Urban birds in the Eastern Cape: local observations from Makhanda (Grahamstown) and future questions
- Authors: Craig, Adrian J F K , Hulley, Patrick E , Mullins, R Lorraine G
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/449580 , vital:74831 , https://doi.org/10.2989/00306525.2020.1816585
- Description: In Makhanda (Grahamstown), a non-industrial town with approximately 85 000 inhabitants, we have recorded 174 bird species within the urban area, of which 104 species are likely to breed regularly. The source habitats of these birds include all the surrounding habitat types, and the bird community is evidently determined by both local conditions within the town (e.g. tree density) and regional changes affecting the eastern coast of South Africa (range shifts). Topics meriting future research on urban bird communities in South Africa are highlighted.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Counting waterbirds on holiday: a snapshot for one Eastern Cape estuary
- Authors: Mullins, R Lorraine G , Craig, Adrian J F K
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/449375 , vital:74815 , https://doi.org/10.2989/00306525.2020.1783383
- Description: Over a ten-year period, each December the same observer counted waterbirds on the same stretch of the Kariega River in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The site surveyed is dominated by waders, with variable numbers of other feeding guilds. Piscivorous birds in particular are poorly represented. Differences in the numbers of birds and species recorded, both within a single month and between years, are only partly explicable by environmental conditions on this permanently open estuary. From our comparison with nearby sites, we conclude local movements between rivers and pans in the region must occur regularly over short time intervals.
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- Date Issued: 2020