this request just in.

not an easy one but .... someone out there should be able to help.

and, given our history of bird exports TZ is most likely the source of birds in trade.

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I am a doctoral student in New York City and was given your email by Claire Spottiswoode.  She suggested I contact you regarding a research question related to my studies.  I'm studying an introduced population of pin-tailed whydahs in the US and attempting to use molecular techniques to identify the African source population(s) of the introduce birds.  In attempting to obtain a wide geographic range of African sourced specimens for my molecular genetics work, I've exhausted the North American and European natural history collections and still have no specimens from East Africa.  I'm especially keen on obtaining specimens from east of the Eastern Arc Mountains.  Claire thought that if anyone might know of researchers that would potentially have encountered this species either in the course of scientific collecting or ringing, that it would would be you.   I'm interested in specimens from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, any of the countries on the Horn of Africa, northern Mozambique, Rwanda, and Burundi.  It sounds like you'd be primarily aware of research in Tanzania, but any leads regarding any of the above would be most welcome. 

Thanks in advance for your advice and assistance.  Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best,

Noah