Part I. Vernacular birding and ornithology in Africa. African vernacular birding traditions ; Early birding contact, 1500-1700 ; Ornithology comes to Southern Africa, 1700-1900 ; Authority in vernacular traditions and ornithology -- Part II. Lives of birders. The boundaries of birding ; The honor of collecting ; The respectability of museum work ; Birding revolutions.

In this unique and unprecedented study of birding in Africa, historian Nancy Jacobs reconstructs the collaborations between well-known ornithologists and the largely forgotten guides, hunters, and taxidermists who assisted them. Drawing on ethnography, scientific publications, private archives, and interviews, Jacobs asks: How did white ornithologists both depend on and operate distinctively from African birders? What investment did African birders have in collaborating with ornithologists? By distilling the interactions between European science and African vernacular knowledge, this stunningly illustrated work offers a fascinating examination of the colonial and postcolonial politics of expertise about nature.