Many reading this will have already heard of the Kenya Bird Map project that is repeating and updating the Bird Atlas of Kenya (Lewis & Pomeroy 1989) - as mentioned in my email cc'd to the group re the recent Bat Hawk record in Nairobi regarding submitting it. This email is to give a more general introduction to the project and an invitation for you to get involved.

If you do any birding in Kenya, even if it is simply your garden or when on holiday, then please do join us in this very stimulating project that has critical value for bird conservation in Kenya. Check it out: http://kenyabirdmap.adu.org.za/.

The most basic information about a bird species that is needed for its conservation is its distribution. 35 years have passed since the fieldwork for the first / only Bird Atlas of Kenya published in 1989. There have been huge changes in habitat across the country as well a as a host of other pressures on bird populations but no-one really knows to what extent this has affected distributions and abundance of our species. We have an idea about some of the more noticeable species - Egyptian Vultures have all but disappeared, House Sparrows have spread from Mombasa to almost every urban centre across the country - but we have very very little actual data to show even these, and changes in less obvious species will have gone unnoticed.

This project will allow us to document and describe these changes using an internet-based system that means records are mapped live as they are submitted. The project works as a classic 'atlas' in that the country is divided into a grid of squares and the aim is to visit every square - ideally many times - and produce a species list for it. This provides an online, constantly updating distribution map of every species in Kenya. Even better, a simple but robust and stimulating protocol of listing the birds in the order you see them and recording how many you see in each hour of birding means the data can be used for an index of abundance to track population change - are the numbers increasing or decreasing? Records of individual birds or short lists are also useful for simple distribution maps.

In the first atlas, the atlas squares were half a degree square. Now we are working on a 5 minute by 5 minute square which are called 'pentads'. The atlas is linked with Google Maps meaning you can locate pentads and work out their boundaries, note land marks and look for new islands of habitat within a pentad that might hold different species by zooming in on the satellite image. A graph of reporting rate against date shows trends in seasonality for species and in due course it will be possible to overlay a current distribution of a species with that of the first bird atlas to show any changes that might have happened.

The key to success in this project is getting as many people as possible involved and contributing. Please join us!

The National Museums of Kenya, A Rocha Kenya, Tropical Biology Association and Nature Kenya have come together under the Bird Committee of the EANHS in association with the Animal Demography Unit of the University of Cape Town to launch the initiative and make it happen. The aim is to have the data freely available and as useful as possible to anyone who might want to use it. An office has been opened linked to the Ornithology Section, NMK and you can get more information from them by writing to <kenyabirdmap@naturekenya.org>.

"Why another online bird record database?" you may ask - surely we should just use eBird or one of the other similar projects. In many ways yes, and in fact we hope to be able to link data from such projects to the Kenya Bird Map, but the major drawback of a non-grid-system based protocol is that you will find birders submit data from the 'hot spots' - those sites which are popular birding sites, which are known for certain species etc and as a result you get little or probably no data from the 'cold spots' that actually might have important unknown populations of species and also which are integral to contributing to our overall understanding and knowledge of national bird populations, their status and trends. Furthermore, the simple but very robust protocol on data collection (effectively a timed species count rather than simply a species list from a certain geolocation on a given date) of the Kenya Bird Map adds significant value to the data when it comes to analysis and using it. However we certainly plan to link with such projects and see how data can be shared for the benefit of conserving our birds. In time it will be possible to select a map that shows the change between a species distribution at the time of the first atlas compared to its current distribution. Migration patterns will be possible to "see" happening and a species distribution will be identifiable as 'core' areas and marginal areas for the species depending on reporting rate for a species.

Once again I'll reiterate our need for people to get involved in this citizen science project - if you can't yourself but know anyone who would be interested, please point them to the website. Registration is easy and free and also allows you to contribute to another excellent project, the Virtual Museum for Africa - mapping a wide number of taxa using digital images linked to a location and date.

We shall post updates on kenyabirdsnet as the project continues. To date we have had over 15,000 records submitted and 135 pentads covered in pretty much just eight months. We do need help with some issues such as vetting - so if you are interested and able to assist, please let me know. But overall, please do get involved and submit records of birds and get others to join in. A smart phone app will hopefully be available before long to simplify the process as well.

I believe this is going to be an extremely important tool for our use in bird conservation in Kenya in the years to come - I look forward to having many more join us with it!

Colin

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Colin Jackson
Kenya Bird Map Management Team
A Rocha Kenya

www.arocha.org
www.assets-kenya.org
Blog: www.arochakenya.wildlifedirect.org