Previous updates

31st July 2007: Recent sightings have been added to the news section of South Africa.

25th July 2007: Recent sightings have been added to the news sections of Namibia, Niger, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles and Sierra Leone.

22nd July 2007: The African Bird Club Conservation Fund has provided almost £60,000 for conservation projects in Africa since its inception. Most of the funds were provided by generous donations from sponsors and members. You can find more information about this work at conservation fund projects.

21st July 2007: Recent feature articles from the Bulletin have been added at Bulletin features.

16th July 2007: Recent sightings have been added to the news sections of Kenya, Madagascar, Madeira, Mali, Morocco and Mozambique.

14th July 2007: Recent sightings have been added to the news sections of Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana and Guinea.

12th July 2007: Some interesting photos have been added to the Cameroon pages. These include the endemic and endangered Bannerman's Turaco Tauraco bannermani and Banded Wattle-eye Platysteira laticincta.

11th July 2007: Links have been added for our new corporate sponsor Aim4Africa.

4th July 2007: Recent sightings have been added to the news sections of Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville) and Democratic Republic of Congo.

3rd July 2007: Recent sightings have been added to the news sections of Botswana, Cameroon, Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands.

25th June 2007: Recent sightings have been added to the news sections of Angola and Azores.

20th June 2007: References from ABC Bulletin 14(1) have been added to the appropriate country pages.

3rd June 2007: Information about the latest conservation status of Mauritius Fody Foudia rubra, Pink Pigeon Nesoenas mayeri and Echo Parakeet Psittacula echo can be found on the Mauritius conservation page.

3rd June 2007: There are some updates to the Cameroon visting page.

28th May 2007: Photos of the area around Mukjar, west Darfur have been added to the Sudan pages.

22nd May 2007: A correspondent has sent a list of birds seen in 2006 in the city of Nyala in South Darfur State, and in and around the town of Mukjar in West Darfur. Some of these species have been included on the Sudan hotspots page.

21st May 2007: Additional details regarding the ABC tour to Zambia have been added and can be found here.

30th April 2007: The country checklist pages have been updated to include new lists for the Azores, Libya and Tunisia as well as new records for several other countries. You will find the country checklists at checklists.

25th April 2007: The list of country recorders and checklist compilers for African countries has been updated. You can find the list at recorders. The contacts sections of the country pages have also been updated with new ABC representative information.

8th April 2007: The 6th ID Challenge has been launched. This challenge has a Madagascar theme to it and you can enter the competition and try for a prize by going to ID Challenge

27th March 2007: A major revision of the 'About the ABC' page has been added which you can find here.

21st March 2007: Links have been added for our new corporate sponsor Halcyon Gambia

20th March 2007: Malimbus 29(1) references have been added to the relevant country pages.

13th March 2007: The reference pages of 28 West African countries have been updated to include links to Malimbus and describe new facilities which have been provided on the Malimbus website.

1st March 2007: Country checklists launched

The African Bird Club is pleased to launch a pilot country checklist project as an extension to its website. The checklists have been developed in conjunction with Bob Dowsett as a resource for the use of birdwatchers, ornithologists and other travellers in Africa and its associated islands. 49 checklists are available in the initial implementation.

The records contained in the sub-Saharan checklists are based on country lists in Dowsett, R.J. & Forbes-Watson, A.D. (1993) Checklist of Birds of the Afrotropical and Malagasy Regions, Volume 1: Species limits and distribution published by Tauraco Press, Liège, Belgium. These records were compiled from a number of referenced works and have been brought up to date with records published subsequently. The taxonomic sequence and naming conventions are those used by Bob Dowsett.

An alternative taxonomy based on the ABC checklist (January 2007 revision) is also available and is the only option for those countries not contained in Dowsett & Forbes-Watson (1993). The records for North African countries are based on lists which have been assembled from field guides, websites and other sources. In the initial implementation, the only checklists available for north of the Sahara are Egypt and Morocco.

We welcome feedback on what has been achieved so far and what you think can be done to improve the site. There are many developments which we can foresee and through time, we hope to make progress in the following areas: checklists for all countries in the region; addition of new records; inclusion of other languages; inclusion of other taxonomies and the addition of species details.

You will find the country checklists at checklists. We hope that you will use the checklists regularly and find them of value.

