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The African Bird Atlas Project (ABAP) is a citizen-science bird-monitoring programme that relies on a robust, repeatable protocol (BirdMap) and allows insights into the distributions of African birds and their conservation. The protocol involves collecting bird lists within spatial sampling units called pentads (5 × 5 minutes of latitude by longitude), in relation to survey effort. It is based on the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2), which is one of Africa's largest citizen science projects, with over 600 thousand checklists, comprising ∼19 million bird locality records as of December 2021. SABAP2, which focuses on southern Africa, was initiated in 2007 and is ongoing. Both the Kenya Bird Map and the Nigerian Bird Atlas Project, initiated in 2013 and 2015, respectively, use this protocol. These projects have galvanised local birdwatching communities and allow for important comparisons across sub-Saharan African countries. The spatial scope of ABAP covers the entire African continent. Bird species lists are collected by citizen scientists within a pentad, with each list encompassing a minimum of 2 hours of active birding over a maximum of 5 days in the preferred 'full-protocol' format. Lists that do not meet the full protocol requirements are called 'ad-hoc'. Species lists are mostly submitted to the SABAP2 database at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, by the third-party mobile phone application BirdLasser. Incoming data are vetted against existing records, with unusual records verified by Regional Atlas Committees. Data are open access via public websites. Distributional records can be downloaded for each species in the database, or site-specific species lists in various formats can be downloaded for pentads. Here, we introduce technical details of the database to inform researchers on how the data are gathered and curated. Data-access protocols are explained, with examples of data use given from the publication record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biometrics form a key characteristic of a species. Here, we provide a summary of biometrics held by the South African Bird Ringing Scheme (SAFRING), which was initiated in 1948, including measures of mass and lengths of the tarsus, head, culmen, tail and wing. We include all species in southern Africa for which there was sufficient data. Accordingly, we present biometric data for 674 of the 904 southern African bird species. We also investigated whether there were sex-specific differences for each species, and provide summaries for species where values significantly differed between the sexes. We found 376 species with significant sex-specific differences for at least one measure (e.g. mass). Although SAFRING holds data entries for many ringed individuals, a sizeable proportion of the entries was not useable as biometric data. Therefore, in this article, we aim to: 1) present a complete, standardised reference of summarised biometric data for the birds of southern Africa; 2) provide ringers with benchmark values that could guide data-capturing; 3) identify data-deficient species; and 4) highlight the importance of collecting and capturing biometric data carefully and consistently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article calculates estimates of avian longevity for southern African Passeriformes and demonstrates the impact citizen scientists have on data volumes curated by the South African Bird Ringing Unit (SAFRING). We calculated taxon-specific longevity records for 341 species from 33 families using ringing data collected between 1948 and 2017. An increase in active ringer participation over time correlated positively with an increase in retrap and recovery data, allowing for more reliable longevity calculations. These results highlight the significant contribution citizen scientists have made to bird ringing in southern Africa and identify data-deficient taxa to which future ringing activities should be targeted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Understanding the movement and displacement of individuals within avian species is important for conservation. Herons, Storks and Egrets are especially important as they are migratory species and are potential indicator species. It is therefore valuable to set life history baselines to understand survival. Objectives To establish baseline longevity and displacement values for the avian families Ardeidae, Threskiornithidae and Ciconiidae using the South African Bird Ringing Scheme (SAFRING) data for Africa and to highlight gaps in the SAFRING database for these families. Method We used data archives of ringed and subsequently reported individuals to determine maximum displacement and longevities from the past seven decades for each species within these three families. Displacement was estimated by the straight-line distance between subsequent records for the same individual. Longevity is the measure of time elapsed in records for the same individual. Results Displacement and longevity data were available for 17 of the 24 species in the focus families. Individuals of most of the species were ringed as nestlings so displacement records may represent dispersal. Displacement ranged from a maximum of 10 114 km for a White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) to 2.5 km for a Little Bittern (Ixobrychus minutus). Several species are poorly sampled, resulting in longevity records of just a few days. Despite that, longevity values were > 5 years for 16 species, and the highest value was 25.3 years for a White Stork. Conclusion It was possible to determine longevity values for most of the species within the three families investigated. Based on the displacement profiles for species with sufficient records, there are large differences in movement between species. Certain common species such as Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) have very few ringing records, which indicate a need for further species-specific research as the longevity values are not representative. This could greatly benefit studies aiming to use these species as ecosystem health indicators as well as identify which species are at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global urbanization is rapidly increasing, specifically within Africa. However, the effects of these processes on Africa's wildlife are largely unexplored. For many species, the effects are detrimental, whereas others are able to colonize these human-altered environments and can even thrive. Raptors are positioned at the top of the food chain and therefore particularly susceptible to environmental changes, and yet they are increasingly associated with urban areas. Given that adaptations to cope with urban stressors may differ from those occurring in more natural habitats, we might expect that directional selection in urban areas could account for phenotypic divergence between urban and rural individuals. This might include selection for different plumage coloration, which could be facilitated in color polymorphic species because no additional mutations are required to create variation. Color polymorphism is common in raptors, with 22% of the Accipitridae family being polymorphic. In this study, we focus on Black Sparrowhawks ( Accipiter melanoleucus) in Cape Town, South Africa. We explore whether the morphs are distributed differently along an urban-rural gradient and thus show a local adaptation. Using a long-term study (16 yr), we also investigate whether morph was related to the timing of breeding and breeding performance along the urban gradient. We found no differences of the morph distribution or of their breeding performance in relation to levels of urbanization. Our study represents the first to examine the breeding distribution of a polymorphic raptor in relation to urbanization and one of the first to explore avian productivity in relation to urbanization in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]