Avian Demography Unit
Department of Statistical Sciences
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Projects of the Avian Demography Unit

NERCS - The Nest Record Card Scheme

Project Coordinator: Marius Wheeler

Yellowbellied Bulbul
Photo Pat Claassen
Yellowbellied Bulbul on nest (Tembe Elephant Park)
Apart from the importance of breeding biology to academic ornithology, breeding success is a vital measure of the health of biological populations. Declines in population can be due either to increased adult mortality or to decreased breeding success or some combination of the two. It is therefore integral to the ADU's population monitoring objectives to focus on nest records.

The Nest Record Card Scheme (NERCS) is a long-standing project of BirdLife South Africa and its predecessor, the Southern African Ornithological Society, and has accumulated in excess of 100 000 nest record cards since the 1950s. None of these are computerized, however, and this poses major difficulties for the analysis of trends, as does the rather low rate of returns for most species.

Cape Robin
Photo Derek Large
Cape Robin sitting on a nest it built in a workshed (Langebaan)

The ADU redesigned the nest record card so that appropriate information is gathered and is compatible with computerized data capture. The revised scheme has been operational since 1995 and, to date, over 2100 cards have been computerised.

A goal of NERCS will be to provide, for selected species, annual measures of productivity.

Resources:

See also:

Initiative to catalogue waterbird breeding colonies in South Africa

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Last Modified 23-February-2004