28th February 2007: A comprehensive trip report from the Khartoum area of Sudan has been added to the Sudan visiting page. This is the first trip report which we have received from Sudan.

30th January 2007: The hotspots, visiting and contact sections of the Liberia pages have been updated with information from a correspondent based in the country.

26th January 2007: Links have been added for our new corporate sponsors Jenner Expeditions, Turaco Tours and Turtle Bay Beach Club.

25th January 2007: The Zimbabwe hotspots and visiting pages have been updated with information received today about birdwatching in the Vumba mountains near the Mozambique border.

19th January 2007: A revised ABC African Checklist has been added to the website today. This checklist, which has been compiled by Peter Lack, represents a major revision from the June 2005 version. In particular in the new version, so far only for non-passerines, is a brief indication of status, habitat and range. In due course these will be added for the passerines similarly. In addition, there is a detailed list of the updates to the previous version. Please browse through the checklist (and download it if you wish) which you will find by following the ABC African Checklist from the home page.

16th January 2007: References have been added from Alauda 74(4) to the reference sections of the country pages.

15th January 2007: The books and sounds pages have been updated for each country to include new titles. Remember that if you order your books on-line from the ABC site, 5% of your spend will go directly to our conservation fund to support birds in Africa.

9th January 2007: Links have been added for our new corporate sponsors A&CBlack

29th December 2006: The African Bird Image Database has been operational for almost 17 months. During this time, 284 photographers have registered on the site and submitted a remarkable 6,605 images of 1,504 species of birds photographed in Africa. The website has a comprehensive range of functions which allow you to search for species, look at all images of a particular photographer or browse the latest images for example. The site also shows the thousand or so species on the African list for which no image has been submitted yet. We are looking forward to receiving many new images over the coming months both of species which are already on the site and of new species. Please have a look at the website at http://birdquest.net/afbid/ and visit it on a regular basis. The database forms a valuable collection for anyone trying to identify species or carry out research. Alternatively, you can just browse through the site and look at some of the wonderful photographs.

28th December 2006: Updates have been added to the news sections of Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

27th December 2006: Updates have been added to the news section of Tanzania.

25th December 2006: Updates have been added to the news section of South Africa.

24th December 2006: Updates have been added to the news sections of Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Seychelles.

23rd December 2006: Updates have been added to the news sections of Morocco and Mozambique.

21st December 2006: Updates have been added to the news sections of Kenya, Libya, Madeira, Mali and Mauritania.

20th December 2006: Updates have been added to the news sections of Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana and Guinea.

19th December 2006: Updates have been added to the news sections of Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Chad, Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

18th December 2006: Updates have been added to the news sections of Azores, Botswana and Cameroon.

15th December 2006: Links have been added in the visiting sections for our new Corporate Sponsors Bird Uganda, Greentours and Jenner Expeditions.

9th December 2006: The list of the country recorders has been added at http://www.africanbirdclub.org/countries/Africa/contacts.html

8th December 2006: Several new photographs have been added to the São Tomé and Príncipe pages including images of some of the endemic species.

7th December 2006: A major update of the São Tomé and Príncipe pages has been completed following a recent Birding Africa tour.

30th November 2006: The visiting and conservation sections of Gabon have been updated and a number of new photographs added following the recent ABC sponsored tour.

29th November 2006: The hotspots section of Gabon has been updated with information about the Ivindo River Basin including the Ipassa Research Station, and Gamba area following the recent ABC sponsored tour.

28th November 2006: The hotspots section of Gabon has been updated with information about the Batéké plateau following the recent ABC sponsored tour.

27th November 2006: The hotspots section of Gabon has been updated with information about the Lopé National Park following the recent ABC sponsored tour.

17th November 2006: A selection of photographs taken by Beau Rowlands has been added to the St Helena pages.

16th November 2006: Links have been added in the visiting sections for our new Corporate Sponsors Abacus and Lawson's.

8th November 2006: An article, written by James Wolstencroft and titled Birding Around Arusha, appeared in the tourism trade magazine TanTravel in October 2006 and is reproduced at Tanzania introduction by kind permission of the author. It gives a description of some of the places to see birds in the Arusha area of northern Tanzania and examples of many of the wonderful birds which can be seen.

13th September 2006: The birding tour information in the visiting section of each country has been updated to include the new corporate sponsors of the African Bird Club.

