WILDLIFE LIBRARY
Building a wildlife library is a serious business!
Books
Physical books are still hugely relevant, even to 21st-century naturalists. The choice of volumes can be daunting – as well as heavy and expensive. We share our picks of the books we find most useful and worth the weight. Some stay at home, others come into the bush with us.
Posters & slates
The most useful guide is the one you have with you. Sometimes you need a smaller guide you can pop in your pocket or even take under water.
Apps
Increasingly, publishers and authors are developing companion phone apps to supplement or even replace paper books. While there is no real substitute for a book, it’s not possible to carry them all at all times (especially into the bush, or on little boats and planes). Apps can help us in ways books struggle – such as playing bird sounds, logging our wildlife sightings, and even having a stab at identifying species automatically – a feature which remains something of an unreliable gimmick, but can help suggest which page of the book we should start looking at.
Recommended books & posters
These are the books we use the most and recommend. If your favourite is missing, please let us know! We’re always pleased to discover new books.
In one or two cases we couldn’t find the guide we needed, so we are writing those ourselves, and are delighted to share them with you too.
A few external links below are affiliate links – so we may receive a tiny commission, at no cost to you, if you use these links then make a purchase. However this has no influence at all on which books we recommend.
We use international shipping services such as Middle East Cargo Services or M K Logistics to ship our books to Zanzibar from UK-based distributors.
Birds
At-a-Glance Guide to Zanzibar’s Common Shore Birds
Our own at-a-glance guide: tailored for Zanzibar
Buy now from:
Local Stockists
Birds of East Africa
2nd ed Princeton softback
Best all-round bird book covering all East Africa.
See also Birds of East Africa app.
Buy now from:
Birds of East Africa
2nd ed Helm – Hardback
Best all-round bird book covering all East Africa.
See also Birds of East Africa app.
Buy now from:
Birds of East Africa
2nd ed Helm – softback
Best all-round bird book covering all East Africa.
See also Birds of East Africa app.
Buy now from:
Chamberlain’s Waders: The Definitive Guide to Southern Africa’s Shorebirds
Definitive guide to waders, despite Zanzibar North of range covered.
See also Firefinch app.
Buy now from:
Birds of Kenya & Northern Tanzania 2nd Ed
Updated and ‘concise’ edition of the original safari bird book.
Zanzibar at southern limit of range covered.
Buy now from:
OUT OF PRINT
Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania 1st ed
The original safari bird book.
Zanzibar at southern limit of range covered.
Check availability:
The Birds of Zanzibar and Pemba
Out of print, but excellent historic annotated checklist for Zanzibar (no pictures).
Check availability:
Kiongozi cha Ndege wa Tanzania
Literally and figuratively the only Kiswahili bird book for Tanzania.
Sadly out of print.
Check availability:
Chamberlain’s LBJs: The Definitive Guide to Southern Africa’s Little Brown Jobs
Out of print companion to the excellent wader book.
See the new Firefinch app.
Check availability:
Marine life
A Field Guide to the Seashores of Eastern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Islands
Excellent general introduction to East African marine life.
Buy now from:
Local Stockists
Whales & Dolphins: A Field Guide to Marine Mammals of East Africa
Very handy, comprehensive guide. Sadly out of print, so grab a copy if you can!
Check availability:
Cetacean Identification Cards for Indian Ocean Fisheries
The Marine Mammals of Tanzania & Zanzibar
Handy guide with beautiful illustrations.
Request free copy:
Other Animals
A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Tanzania
Lovely photographic guide to the larger mammals, of which we have a surprising number albeit elusive.
Buy now from:
Field Guide to East African Reptiles
Excellent guide to reptiles – when accurate ID can be vital. See also the East African Snakes & Reptiles Facebook group.
Buy now from:
Pocket Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of East Africa
A pocket version of the previous book that also includes amphibians (frogs)
Buy now from:
Our Friends the Pollinators
This helpful beautiful and free handbook is highly recommended.
Download free:
Discover Pollinators
Plants
A Garden guide to Native Plants of Coastal East Africa
Excellent guide to native plants.
Buy now from:
Local Stockists
Wild Flowers of Kenya & Northern Tanzania
A nice flower book and companion to trees and shrubs.
Buy now from:
Grasses of East Africa
This book is on our shopping list so I can’t yet give a review but if grasses are your thing, check it out.
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Marine Plants of Tanzania: A Field Guide to the Seaweeds and Seagrasses
Excellent guide to marine plants.
Download Intro:
Check availability:
OUT OF PRINT
Kenya Trees Shrubs and Lianas
Rare and highly sought after – only wish I had a copy!
Check availability:
Read from elibrary:
Useful and Ornamental Plants of Zanzibar and Pemba
A fascinating and comprehensive study
Check availability:
Spices & Useful Plants of Zanzibar
A lovely little book with beautiful illustrations
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Cooking with Traditional Leafy Vegetables: Indigenous plants in Tanzania’s Kitchen
To remind us we are part of the ecosystem ourselves.
Download free:
Check availability:
Recommended Apps
These are the apps which have earned their place on my phone.
Eguide to the Birds of East Africa
A Companion app combining the words and pictures of the Birds of East Africa book above with bird sounds and trip and checklist logs. Great but pricy.
Buy now:
Firefinch
An outstanding app BUT for Southern African birds – enough overlap with East Africa species to be useful, but subscription is expensive.
Subscribe now:
Birdlasser
The preferred bird log app of the Tanzania Bird Atlas Project: it logs location of each sighting and easily exports data to .csv.
Download free:
iNaturalist
Highly encouraged! Global records of all wildlife sightings – your sightings records appear on this site!
Download free:
