The Djoudj National Park is a major site for West African birds, and has the advantage of being easy to visit without security concerns. Since its creation in 1971, a succession of ornithologists have collected information on its birds. Two lists have been produced in the past, but the latest one dates from almost 30 years ago. The present work aims to update that and comment briefly on new records and some that seem to represent errors of identification. The present list comprises 362 convincingly identified species and subspecies, with their monthly presence. This update should help to identify data gaps, in particular regarding nesting species.
Given the international importance of the Djoudj National Park for waterbird conservation, an exhaustive count has been carried out there each January since 1989, January being the reference month for determining waterbird populations at the international scale. Additionally, monthly counts have been carried out in the park since 2013. Here we examine the patterns of monthly variation, and trends in the January counts, over the ten-year period 2013-2022. It highlights the importance of the site at the same period of the year (December-February) for Palaearctic and Afrotropical species. Three species (Fulvous Whistling Duck Dendrocygna bicolor, White-breasted Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo and Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus) seem to be increasing over the ten-year study period while only the White Pelican Pelecanus onocrotalus seems to be decreasing, although this could simply be due to its variable distribution in January, the month when the fledglings begin to attain independence. The results reveal numerous problems in the monthly data, including over-estimation caused by various probable factors, such as lack of experience among observers or the difficulty of counting at certain sites. We identify such weaknesses that must be remedied in order to generate a longterm reliable database. We reiterate the need for continuing counts, particularly that each January given its 35-year series to date and its international framework. If the January level of effort cannot be employed in the other months, it seems preferable to limit the latter counts to priority species or sites with good accessibility.
Little Rush Warblers Bradypterus buboecala from Kano State (northern Nigeria) include individuals with or without throat streaks, and are close in colour tone to the unstreaked race chadensis of the Nigerian shore of Lake Chad. Earlier references to chadensis occurring in Chad were erroneous but a sound recording demonstrates that the species (race unknown) occurs in at least the south of the country. In the past, specimens from West Africa away from Lake Chad were attributed to the taxon centralis whose type locality is Rwanda, but whose different voice indicates that it is a separate species (Highland Rush Warbler B, centralis). The degree of throat streaking appears not to be a significant racial character in B. baboecala, but birds from more southern latitudes in West Africa are duller and browner than B. b. chadensis and may need a new subspecific name, unless this variation is clinal.
The Ovambo Sparrowhawk Accipiter ovampensis has long been considered a non-breeding wet-season trans-equatorial migrant to West Africa from breeding areas in southern Africa. It has been recorded frequently in The Gambia since the first certain sighting, of an adult with a fledged juvenile in June 1991, with accumulated records in all months of the year. We report an aborted nesting attempt in December 2000, and the first confirmed breeding of this species in The Gambia and West Africa, in the dry season of 2022. The Ovambo Sparrowhawk appears to be a locally resident breeder in the west of The Gambia.
The present study, carried out between July and October 2023 by means of direct observations complemented by the use of a drone, assessed the size and composition of mixed colonies of Ardeidae, Phalacrocoracidae and Ciconiidae at Ramsar sites 1017 and 1018, in southern Benin. Some 1975 breeding pairs of 12 different species were counted. Three colonies exceeded 400 pairs, with a total of c. 1361 pairs, while a mixed colony of three species numbered c. 226 pairs. Two colonies (of two species each) exceeded 100 pairs, with a third counting fewer than 100 pairs. The most important colonies were all in the bas-Mono basin in the west of the area studied. The results may be used to direct conservation action to the most important places for these species.