12th September 2006: The birding tour information in the visiting sections of each country has been updated to reflect 2007 planned tours.

4th September 2006: References from ABC Bulletin 13(2) have been added to the relevant country sections.

3rd September 2006: References from Malimbus Volumes 27 and 28(2) have been added to the relevant country sections.

28th August 2006: New photographs all taken by Yvan Perré have been added to the Burkina Faso pages.

22nd August 2006: The 5th Identification Challenge has been launched.

11th August 2006: Information about the 2007 ABC Conservation Tours organised by Birding Africa has been added to the Cameroon and Zambia visiting sections.

25th July 2006: Information has been added to the news sections of Togo, Tunisia and Uganda.

24th July 2006: Information has been added to the news sections of Sierra Leone, a major update for South Africa, Sudan and Tanzania.

15th July 2006: Information has been added to the news sections of Namibia, Niger, Senegal and Seychelles.

11th July 2006: A number of photos have been added to the Benin pages. All the photos were taken in the north of Benin by Agnès Gianotti.

19th June 2006: Information has been added to the news sections of Madagascar, Madeira, Mauritania, Morocco and Mozambique.

18th June 2006: Links have been added in the visiting sections for our new Corporate Sponsor Field Guides.

14th June 2006: Significant information has been added to the news sections of Kenya, Liberia and Libya. In the case of Libya, these are the first records since 1994.

13th June 2006: Information has been added to the news sections of Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana and Guinea (Conakry).

12th June 2006: Information has been added to the news sections of Cameroon, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic and Congo (Brazzaville).

10th June 2006: Information has been added to the news sections of Azores, Benin and Botswana.

28th May 2006: The Angola pages have been updated with a number of improvements suggested by Birding Africa.

21st May 2006: A new checklist and references have been added to the Burkina Faso pages.

18th April 2006: a schematic map of the hotspots has been added to the Morocco pages.

14th April 2006: a schematic map of the hotspots has been added to the Tanzania pages.

10th April 2006: References from Malimbus 28(1) have been added to the relevant country page sections.

9th April 2006: the Angola news section has been updated to include details of some of the species seen on the recent ABC sponsored conservation tour to the country in October 2005.

3rd April 2006: The Morocco pages have been updated with information and photographs from a recent visit.

30th March 2006: References from ABC Bulletin 13(1) have been added to the relevant country page sections.

29th March 2006: The names and addresses of bird recorders have been updated with the latest information for each country. You can find these on the contact pages.

13th March 2006: Tours planned by corporate sponsors of ABC have been added to the visiting sections of each country.

10th March 2006: The African Bird Club is sponsoring two exciting birdwatching tours in 2006, to Angola and Gabon, organised by Birding Africa. For further details, see the visiting sections of Angola and Gabon. A share of the profits of these tours will go to the ABC Conservation Fund.

8th March 2006: An extremely useful link to a new site has been added to the South Africa species section. This site provides species lists for all major reserves in South Africa.

23rd February 2006: A few habitat and coastal photos from the island of São Miguel have been added to the Azores pages.

13th February 2006: General items of news are added regularly to the Africa news section.

31st January 2006: A completely new section on the Azores and its birds has been added to the country pages. Click on the tab on the left to see these pages.

15th January 2006: Four photographs have been added to the Sierra Leone pages, the first we have received from this country.

14th January 2006: Considerable information has been added to the Sierra Leone pages following a trip to this little known west African country by Andrew Hester and Craig Pearman.

13th January 2006: A new format schematic map has been added to Namibia to show the major birding hotspots. Please send comments on the layout and format to info@africanbirdclub.org.

29th December 2005: General information about Africa, its associated islands and their birds has been added. For an overview of Africa and its birds, choose 'Africa - General Info' rather than a country from the top of the drop down list.

6th December 2005: Details of the 2006 ABC Conservation Tours to Angola and Gabon have been added in the respective visiting sections. Photos have been added to the Gabon pages.

30th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

29th November 2005: Considerable information has been added to the news sections of South Africa and Tanzania.

27th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal and The Seychelles.

26th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Nigeria and Rwanda.

25th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Morocco, Mozambique and Namibia.

24th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Madeira, Mali and Mauritania.

23rd November 2005: An item and photographs have been added to the news section for Algeria concerning Rose-ringed Parakeet Psittacula krameri and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos minor breeding in the city of Algiers. See also the conservation section for an item about the historical breeding of Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita in Algeria.

