 The Birds of Corsica
by Thibault, J-C & Bonnacorsi, G.
BOU Checklist No 17 172 pages inc. 16 pages of colour photographs, maps, etc
British Ornithologists’ Union. £22.00. ISBN 0-907446-21-3.
After The Birds of Cyprus (BOU Checklist series No. 6), and The Birds of
Sicily (BOU Checklist series No. 11), this volume is the third of a series
dealing with birds of Mediterranean islands. Jean-Claude Thibault, a
distinguished ornithologist and scientific assistant at the Parc Naturel Régional
de Corse for over 20 years, and Gilles Bonaccorsi, a fine birdwatcher and a
Corsican, are well placed to give an accurate account of the birdlife of the
‘Island of Beauty’.
The book is well designed and
illustrated with 35 beautiful colour plates giving an idea of the more
typical and scenic habitats of Corsica. Included among the many
ornithologists attracted to the island are John Whitehead, discoverer of the
Corsican Nuthatch Sitta whiteheadi, and F.C.R. Jourdain. A 13-page
introduction sets the scene, giving details on the general history, geology,
geography, climate, vegetation of the island, history of the bird fauna and
on some conservation problems. These are exemplified in more detail in
tables at the end of the book. Then follows the systematic list of 323
species of birds recorded so far on the island, even if only once. The
systematic status of the breeding species, many of which are represented by
subspecies, is carefully and critically described, giving a refreshing
insight into patterns of differentiation on the larger islands of the
Mediterranean. Results of the most recent studies from molecular phylogenies
are carefully reported, for example those of E. Pasquet on the
phylogeny of the three Mediterranean nuthatches. His studies demonstrate
that the Corsican Nuthatch does not belong to a monophyletic group which
includes the Algerian S. ledanti and Krüper’s S. krueperi nuthatches, as believed for so long, but is more closely related to the S.
canadensis group than to any other Mediterranean species.
Each species is assigned to one
(or more) of the eight classes that depict its status, either as a breeder,
migrant or wintering bird. Species accounts include general data on status,
distribution, abundance and phenology within the island. Then, for breeding
species, a separate section gives, whenever available, many useful details
on habitats, density, time of reproduction, clutch size, brood size and
population trends. The book ends with five appendices (unconfirmed or
doubtful records, rare species, population trends, censuses of species etc.)
and a reference list of 456 titles.
What makes the text particularly
useful, not only for ornithologists visiting the island, but also as a
research tool for anyone interested in faunistics and biogeography, is the
accuracy of the data, the many references to the literature and the
deliberate concern of the authors to put Corsican birdlife in a broader
spatial context including the larger islands of the (mostly) western part of
the Mediterranean basin.
Of course, there are inevitably
some faults in such a book. Although the introduction includes many basic
data on the Corsican environment, the authors could have given more
attention to the history of the vegetation which has been heavily
transformed by humans through the last three millennia. For example,
although the Downy Oak Quercus humilis has been of paramount
importance as a dominant tree during most of the Holocene at low and
mid-altitudes, this species is not mentioned as a component of forests
although today it still constitutes, in some parts of the island, important
stands to which some species, e.g. local populations of Blue Tits Parus
caeruleus, are closely adapted. More seriously, there should have been a
section on the components of the so-called insular syndrome, even if the
authors find some of them controversial, to justify the many studies on
Corsica into island biology, at both community and population levels, over
the past two decades. However, such minor problems do not detract from the
authors’ accomplishment in presenting an invaluable and up-to-date account
on the birds of this island.
• Reviewed by Jacques Blondel, Ibis 142: 511-512.
 The Birds of St Helena
Rowlands, B.W., Trueman, T., Olson, S.L., McCulloch, M.N. & Brooke, R.K
296 pages. BOU Checklist no. 16. Tring, Hertfordshire: British
Ornithologists’ Union, 1998.
£20.00 (UK & EC), £23.00, US$38.00 (rest of the world). ISBN
0-907446-20-5.
Ask most people what they know about St Helena and they will say, quite
correctly, that it is the island to which Napoleon Bonaparte was banished
following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, even if they may not be so
correct in telling you quite where it is. Ask a well-informed birder, and
they will know that it is home to the endemic Wirebird or St Helena Plover Charadrius sanctaehelenae, but probably not much more than that.
