Sociable Weaver - Bird of the Year 2016

 MEDIA RELEASE BY BIRDLIFE SOUTH AFRICA

Sociable Weaver, Bird of the Year 2016
The Bird of the Year for 2016 is the Sociable Weaver

Sociable Weaver bringing nesting material (photograph: Stan Culley)

Sociable Weaver nest (photograph: Stan Culley)

The Sociable Weaver is an icon of southern Africa’s arid zones, and one of the drawcards that attracts visitors to the Kalahari. They are small birds with big personalities, and they have a complex and very interesting social life” BirdLife South Africa’s Chief Executive Officer Mark D. Anderson said. These birds, which weigh about 29 grams, build the world’s largest nest. Some nests, weighing more than 1000 kg, can have 500 inhabitants!

‘Bird of the Year’ is one of BirdLife South Africa’s initiatives to raise awareness about birds, bird conservation and the protection of bird habitats. Educating people is a key component of BirdLife South Africa’s conservation work, and therefore its marketing and education team develop Bird of the Year learning materials for schools. This year the resources will be about the Sociable Weaver, but also include information about other weavers, the arid zone, climate change, and other relevant matters.

“Although Sociable Weavers are not found throughout South Africa, many other weaver species are widespread. The learning materials which are being developed for schools and other groups will therefore being linked to weavers in general. Some aspects of these birds which are of interest are their intricate weaving skills and their diverse breeding systems,” said Nikki McCartney, Events and Marketing Manager at BirdLife South Africa.

One cannot travel to the Kalahari and surrounding arid areas without noticing these Sociable Weavers’ nests. “They are like giant haystacks placed in a tree or on a telephone pole”, said Anderson. The massive nests have several functions, but especially the buffering of the extreme temperatures in our region’s deserts and semi-desert areas. “The nest occupants include a range of other animals, from Pygmy Falcons and Red-headed Weavers to Cape Cobras, lizards and wasps”, Anderson added.

The Sociable Weaver’s range is increasing, especially as they build their nests on artificial structures, such as telephone and electricity poles and windmills. The Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2, using innovative data collection methods (such as the BirdLasser app) is tracking the birds range and relative abundance. See http://www.adu.org.za for more information.

For further information and photographs, please contact:
Nikki McCartney at events@birdlife.org.za or 083 636 1060

Attend the BirdLife South Africa AGM (Flock) Virtually

Dear colleagues

We are very pleased to announce that you can now attend our next AGM virtually, This important meeting will be livestreamed (at http://www.inventafrica.co.za/Flock-in-Jozi) to our members across the country (and even internationally). 

The AGM will start sharply at 16h00 on Saturday 21 March and be concluded by 18h00. Please encourage all members of BirdLife South Africa to attend our AGM using this cheap, low carbon meeting alternative. Many thanks to John Bowey for all the hard work in ensuring that our AGM will be accessible to our members.

Regards
Mark D. Anderson
Chief Executive Officer
BirdLife South Africa

Concern over migrant birds prompts international response

In recent months, the indiscriminate and unsustainable killing of migrant birds in North Africa has become an issue of public concern in a growing number of countries.  There has been widespread hunting and trapping of migratory birds in Egypt and also Libya, especially through the use of mist nets along large stretches of the Mediterranean coast. In response, the BirdLife Partnership, Government Agencies, the Convention on Migratory Species and the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds have rapidly moved to address the situation.

“Bird trapping in these countries is an ancient tradition. The main target species, Common Quail, is a local delicacy”, said Marcus Kohler, BirdLife’s Senior Programme Manager for Flyways.

“It’s a legitimate way for local people to supplement their diet. However, the indiscriminate nature and scale of the trapping has now reached worrying proportions and is having an impact upon other species.”

It’s not only Quail that are caught; many other species, such as European Turtle-dove and Red-backed Shrike, are also trapped as ‘bycatch’ in significant numbers. The increasing use and magnitude of mist net trapping is a new and worrying development.

Current estimates are that millions of birds are caught each autumn as they leave Europe and Asia for their wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa.

To read the full Birdlife International article with videos click here.

Action for Amur Falcons brings hope for an end to hunting in Nagaland

Male, Nylsvlei, February 2012
(Photo Stan Culley)

Last year’s news of the massacre of Amur Falcons in India shocked the world. BirdLife’s Indian Partner BNHS moved immediately to mobilise a response. The trapping was stopped, nets destroyed and arrests made, although not before terrible damage had been done.

This year, the generous response to our international appeal has enabled BNHS, with the support of the BirdLife Partnership, to organise a comprehensive programme to keep the falcons safe around the Doyang reservoir, where they roost during their stopover. The programme has mainly been implemented by a local NGO, Nagaland Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation Trust, working with the Nagaland Forest Department.

As a result, not a single Amur Falcon was trapped during the 2013 autumn migration. Attitudes have changed so much in the space of a single year that the Amur Falcons are now treated, in the words of Nagaland’s Chief Minister, as “esteemed guests”.

To read the full Birdlife International post click here.

Call to report sightings of Swift Terns with rings

This message from the University of Cape Town.

