The atlas of southern Mozambique covers the region south of the Save River in southern Mozambique (Sul do Save) and marks the end of the first stage of the Mozambique Bird Atlas Project.

   In the 1970s, the birdlife of Mozambique was less well known than that of any other part of southern Africa. Some of the reasons for this can be found in Jack Vincent's account of his 1933 expedition to northern Mozambique (Vincent 1933). Among other trials, he describes adverse climatic conditions, lack of roads and infrastructure and encounters with swarms of biting flies, man-eating lions and obstructive bureaucracy.

   Since the 1970s, our knowledge of bird distributions throughout the rest of southern Africa has taken a giant stride forward through the compilation of The Atlas of Southern African Birds during the 1980s and early 1990s. Unfortunately, owing to the civil war raging at that time, Mozambique was not included in that process.

   In December 1994, the Mozambique Bird Atlas Project was initiated as an extension of the southern African atlas. It was soon established that many of the difficulties mentioned in Vincent's 1933 account still existed. To these, the aftermath of the war added the widespread presence of land mines, further deterioration in the road network and an increased incidence of malaria. The number of volunteers participating in the early stages of the project was not overwhelming, nor was progress without some setbacks.

   The first objective was to obtain adequate coverage of Sul do Save. Previous ornithological work in this region had been concentrated along the coast and, indeed, during this project contributions from volunteers came mainly from coastal resorts. The task of exploring the sparsely populated wilderness covering much of the interior has occupied most of my time over the past four years.

   In a landscape largely flat and featureless, the problem of finding routes to access all of the 253 quarter-degree grid cells covering Sul do Save was exacerbated by the fact that the existing road network differs radically from that represented on available maps. To complicate matters further, place names currently in use bear no relation to those on the maps. The commercial availability of affordable, hand-held Global Positioning Systems was a most timely development which largely solved the problem of inaccuracy of maps.

   Owing to the flatness of the terrain, getting bogged down in the mud was a fairly frequent occurrence during the rainy season. Fortunately, local inhabitants were always helpful, although in some regions days could pass without encountering anyone. Most visitors to Mozambique during the first years after the civil war have hair-raising stories to tell about encounters with road-blocks, armed desperadoes and general lawlessness, but the security situation has improved dramatically since then. I did come under a hail of bullets on my first night camping out, but that was a misunderstanding which was cleared up later.

   The first stage of the project, compilation of an atlas of the birds of the region south of the Save River, is now complete and the product is to appear in print early in 1999. Out of 253 quarter-degree grid cells in the region, all but eight were visited, and more than 95% were visited in each of three seasons.

   The atlas reveals patterns of distribution radically different from those portrayed in current field guides and reference works. Whereas current maps show most species having uniform distributions across this region, the atlas maps show sharp discontinuities in distributions which are related to changes in habitat. In addition, many previous assumptions about continuity of distributions across the boundaries of neighbouring regions are found to be incorrect.

   Comparison of bird distributions with those across the rest of southern Africa yields new insights for several species. For example, the populations of Yellowrumped Widow Euplectes capensis and Fawncoloured Lark Mirafra africanoides are found to be isolated from those farther west. In a number of cases, data relating to the seasonal occurrence of species shed new light on patterns of seasonal movement across southern Africa, and raise new questions in others. The occurrence of the Yellow Warbler Chloropeta natalensis at the coast in winter confirms its status as an altitudinal migrant within southern Africa. The Horus Swift Apus horus was found to be a winter- breeding visitor, while it is a summer-breeding visitor in most of the rest of southern Africa. Previous assumptions about migratory movements of Greyrumped Swallows Pseudhirundo griseopyga and Purplebanded Sunbirds Nectarinia bifasciata were found to be incorrect, as they are both resident. The Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone viridis was previously thought to migrate northwards into Mozambique in winter from coastal regions in South Africa. By contrast, the data suggest an exodus from, rather than an influx into, southern Mozambique in winter, indicating that the migration of southern African birds is to regions further to the north.

   The Mozambique Bird Atlas Project, together with the staff of the Natural History Museum, Maputo, has been instrumental in founding the Clube Ornitologico de Mozambique (Mozambique Bird Club). The Club is currently developing an outreach programme which involves introducing schoolchildren and community conservation guards to birdwatching.

   The next stage of the atlas project is to carry out comprehensive field coverage of central Mozambique and to compile a bird atlas for that region by 2003. All birdwatchers resident in or visiting Mozambique are invited to participate. Although the atlas for Sul do Save is already complete, further field data for this region will be included in the atlas of all of Mozambique, to be published at the completion of the project. Field cards and other information can be obtained from:

Acknowledgements

Reference

---

[ Previous article | Contents Page | Next Article ]

ADU Home Page | UCT Home Page ]

Office Avian Demography Unit
Enquiries/More Information: J. Harrison batlas@maths.uct.ac.za
Page created & maintained by René Navarro.
Last Modified 9-Dec-1998

---