science

The Birds of Africa

The Birds of Africa is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Birds of Africa rather than just read about it. In short: "The Birds of Africa" is also a five-volume handbook by George Ernest Shelley, published 1896-1912. The Birds of Africa is an eight-volume ornithological handbook.

Key takeaways

The Birds of Africa belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Birds of Africa to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Birds of Africa from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"The Birds of Africa" is also a five-volume handbook by George Ernest Shelley, published 1896-1912. The Birds of Africa is an eight-volume ornithological handbook. Its authors/editors are C. Hilary Fry, Stuart Keith and Emil Urban, and Claude Chappuis is sound editor. Each volume contains colour plates painted by Martin Woodcock. The series ended with the 8th volume in 2013 and shortly after in August 2014 publisher Academic Press confirmed that they would no longer be reprinting the first 7 volumes.

Content It covers all breeding species in full, with details of range, status, description, voice, general habits and breeding; non-breeding visitors are treated more briefly, with emphasis on their status and behaviour whilst in Africa. The first 3 volumes refer to non passerine birds, 4, 5, 6, and 7 refer to passerine, and the 8th and final volume refers to the birds of and relating to Madagascar specifically.

Volumes The series contained the following volumes:

Ostriches to Falcons, published in 1982 521 pp. Gamebirds to Pigeons, published in 1986 552 pp. + 32 color plates Parrots to Woodpeckers, published in 1988 611 pp. + 32 color plates Broadbills to Chats, published in 1992 609 pp. + 32 color plates Thrushes to Puffback Flycatchers, published in 1997 669 pp. + 32 color plates Picathartes to Oxpeckers, published in 2000 724 pp. + 36 color plates Sparrows to Buntings, published in 2004 666 pp. The Malagasy Region, published 2013 1024 pp.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Birds of Africa

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Birds of Africa claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Birds of Africa before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Birds of Africa ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Birds of Africa

In research: The Birds of Africa appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Birds of Africa in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Birds of Africa is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Ornithological handbooks, Ornithology stubs, Zoology book stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Birds of Africa outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Birds of Africa in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Birds of Africa means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Birds of Africa out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Birds of Africa in simple terms?

"The Birds of Africa" is also a five-volume handbook by George Ernest Shelley, published 1896-1912. The Birds of Africa is an eight-volume ornithological handbook.

Why does The Birds of Africa matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Birds of Africa?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Birds of Africa.