An invitation to contribute

Roberts Online presents a unique opportunity to access online the full texts of Roberts Birds of Southern Africa 7th Edition. The texts will be lavishly illustrated with thousands of photographs, and photographers are invited to take this opportunity to share their digital bird images and so contribute to ornithology in Southern Africa. We also invite bird sound recordists to submit their recordings of geographical variation and repertoire of bird sounds.

Please visit www.robertsonline.co.za for further details and to see our example pages. Access to Roberts Online will be by subscription, while purchasers of Roberts 7 Multimedia PC or PDA edition will automatically receive one year free subscription.

Roberts Online, a joint project between the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund www.robertsbirds.co.za, Southern African Birding cc www.sabirding.co.za, and the bird photographers and bird recordists of Southern Africa.

Roberts Online will present a unique opportunity to access online the full texts of Roberts Birds of Southern Africa 7th Edition, on a subscription basis. The texts will be illustrated with artwork, distribution maps, bird sounds, and thousands of digital photographs. The photographs are intended as an additional guide to identification by illustrating the full range of plumages from juvenile to adult, and also to illustrate the life-style of adult birds, from general habits, food and feeding techniques, to breeding displays, nests, eggs and chicks. In a similar way we hope to illustrate the range of geographical variation and repertoire of bird sounds.

The Roberts Online material will also be made available on DVD as part of the Roberts 7 Multimedia DVD, while purchasers of the Roberts 7 Multimedia will automatically receive one years free subscription to Roberts Online. No online subscriptions are available as yet, as the full site is under development.

The currently available pages are to illustrate what we plan to achieve, and to request photographic and sound contributions. Please see our example pages by clicking on the bird images or the [Species] button at the top of the page.

Contributing to Roberts Online

We invite photographers to take this opportunity to share their digital bird images and so contribute to ornithology in southern Africa. All photographers will be credited alongside their images, and donated images will be labelled as such. Photographers who donate 30 or more accepted images will receive a complimentary Roberts 7 Multimedia DVD. Another benefit will be a photographers gallery, where all contributors will be acknowledged with a description of their work and contact details.

For details on submitting photos to Roberts Online, please click here.

Message from Hugh Chittenden

As photographers we have hardly scratched the surface when it comes to the everyday habits of birds in this region. We appeal to the growing number of bird photographers to take more photos of the life-style of birds such as social interactions and food and feeding. We also encourage you to photograph more birds in juvenile and non-br plumages and of course birds in flight.

We hope that photographers from this region and from around the world will use ROBERTS ONLINE as a vehicle to display their unusual photographs and that this in turn promotes birding, and more importantly leads to better conservation and a safer environment for the bird species on this continent.

The example pages in the exciting new ROBERTS ONLINE project are intended to show what we hope to achieve with this project.

Hugh Chittenden
Chairman of Trustees
John Voelcker Bird Book Fund
Publishers of Roberts Birds of Southern Africa.

Message from Guy Gibbon

This is also an opportunity for bird sound recordists to contribute to our knowledge of bird sounds. Bird sound is one of the least known and understood aspects of bird biology, and there is a wealth of geographic variation and vocal repertoire to be explored. Bird sound recording can be as rewarding as photography, and if you make notes of the locality and behaviour at the time of recording, it can be a useful scientific tool. Take a look at the sonograms, particularly of the Gorgeous Bush Shrike, to see how interesting the subject can be. On a personal level, Roberts Online offers you the opportunity to share your work with others, an opportunity rarely available to bird sound recordists. For those of you who are interested, a brief guide to sound recording and submitting contributions can be found here.

Guy Gibbon
Southern African Birding cc
Publishers of Roberts Multimedia Birds of Southern Africa