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
-- ------------------------- Colin Jackson Kenya Bird Map Management Team A Rocha Kenya www.arocha.org www.assets-kenya.org Blog: www.arochakenya.wildlifedirect.org