Description
The forests of the Taita Hills of south-east Kenya are of great importance to conservation, holding three endemic birds which are listed as critical by Collar et al. (1994) and many other endemic taxa. The forests, which presently cover less than 400 ha, are included in Endemic Bird Area with the Eastern Arc mountains of Tanzania (Stattersfield et al. 1997), with which they have close biogeographical affinities (Lovett 1985). Despite this importance for conservation, few biological studies had been carried out in Taita Hills before 1996 hence the urge of this study. Birds were studied in the remaining forest patches of the Taita Hills from 1996 as part of a wider project to assess the times to extinction of bird species following deforestation. This dataset gives a baseline information on the ringing events of birds at the Taita Hills forests fragments between 1996 and 2016 with 26,360 individual records. Bird ringing was performed in 17 forest patches in Taita Hills including: Chawia, Fururu, Kichuchenyi, Macha, Maghimbinyi, Mbololo, Msidunyi, Mwachora, Ndiwenyi,Ngangao,Njovuni,Ronge,Sagala,Sussu,Vulia,Wundanyi and Yale.
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 3,852 records.
1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Lens L, Matheve H, Ochieng J, Mwangi E, Njambi M, Njoroge P (2022): Bird Ringing Data of the Taita Hills Forests, 1996 to 2016. v1.1. National Museums of Kenya. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://ipt.museums.or.ke/ipt/resource?r=events_birds&v=1.1
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is National Museums of Kenya. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 1123ca36-1d89-4b36-b398-3b2931fcfcb2. National Museums of Kenya publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Kenya.
Keywords
Samplingevent; Birds; Ringing; Taita Hills; Mist nets; Forest patches; Conservation
Contacts
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Professor
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0241-2215
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Database Administrator
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator
- Project Coordinator, Department of Science and Conservation
- User
- Research Scientist
- Museum Hill Road
- +254787596660
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator
- Data Clerk, Ornithology Section, Zoology Dept.,
- Museum Hill Road
- +254718374256
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator
- Head, Ornithology Section, Zoology Dept.,
Geographic Coverage
The bird ringing was done in 17 Taita Hills Forest patches. The Hills lie in south-eastern Kenya at 03°20'S, 38°i5'E, about 150 km inland from the coast and covering an area of about 250 km2. They are isolated from other mountainous areas to the south-east (Shimba Hills), south (Pare and Usambara Mountains), south-west (Mt Kilimanjaro), west (Ngulia and Chyulu Hills) and north-west (Kenyan highlands) by the vast plains of Tsavo (c. 700 m altitude).
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [-90, -180], North East [90, 180] |
|---|
Taxonomic Coverage
Birds ringed within the Taita Hills Forest Patches.
| Class | Aves |
|---|---|
| Order | Accipitriformes, Caprimulgiformes, Coliiformes, Cuculiformes, Falconiformes, Gruiformes, Musophagiformes, Culumbiformes, Trogoniformes, Strigiformes, Coraciiformes, Piciformes, Passeriformes |
| Family | Accipitridae, Columbidae, Strigidae, Trogonidae, Caprimulgidae, Coliidae, Estrildidae, Falconidae, Indicatoridae, Locustellidae, Lybiidae, Megalaimidae, Musophagidae, Nicatoridae, Phylloscopidae, Sarothruridae, Sturnidae, Sylviidae, Viduidae, Zosteropidae, Alcedinidae, Pycnonotidae, Turdidae, Muscicapidae, Monarchidae, Cisticolidae, Platysteiridae, Malaconotidae, Nectariniidae, Ploceidae |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 1996-07-05 / 2016-11-08 |
|---|
Project Data
No Description available
| Title | Raising the profile of data for the conservation of four forested African landscapes |
|---|---|
| Identifier | BID-AF2020-140-REG |
