Africa Round-up: 2

Satellite tracking of Blue Cranes
The Eskom/Endangered Wildlife Trust project to learn more of the movements of Blue Cranes Anthropoides paradisea in South Africa continues and in the 1997-98 summer, transmitters were attached to eight chicks reared in the Karoo, Dullstrom and Overberg regions. Little is known about seasonal movements of Blue Cranes and it is hoped that satellite tracking will determine those areas cranes rely on when on migration and in winter. At the time of writing, the birds had not moved significantly, as they had only just learnt to fly.
Source: Crane Link 3, pp 6-7

Wirebird numbers down
Recent censuses of the globally threatened Wirebird or St Helena Plover Charadrius sanctaehelenae have revealed a worrying decline of c20% since the last full survey 10 years ago. Declines have been most pronounced on pasture land sites. A number of factors are thought to be responsible including the encroachment of non-native plant species, increased growth of annual weeds due to high rainfall and possibly a decline in invertebrate prey due to changing farming methods.
Source: The Wirebird Project, Newsletter 2

Adult St Helena Wirebird Charadrius sanctaehelenae (Neil McCulloch)

Double moult by Black-chested Prinia
Few passerines are known to undertake a complete moult twice a year. A recent study, by M. Herremans, has demonstrated that Black-chested Prinia Prinia flavicans, an endemic of the southern African thornbelt, is one such species. Adults perform a fast moult (taking c67 days) in September-November involving all birds, and a slower moult (of c108 days) in February-June, when c95% of adults moulted in April. The species' pattern of secondary replacement was demonstrated to be variable and also unusual among passerines. Herremans also discovered that summer breeding occurred erratically, in response to rains, and could overlap with moulting behaviour. When breeding occurred during autumn moult (February-June), birds would assume a new summer plumage, rather than winter plumage.
Source: Ibis 141, pp 115-124

SAFRING ringing report 1996-97
The SAFRING ringing report always makes interesting reading. During the first six months of 1997 some fascinating recoveries were received including spectacular movements by Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans and White Storks Ciconia ciconia, several of which moved 7-8,000 km from their ringing site. One problem highlighted in the ringing report is the increasing number of longline fatalities that SAFRING is receiving. During this period, two Wandering Albatross, a Yellow-nosed Albatross Diomedea chlororhynchos, a Southern Giant Macronectes giganteus and two Northern Giant Petrel M. halli were reported as taken off longlines. Other interesting recoveries include several Red-billed Quelea Quelea quelea recoveries, part of a co-ordinated study of the movements of this species. A Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni ringed in March 1994 in South Africa was found in Saudi Arabia in June 1997. A European Swift Apus apus was taken for food in Malawi. A ring, found in the stomach of a large Snoek in Concepcion Bay in Namibia, had been placed on a Cape Gannet Sula capensis nestling six weeks previously 1,700 km away at Bird Island in the Eastern Cape. Whether this says more about snoek or Cape Gannet migration remains unknown!
Source: SAFRING News 26 (2), pp 72-80

European Reed Warblers in southern Africa
European Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus was previously considered to be a rare Palearctic migrant to southern Africa, but recent ringing at Phakalane and elsewhere in Botswana has demonstrated this species to be more common than previously thought. Between November 1996 and mid-April 1997, 53 birds were caught by Stephanie Tyler along with a Basra Reed Warbler A. griseldis (the first country record), suggesting that scirpaceus is a not uncommon visitor to southern Africa especially in years of high rainfall. Other Acrocephalus caught included European Sedge Warblers A. schoenobaenus, some of which spent weeks or months at the site, three Marsh Warblers A. palustris and a Great Reed Warbler A. arundinaceus.
Source: SAFRING News 26 (2), pp 81-82

Long-billed Lark is five species
Peter Ryan and Paulette Bloomer have recently performed mt-DNA sequencing tests on taxa within the Long-billed Lark Certhilauda curvirostris complex, which has traditionally been viewed as comprising 13 subspecies within three phenotypically well-defined groups. The authors conclude that three taxa are genetically highly distinct (differing from each other by 6-9% sequence divergence) and one of these comprises three phenotypically distinct taxa (differing from each other by 2% sequence divergence). Thus, Ryan and Bloomer propose the recognition of these five as species-level taxa: C. curvirostris, C. brevirostris, C. semitorquata, C. subcoronata and C. benguelensis. The last two-named are less closely related to the other three, and exhibit less sharply defined morphological and plumage differences than the others. Male display songs provide additional support for this arrangement. The position of Short-clawed Lark C. chuana in relation to these five taxa is unresolved. The ranges of these five are allopatric but further work is required in northern Namibia and Angola to eludiciate certain distributional limits.
Source: Auk 116, pp 194-208

Madagascar Fish-Eagle feeding ecology
The results of a quantitative study of Madagascar Fish-Eagle Haliaeetus vociferoides diet and foraging success in western Madagascar, conducted in mid-1996, have been published recently. It appears to be an opportunistic predator, suggesting that the introduction of exotic fish, to replace native fish, is unlikely to have a detrimental effect on its population. Among males, at least, it would appear that fish species diversity affects the species' foraging success, making it sensitive to declines in fish diversity.
Source: Wilson Bull. 111, pp 15-21

