A trip to Mauritania 7-18 February, 2004

• Mauritania is a little known and seldom-visited country with very little infrastructure, but it is very safe to travel, it offers some spectacular scenery and, above all for the birdwatching traveller, has the Banc d’Arguin National Park, an area of great importance for wintering and breeding seabirds and shorebirds...Ignacio Yúfera reports

Birds of Africa South of the Sahara: A Comprehensive Illustrated Field Guide
Ian Sainclair, Peter Ryan: Buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

• This book is the first time ever that a field guide is aiming for the whole region - from 20 deg N up to 200 nautical miles off the continent shores (including Socotra but not Madagascar, Seychelles and other Indian and Atlantic Ocean Islands).

The Birds of Western Africa
Nik Borrow, Ron Demey: Buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

• A major new fieldguide, and a classic from the "Helm" stable that will set the standard for Western Africa for years to come. It covers all the 1282 species expected to be seen in the c.20 nations inside a triangle enclosing The Congo, Chad and Mauritania. For several of the countries it is the only single guide that covers all of the nations birds in one book. Nicely illustrated with over 3000 drawings on 142 colour plates which cover all the species described apart from a few vagrants. Distribution maps are provided for the majority of species. As the first comprehensive guide to the region in over 25 years this is a "must buy" for any serious birder visiting Western Africa. Now available in Paperback

The Rough Guide to West Africa
Richard Trillo, Jim Hudgens: Buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

• This is a marvellous guide to the region, packed with hard-nosed advice and information, streets ahead of any other travel guide.