22nd November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya and Madagascar.

20th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia and Ghana.

18th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Congo (Brazzaville) and Egypt.

16th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands and Central African Republic. This is the first news that has been received for CAR.

14th November 2005: Information has been added to the news sections of Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso and Cameroon.

13th November 2005: A small update to the Mauritius conservation page refers to the status of the Pink Pigeon Nesoenas mayeri.

3rd November 2005: The Namibia pages have been updated to reflect information gleaned on a recent birdwatching trip, and new photographs have been added.

30th October 2005: A new format schematic map has been added to Angola to show the major birding hotspots. Please send comments on the layout and format to info@africanbirdclub.org.

26th October 2005: Following the successful ABC Conservation Tour to Angola earlier this month, all the Angola pages have been updated and new photographs added.

25th October 2005: The St Helena conservation section has been updated with brief details of a controversial plan to build an airport in an environmentally sensitive area.

15th September 2005: References have been added for articles in ABC Bulletin 12(2) August 2005.

14th September 2005: Information and a photograph have been added to the news section of Réunion.

9th September 2005: Much of August has been spent setting up our site of African Bird Images which you can find at http://birdquest.net/afbid. Please take a look at this site and add your own high quality images of birds taken in Africa.

16th August 2005: An extensive write-up of the Sakumo Lagoon near Accra can be found in the Ghana hotspots section.

11th August 2005: All species names have been checked against the new 2005 ABC checklist and changes made where necessary.

5th August 2005: A new Books & Sounds section has been added to each country. This section shows the most useful field and sound guides not only for birds but for other taxa as well. We have provided links for you to buy these from our partner, Wildsounds, one of the largest specialist UK mail-order companies who will make a donation to ABC for each item ordered via these links.

6th July 2005: A significant number of recent sightings have been added to the news section of South Africa and updates to the news sections of Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe have also been made.

5th July 2005: Information has been added to the news sections for Kenya, Madagascar, Madeira, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal and The Seychelles.

4th July 2005: Information has been added to the news sections for Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana and Guinea.

3rd July 2005: Information has been added to the news sections for Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands and the Republic of Congo.

1st July 2005: Links have checked have been for all countries.

28th June 2005: Some excellent photographs have been added to the Algeria pages.

27th June 2005: References to articles in Volumes 6-11 of the ABC Bulletin have been added to the relevant country pages.

14th June 2005: The Seychelles species and conservation sections have been updated with the latest information from the Seychelles Bird Records Committee.

10th June 2005: A Fatbirder counter has been added to each page.

22nd May 2005: The Somalia news section has been updated with information from a Club Member who has travelled there recently.

20th May 2005: The Uganda hotspots section has been updated by a Club Member who has returned recently from a trip to that country.

1st May 2005: A large and useful update to the Kenya visiting section by a Club Member who has just returned from a safari and beach holiday.

14th April 2005: References to articles in Volumes 1-5 of the ABC Bulletin have been added to the relevant country pages.

12th April 2005: The Nigeria pages have been updated with a superb selection of photographs which include endemic and near-endemic species, IBAs and hotspots.

8th April 2005: The birding tours part of the visiting section for each country has been updated to include links to our Corporate Sponsors who have trips planned to that country in the near future.

4th April 2005: References from ABC Bulletin 12(1) March 2005 have been added to Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Tunisia and Zambia pages.

29th March 2005: Recent sightings have been added to the news section of Liberia. Bird recorders and checklist compilers added for each country where known.

28th March 2005: A few excellent photographs have been added to The Gambia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe pages.

25th March 2005: Malawi hotspots section has been updated with recent information from a correspondent who lived there for many years.

18th March 2005: Burundi hotspots section was updated with information about birding in and around the capital Bujumbura. Guinea-Bissau hotspots section was updated with recent information from a visitor.

17th March 2005: A few superb photographs were added to Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda pages.

14th March 2005: Sudan introduction and hotspots sections were updated with information about birding locations and species in and around the capital, Khartoum.

11th March 2005: Uganda visiting section was updated to incorporate a number of useful comments from a Club Member who has recently spent some time there.

11th March 2005: Country checklists were added for Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Guinea-Bissau.

5th March 2005: The first implementation of African Birding Resources was launched at the Club AGM.