Conservation Corporation Africa launches new journal
This organisation (hereafter CCA) employs more than 200 rangers, trackers and guides in Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The group, which is a commercial operation, has recently published the inaugural issue of its journal, rather unimaginatively titled Conservation Corporation Africa Ecological Journal. Behind the bland title, however, this is a worthwhile attempt to present interesting observations, on a host of fauna and flora taxa, in an easily accessible format. While much of the content of the first volume appears to be devoted to mammals, especially big cats, there is much to interest ornithologists here, with a considerable body of basic life-history data on a wide variety of species, for which additional information is always valuable, being presented in the 189 pages. The editor of the new journal, Duncan Butchart, can be contacted at: PO Box 12573, Nelspruit 1200, South Africa. E-mail: dbnature@iafrica.com.
Source: Dave Varty in litt. May 1999

EAST AFRICA
Forest birds in Tanzania
Two important papers on the conservation of forest birds in Tanzania have been published in a recent issue of Bird Conservation International. The first, by Nathalie Seddon et al, details the ecology and conservation status of threatened birds in the Nilo Forest Reserve and Nguu North Forest Reserve. Among many interesting results, two species-East Coast Akalat Sheppardia guningi (considered globally vulnerable) and Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird Anthrepetes neglectus (globally near-threatened)-appear to be commoner than previously thought, and the authors recommend that their threat status be downgraded to near-threatened and regionally near-threatened. Elsewhere in the same issue, Jon Fjeldså examines the impact of human forest disturbance on the endemic avifauna of the Udzungwa Mountains. Comparative data from disturbed and mature forest types revealed marginally greater species diversity in the former (70 versus 61-65 species in different mature forest types) but with an obvious loss in restricted-range species, especially shaded understorey taxa but also among larger insectivores within mixed canopy-feeding flocks, in disturbed forests.
Source: Bird Conserv. International 9, pp 9-28; 47-62

Nature Kenya
The East Africa Natural History Society is undergoing a facelift. Together with a new constitution, eight full-time staff based in a fully equipped office and a strong conservation programme as befits a BirdLife International partner, the society has acquired a new name, Nature Kenya. In addition to organising surveys, a nest record scheme and other fieldwork, the revitalised organisation will also be producing educational materials for schools and training bird guides to aid tourism. Nature Kenya can be contacted via National Museums of Kenya, Department of Ornithology, P.O. Box 44486, Nairobi, Kenya. We at the ABC wish it well.
Source: Brit. Birds 92, p 207

Ngulia: help wanted
During autumn 1998 nearly 20,000 birds were ringed by the Ngulia ringing group in Kenya. The group seeks assistance from experienced ringers in autumn 1999. Contact Graeme Backhurst, Box 15194, Nairobi, Kenya. Tel: 00 254 2891419. E-mail: graeme@healthnet.org.ke.
Source: Brit. Birds 92, p 270

Long-term effects of logging
A recent study of the avifauna of Kibale National park, Uganda, has demonstrated that the avifauna of a forest area logged 23 years previously had still not recovered at the time of the survey.
Source: Biol. Conserv. 7, p 777; World Birdwatch 21 (1), p 5

Sexual imbalance in Taita Thrush
Taita Thrush Turdus helleri, currently considered globally threatened by BirdLife International, is a monomorphic species endemic to the Taita Hills of south-east Kenya. A recent DNA study of this taxon has shown that there are significantly more males than females within the extant population, a factor that clearly has important implications for the species' survival.
Sources: Biol. Conserv. 7, p 869; World Birdwatch 21 (1), p 5

Rats out, the ants move in
Black Rats Rattus rattus were, following their accidental introduction to Bird Island in 1967 until their successful eradication in 1995, one of the major conservation problems in the Seychelles. Now a new problem has emerged. Crazy Ants Anololepis longipes, another introduced species, were first noticed on the same island in 1991, but by 1997 it was obvious they were infesting a large part of Bird Island, quite possibly as a direct result of a lack of predation by rats. In 1998, the ants infested and subsequently caused a colony of 60,000 pairs of Sooty Tern Sterna fuscata to desert their nests, and also overran a White Tern Gygis alba colony, killing chicks as well as reptiles, other insects and vegetation. Although ant control measures are now being addressed, the entire episode serves to illustrate, once again, just how vulnerable island ecosystems can be.
Source: World Birdwatch 21 (1), 2

Seychelles Magpie-Robin population at record level
The highly endangered Seychelles Magpie-Robin Copsychus sechellarum has been the subject of an intensive recovery programme funded by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (BirdLife International partner in the UK) since 1988. In that year, the population was just 23 individuals on one island. A decade later, the population has more than trebled and by the end of March 1999 consisted of 80 birds on four islands.
Sources: Birdwatch October 1998; Seychelles Magpie-Robin Recovery Plan Quarterly Report 34

New species for Seychelles
The latest report of the Seychelles Bird Records Committee reports two additions to the Seychelles list. A Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel Oceanodrama monorhis was watched at sea between Assumption and Aldabra, in October 1996, while another was picked up moribund on Praslin. Fifteen adult Little Tern Sterna albifrons on Mahé, in April 1997, was also the first confirmed record of this species in Seychelles.
Source: Birdwatch October 1998

Brown Booby - Seychelles most threatened bird species?
The Brown Booby Sula leucogaster is now the most threatened bird species in the Seychelles. In October 1998, it was discovered that one of the only remaining colonies on the remote Farquhar atoll had been wiped out, probably by poachers. The few remaining pairs known in Seychelles nest on South Island, Cosmoledo.
Source: Birdwatch October 1998