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The following largely unconfirmed records have been published in recent Bulletins of the African Bird Club for information only.

Notable species observed near Juba, south Sudan, in October 2008 include an adult Beaudouin’s Snake Eagle Circaetus beaudouini on 25th, a Steppe Buzzard Buteo buteo vulpinus on the same date, with two the next day and another single on 28th, a Eurasian Hobby Falco subbuteo on 26th, and several European Bee-aters Merops apiaster and a Great Reed Warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus on 25th.

During a stay in southern Sudan in November-December 2007, some 50 bird species were opportunistically recorded, all of which are known from the areas visited (cf. Nikolaus 1987. Distribution Atlas of Sudan’s Birds). However, the record of three Eastern Grey Plantain-eaters Crinifer zonurus, observed in the Kurchi area, southern Kordofan, may present some interest, as the species is marked as a ‘probable wanderer’ to this area in the Atlas.

During a visit to Rumbek, a small town surrounded by wooded savanna and a few cultivated areas in southern Sudan (06°50’N 29°42°E), on  21-28 October 2005, several species were recorded whose occurrence is not indicated in the relevant one-degree square of their distribution map in Nikolaus (1987) These include the following: Little Sparrowhawk Accipiter minullus (two on 27th), Wahlberg’s Eagle Aquila wahlbergi (one on 26th), Tawny Eagle A. rapax (one on 27th), Booted Eagle Hieraaetus pennatus (a pale morph on 28th), Grey Kestrel Falco ardosiaceus (one on 22nd; two together on 27th), Bruce’s Green Pigeon Treron waalia (singles on 22nd-25th), African Mourning Dove Streptopelia decipiens (regularly 2-3 in town), Red-eyed Dove S. semitorquata (one on 22nd), Rose-ringed Parakeet Psittacula krameri (seen daily, up to five together), Woodland Kingfisher Halcyon senegalensis (one on 26th), European Roller Coracias garrulus (singles on 22nd and 25th), Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill Bycanistes subcylindricus (two on 21st), Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird Pogoniulus chrysoconus (singles on 22nd and 26th), Common Bulbul Pycnonotus barbatus (seen daily in small numbers), Spotted Palm Thrush Cichladusa guttata (one on 24-25th), Eastern Olivaceous Warbler Hippolais pallida (two on 23th), Common Fiscal Lanius collaris (one on 24th), Black-headed Gonolek Laniarius erythrogaster (one on 22nd), Brubru Nilaus afer (one singing on 22nd; two immatures on 25th), Speckle-fronted Weaver Sporopipes frontalis (5-10 on 22nd; singles on 24-26th), Northern Masked Weaver Ploceus taeniopterus (a male on 22nd) and Vitelline Masked Weaver P. velatus (at least three near the Barnaam (or Naam) River, c.20 km south-east of Rumbek, on 26th).

This is hardly a recent sighting but it demonstrates the dearth of records from Sudan. In September 1996, hundreds of Shoebill Balaeniceps rex were reported in the Western Nile Province along the White Nile between Nyal and Leer, and around Thiekthou on the Bhar el Ghazal. 200 were nesting in a colony in papyrus swamp close to the airstrip in Nyal.

Last page update 8th October 2009