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The Agulhas Long-billed Lark Certhilauda brevirostris is restricted to the Agulhas Plain, South Africa, a region extensively transformed for crop production and sheep grazing. We present data on nest and egg characteristics, clutch and brood size, parental care and breeding success previously undescribed for this species. During field surveys in 2020 and 2021, 29 nests were located. Of these, 16 were monitored by camera traps. Laying started in late winter (July) and continued until early summer (late November). Most nests (66%) were in Renosterveld, a unique vegetation component of the Fynbos Biome, with the remainder in human-modified landscapes. Female larks were responsible for nest construction and incubation. Both sexes provisioned nestlings, with provisioning rate related to nestling age and time of day but not brood size. Breeding success was low, with only 14% of nests fledging any young. Only one repeat nesting attempt following a predation event was observed, but the attempt was abandoned. Nest predation was the main cause of nest failure, with eight species of nest predators identified. An apparent preference for nesting in Renosterveld highlights the need for protection of this endangered habitat type. As a ground-nesting species in an agriculturally transformed landscape, this lark faces numerous threats associated with habitat loss, altered predation pressure, exposure to pesticides and disturbance at nest sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The COVID-19 lockdown has had a marked effect on citizen science projects, such as the Southern African Bird Atlas Project, SABAP2. With their mobility severely constrained, most citizen scientists in South Africa were not able to submit full protocol lists during the Alert Level 5 lockdown. There was a 70% decline in full protocol list submissions in April 2020, and only 20% of the number of pentads was surveyed, compared with the same period in the previous three years. The decline in ad hoc lists is also evident, with about a 50% decline in the number of lists submitted and 25% of the usual number of pentads. The number of citizen scientists submitting ad hoc lists only declined by about 15% in April, compared with previous years, indicating that volunteers were still eager to contribute to the atlas project, despite the challenging conditions. The BirdLasser 'Lockdown Challenge' further encouraged participation. Although the ability of citizen scientists to contribute full protocol lists to SABAP2 may have suffered, other projects with a scope more suited to lockdown thrived. The 'Lockdown Garden Surveys' instigated as part of a study of urban bird communities proved extremely successful, with 283 people regularly contributing point counts, many on a daily basis. The overwhelmingly positive response to initiatives like these indicates that the lockdown may have actually increased people's desire to participate in citizen science. The pandemic also has put the spotlight on nature within cities, encouraging people to take a fresh look at their surrounding greenspaces. The accompanying boom in citizen science and interest in nature is something that must be harnessed going forward, and we hope this can be sustained despite the harsh economic climate exacerbated by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]