The 2015 Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland

The state of conservation in the region is no better reflected than in The 2015 Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, which assess the extinction threats that plants, reptiles or birds face.

Birds are appropriate indicators of ecosystem health because they are popular and well studied, and the availability of significant, long-term datasets in South Africa makes birds a good choice for early-warning system for climate change impacts and other systematic, ecosystem-wide threats to broader biodiversity. The 2015 Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland is an updated and peer-reviewed conservation status assessment of the 854 bird species occurring in South Africa, including the Prince Edward Islands, Lesotho and Swaziland, undertaken in collaboration between BirdLife South Africa, the Animal Demography Unit of the University of Cape Town, and the South African National Biodiversity Institute. The revision of The 2015 Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland was sponsored by Eskom.