Dr Terry Oatley
ADU Honorary Research Associate

Qualifications and experience

Since his retirement in 1997, Terry Oatley has become an Honorary Research Associate of the Avian Demography Unit. He started working at the University of Cape Town in 1980, when was appointed as Ringing Organiser, heading up the South African Bird Ringing Unit (SAFRING). He became a member of the Department of Statistical Sciences in 1990, when administrative responsibility for SAFRING was transferred to this department. Terry Oatley was primarily responsible for the administration of bird ringing in South Africa until his retirement in December 1997. During this time he also served as the editor of Safring News, the unit's bi-annual journal. <\p>

Previously (1956-1979), he had been employed by the Natal Parks, Game and Fish Preservation Board. Initially, he had been a Ranger in Zululand; Prior to moving to SAFRING he was the Senior Professional Officer responsible for ornithology in the province.

He completed an MSc (1978) The breeding biology of the Starred Robin Pogonocichla stellata at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, in terms of a rule which allows non-graduates with a proven research track-record to do post-graduate studies. He has a PhD (1993) from the University of the Witwatersrand The biology and relationships of the Ground Woodpecker Geocolaptes olivaceus.

For several years immediately following his retirement, Terry served as editor of Ostrich, the scientific journal of African ornithology, published by BirdLife South Africa.

He has travelled extensively in Africa, acquiring a specialist knowledge of the avifauna of the Afro-montane forests. In these forests, his first love is the "robin-chats", and he is the global specialist for this family of birds. He contributed the species texts for the robin-chats to Volume 4 of The Birds of Africa and to Volume 2 of The Atlas of Southern African Birds. His book, Robins of Africa, was published in 1998 by Acorn Books and Russel Friedman Books; inevitably he is writing the species texts for these species for the "Roberts 7 Project."

Terry and his wife Margaret retired to the charming village of Barrydale, several hundred kilometres east of Cape Town. Terry pursues his love for robins there with a research project on the Karoo Robin. The results are both interesting and surprising, and we look forward to seeing the papers.

Publications, selected from 40

Oatley TB & RP Prys-Jones 1986. A comparative analysis of movements of southern African waterfowl (Anatidae) based on ringing recoveries. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 16: 1-6.

Oatley TB & Rammesmayer MA 1988. Review of recoveries of ringed White Storks Ciconia ciconia in southern Africa. Ostrich 59: 97-104.

Oatley TB, Earlé RA & Prins AJ 1989. The diet and foraging behaviour of the Ground Woodpecker. Ostrich 60: 75-84.

Oatley TB & Tinley KL 1989. The forest avifauna of Gorongosa mountain, Mocambique. Ostrich Supplement 14: 57-61.

Underhill LG, Oatley TB & Harrison JA 1991. The role of large-scale data collection projects in the study of southern African birds. Ostrich 62: 124-148.

Oatley TB, Fry CH Keith S & Tye A. 1992. Pogonocichla, Swynnertonia, Stiphrornis, Sheppardia (except S. montana, S. lowei), Cossyphicula, Cossypha (except C. isabellae, C. archeri, C. anomala and C. albicapilla), Xenocopsychus, Cercotrichas except C. galactotes and C. podobe). In: Keith S Urban EK & Fry CH (eds) The Birds of Africa Volume IV. London: Academic Press: 387-403, 415-441, 470-487.

Oatley TB & Underhill LG 1993. Merging recoveries and recaptures to estimate survival probabilities. In: Lebreton, J.-D. & North, P.M. (eds) Marked Individuals in the Study of Bird Population. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag: 77-90.

Underhill LG & Oatley TB 1994. The South African Bird Ringing Unit: 21 years of service and research. South African Journal of Science 89: 466-468.