| Study Area Description | Taita Hills (Latitude 3°25´ and 38°20´ longitude) are situated in the middle of the Tsavo plains of Taita-Taveta county (17 000 km2) in Coast region of Kenya. Taita Hills cover an area of 1000 km2. Taita Hills are surrounded by both western and eastern sections of Tsavo National Park. The town of Voi (population 60 000) is situated on the plains near the border of the eastern section of Tsavo National Park. While the surrounding dry savannah grassland is at an elevation of 700 m, the average height of Taita Hills is 1500 meters, the highest peak being at 2230 meters. The annual rainfall varies from 500 mm in the plains to 1500 mm in the hills. There are two rainy seasons in the area: from March-May/June and October-December. Variability of precipitation from year to year is high, especially in lower altitudes. Great numbers of ecological regions are based mainly on the relief and climatic conditions in the area. Being part of the Eastern Arc, Taita Hills is very valuable and rich in biodiversity and has many endemic mammal, bird, and butterfly species (Bytebier, 2001). The hills were once forested with cloud forest, but nowadays only few larger patches of indigenous forests are left (Beentje, 1988). Less than 400 ha of the original forest now remains, in a scatter of different-sized fragments ranging between 3 ha and 220 ha (Brooks et al. 1998, Lens et al. 1999a). |
| Design Description | Birds were captured using mist nets set along paths in different sites. The birds captured were removed from the nets where they were ringed using aluminium rings. Measurements of wing, tarsus and the beak, the bird’s weight were taken then the birds were released back to their habitat. Care was taken not to harm the bird during the process. The aim of these surveys sought to assess the conservation status in the Taita Hills of their 47 species of forest birds. |
The personnel involved in the project:
- Principal Investigator
- Point Of Contact
Sampling Methods
The understory birds were captured using mist nets set along paths in each site, ringed, biometrics taken then later released.
| Study Extent | The bird ringing was done in Taita Hills (Latitude 3°25´ and 38°20´ longitude) situated in the middle of the Tsavo plains of Taita-Taveta District (17 000 km2) in Coast Province of Kenya. Taita Hills cover an area of 1000 km2.Bird ringing was done in 17 forest fragments including: Chawia, Fururu, Kichuchenyi, Macha, Maghimbinyi, Mbololo, Msidunyi, Mwachora, Ndiwenyi,Ngangao,Njovuni,Ronge,Sagala,Sussu,Vulia,Wundanyi and Yale. |
|---|---|
| Quality Control | Species identification and ringing was done on site by a team of bird experts from the Ornithology Section, National Museums of Kenya. |
Method step description:
- At each study site, a narrow trail through the understory vegetation was cleared. Small mesh mist-nets were erected using bamboo poles and operated for two mornings at each site. Nets were opened for four hours each morning starting from between 06:30-07:30 h depending on the weather.
Bibliographic Citations
- Stattersfield, A. J., Crosby, M. J., Long, A. J. and Wege, D. C. (1997) Endemic bird areas of the world: priorities for biodiversity conservation. Cambridge, U.K.: BirdLife International (BirdLife Conserv. Ser. No. 7).
- Lovett, J. (1985) Moist forests of Eastern Tanzania. Swam 8(5): 8-9.
- Bytebier, B., 2001. Taita Hills Biodiversity Project Report. National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi. 47 p.
- Beentje, H.J., 1988. An ecologic and floristic study of the forests of the Taita Hills, Kenya. Utafiti 1, pp. 23-66.
- Brooks, T., Lens, L., Barnes, J. et al. 1998. The conservation status of the forest birds of the Taita Hills, Kenya. – Bird Conserv. Int. 8: 119 – 139.
- Lens, L., van Dongen, S., Wilder, C. M. et al. 1999a. Fluctuating asymmetry increases with habitat disturbance in seven bird species of a fragmented afrotropical forest. – Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 266: 1 – 6
Additional Metadata
| Purpose | Taita Hills Forests Fragments are listed as Endemic Bird Area with the Eastern Arc mountains of Tanzania (Stattersfield et al. 1997) hence they are of conservation significance. They are also home to three endemic birds. This dataset is provided to act as a reference point against which to compare current bird's situation in these forests. It will also give a focus for contemporary survey work and management decisions. Raising the profile of data for the conservation of four forested African landscapes project has played a role in unlocking this dataset which has been locked in unpublished reports for many years. Later, this project will create relevant and applicable tools to interpret this dataset hence guiding the conservation work and policy decisions of these forests fragments. |
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| Alternative Identifiers | 1123ca36-1d89-4b36-b398-3b2931fcfcb2 |
| http://ipt.museums.or.ke/ipt/resource?r=events_birds |