Until now it was difficult to
find out more about this remote island in the South Atlantic, over 1900 km
west of Angola and more than 3000 km east-to-southeast of Brazil, which is
still accessible only by sea. I discovered this recently when researching
the island’s ornithological literature before a three-day visit during a
cruise which called in at most of the Atlantic islands between South Georgia
and Britain. Data on the island’s avifauna are scattered throughout the
literature in the form of papers, letters, research reports, articles,
newspaper reports, voyage and expedition accounts, historical and general
accounts of the island, early historical works on Africa and more general
works on avifauna.
The great strength of this work
is that it pulls all these together into one very comprehensive and
authoritative volume, the latest in the BOU Checklist series. It provides a
very full account of the bird life of St Helena since the island was
discovered in 1502, meticulously researched and clearly presented. As the
number of species involved is small compared with that covered by other
Checklists in this series, it has been possible to give every one,
particularly the breeding birds, a rather fuller treatment. Various aspects
of St Helena ornithology are discussed in the introductory chapters,
including a detailed history, vegetation and bird habitats, introduction of
alien animals, migration and movements, breeding, guano exploitation and a
history of conservation action.
St Helena is far from the island
paradise discovered in 1502; its wildlife has been changed drastically by
introduced plants, animals (mostly mammals) and diseases. As with almost all
islands, its biological history since its discovery has been a disaster.
This book documents that history very thoroughly, setting out clearly the
past and present totals of species and numbers of landbirds (only 11 species
now breed, of which nine have been introduced) and of seabirds (only eight
species breed, with fewer than 5000 pairs now estimated). Details are given
of extinct species, reference is made to over 3000 specimens from fossil
remains found on the island, and a plea is made for further such work to be
done.
Considerable space is devoted to
current and recommended conservation action, with a suggestion that the
uniqueness of the fauna and flora of St Helena places the island high on the
international table of importance in conserving the earth’s biodiversity.
This excellent book, for the first time, provides in one place the data to
enable priorities to be confirmed and further action to be taken.
• Reviewed by Tony Marr in Ibis 141 (1) January 1999
 The
Birds of St Lucia
KEITH, A.R.
176 pages. BOU Checklist no. 15. Tring, Hertfordshire: British
Ornithologists’ Union, 1997.
£12.00 (UK & EC), £15.00, US$25.00 (rest of the world). ISBN
0-907446-19-1.
This is a useful review of our current knowledge of the avifauna of St
Lucia. Allan Keith provides a broad ornithological perspective, drawing upon
recent research from elsewhere in the region, and he has made the most of
the data available to him. One minor quibble is that I would like to have
seen the various alternative common names for species included in the
Systematic List because some of the AOU Checklist nomenclature is not widely
known in the region, where James Bond's Field Guide to the Birds of the West
Indies is still the most widely used handbook. All in all, however, I
thoroughly recommend this checklist to visitors to St Lucia and. Indeed, to
the region at large. St Lucia's avifauna remains comparatively little
investigated, and it is to be hoped that this compilation will encourage
ornithologists to fill many of the gaps in our knowledge.
• Extracts from a review by Peter G. H. Evans in Ibis 140 (4)
October 1998
The Birds of Togo
CHEKE. R. A. & WALSH J. F.
212 pages. BOU Checklist no. 14. Tring, Hertfordshire: British
Ornithologists’ Union, 1996.
£22.00 (UK & EC), £25.00, US$43.00 (rest of the world). ISBN
0-907446-18-3.
This is a further welcome addition to the BOU's stable of West African
checklists and contributes to filling the geographical gap between Ghana and
Nigeria, each already admirably served by previous BOU checklists (reviewed
in Ibis 124: 542, 130: 453).
The Checklist is valuable in
synthesizing the results of earlier collections and surveys, together with
unpublished data from private visits by ornithologists. This information is
greatly augmented by the authors' own numerous field observations, made
while working in Togo between 1972 and 1990. Probably more than any
ornithologists previously, they were able to travel extensively throughout
the country, often by helicopter into otherwise inaccessible places.
Like the most recent in series,
this latest volume is packaged in an attractive hardcover, with numerous
colour plates or habitat and bird photographs of a very high standard by the
two authors. It has earned its place between the Ghanaian and Nigerian
checklists on the bookshelf of every African ornithologist.
• Extracts from a review by Peter Jones in Ibis 139 (3) July 1997
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