We are a team from the University of Cape Town studying the southern African population of Swift Terns. During April 2013, we ringed 500 chicks on Robben Island with inscribed color-rings and metal rings in order to better understand their dispersal and changes in population numbers. With your help, we will be able to estimate survival, dispersal and movement patterns in this species. Any reports of color-ringed Swift Terns (dead or alive) are crucial to this program and to the conservation of seabirds. If you are willing to help, please reply or report any ringed bird to our team at: swift.terns@ gmail.com
 

BirdLife South Africa Flock at Sea 1- Welcome and President's address

More video clips from Flock at Sea 2013

Click the titles to go to video clips

1- Welcome and President’s address

2- CEO’s annual report

3- Chairman’s and Treasurer’s reports 

4- Launching of BirdLife South Africa initiatives/projects

5- Presentation of the Gill Memorial Award

6- Lucky draw, thanks and acknowledgements

Prof Phil Hockey 1957-2013

(Photo: UCT)

Renowned Ornithologist Prof. Phil Hockey passed away on Thursday 24th January 2013 at the age of 56.
Our condolences go to his wife, Samantha and family.

To read more about his work at the UCT click here.

Black Stork possibly in trouble

In the account for the Black Stork in the Red Data Book from 2000, Keith Barnes wrote: "The Black Stork may suffer a decline in the near future and, owing to its small population, it requires monitoring." This range-change map shows that these were prophetic words. Keith considered that the breeding habitat, in mountainous regions was not threatened, but that the crunch was going to be food: fish, frogs, aquatic invertebrates. "Wetland conversion in the form of degradation of estuaries and highland marshes, the afforestation of catchments which reduces water inflow, and the damming of smaller rivers, such as in Lesotho and Mpumalanga, are causes of concern."

SABAP2 (2007–2011) probably represents the first monitoring of the Black Stork since SABAP1 (1987–1991), and the outcome is alarming. The species has not been recorded in SABAP2 in any of the quarter degree grid cells coloured RED in this map, and reporting rates have decreased in all the cells coloured ORANGE. ORANGE and RED are far and away the dominant colours on this map. There are large tracts of its former range where there have been remarkably few SABAP2 records, for example in the Overberg and Swartland areas of the Western Cape.

It is remarkable that a species as large and conspicuous as the Black Stork can quietly slip away unnoticed. This demonstrates once again the value of SABAP2, and the importance of making SABAP2 a continuous and ongoing broad brush monitoring project. We still need more birders to be involved! And resources to keep the project running into the long-term future.

Source: SABAP2/ADU

Garden birding with a purpose

Coinciding with Digital Biodiversity Week, a new bird monitoring initiative - MyBirdPatch – is being launched. This project is a derivative of SABAP2, and is an “add on” not a replacement. MyBirdPatch is a project of the ADU, in partnership with SANBI and BirdLife South Africa.
What is MyBirdPatch? It is an initiative to monitor bird species and populations at a fine scale. What is a patch? A patch can include one or more of the following types of area: garden, greenbelt, a park, local nature reserve, school, the grounds of a hospital, golf course, wetland, a section of river, your walking route around your neighbourhood, or even the route you walk every day between getting off public transport and your office. Basically any well-defined space from the size of a garden to a few tens of hectares, but there is no real upper limit. You can decide for yourself how small or large your patch is depending on how much time you have available. You define the boundary of the patch. We are happy if you only ever do a single list for a patch, but we would much prefer you to select a patch that you are able to do regularly.

For more information click....here

Source: ADU

Southern Grey-headed Sparrow expanding its range

''First, a reminder about the colour coding. In green quarter degree grid cells, the reporting rate in SABAP2 is greater than in SABAP1, and in orange it is the other way round, SABAP2 has smaller reporting rate than SABAP1. Blue means that the species has expanded into this quarter degree grid cell since SABAP1. Red means the species was recorded in SABAP1, but not (yet) in SABAP2. In pink quarter degree grid cells, the species was recorded in SABAP1, but there is no SABAP2 data yet. A dot means the species was not recorded in the quarter degree grid cell in either project. Yellow means that the reporting rates are identical for both SABAP1 and 2.
Secondly, this is not a definitive analysis. It is designed to show the general pattern, and suggest the species to be looked at more carefully.
But for the Southern Grey-headed Sparrow it does not require a statistical analysis to convince us that this is a species becoming more abundant – the overwhelming abundance of green is evidence for this. And it is clearly a species moving westwards, mainly into the Western Cape.
As SABAP2 coverage becomes more comprehensive, these range-change maps become more impressive and more useful.''

Source: SABAP2/ADU

Artist aims to raise a million Rand for Kamfers Dam flamingos

'On Wednesday 23rd March 2011, an exhibition of new works by Jeremy Houghton, inspired by the Near Threatened Lesser Flamingo Phoeniconaias minor will open at the Saatchi Gallery, London.
The exhibition will be raising funds in support of the Kamfers Dam wetlands, a conservation project centred on the largest Lesser Flamingo breeding population in South Africa. These wetlands contain a unique man-made breeding island, designed and created by Mark Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of BirdLife South Africa.'

read more.....here

Source Birdlife International

SABC News broadcast on the Critically Endangered Cape Parrot