The African Bird Atlas Project (ABAP) and the Coordinated Waterbird Counts (CWAC) are the main citizen science bird monitoring programmes in southern Africa. ABAP data are collected by volunteers that compile bird lists over a grid of geographic areas known as pentads, resulting in millions of records that are key to studying bird distribution. In contrast, CWAC collects data on waterbird abundance at a selection of wetlands twice a year, offering important data on waterbird population dynamics. ABAP and CWAC data are extensively used in research. They also provide the evidence base for conservation decisions, site management and national reporting obligations against international agreements. The respective project websites provide distribution maps, summary statistics and basic data download features. However, a more advanced use of these data for modelling and their incorporation into analytical workflows requires flexible and direct access to the databases. The Africa Bird Data R packages presented here provide an important functionality to download and process data directly into the analytical software R. Apart from accessing the databases, there are functions that help with the analysis of these data by incorporating model covariates or formatting data for R packages that are popular for the analysis of this kind of data. Our objective is to make African bird data more accessible and easier to work with in order to unlock their full potential for research, and to inform management and conservation actions.

Introduction Efforts to collect ecological data have intensified over the last decade. This is especially true for freshwater habitats, which are among the most impacted by human activity and yet lagging behind in terms of data availability. Now, to support conservation programmes and management decisions, these data need to be analyzed and interpreted; a process that can be complex and time consuming. The South African Biodiversity Data Pipeline for Wetlands and Waterbirds (BIRDIE) aims to help fast and efficient information uptake, bridging the gap between raw ecological datasets and the information final users need. Methods BIRDIE is a full data pipeline that takes up raw data, and estimates indicators related to waterbird populations, while keeping track of their associated uncertainty. At present, we focus on the assessment of species abundance and distribution in South Africa using two citizen-science bird monitoring datasets, namely: the African Bird Atlas Project and the Coordinated Waterbird Counts. These data are analyzed with occupancy and state-space models, respectively. In addition, a suite of environmental layers help contextualize waterbird population indicators, and link these to the ecological condition of the supporting wetlands. Both data and estimated indicators are accessible to end users through an online portal and web services. Results and discussion We have designed a modular system that includes tasks, such as: data cleaning, statistical analysis, diagnostics, and computation of indicators. Envisioned users of BIRDIE include government officials, conservation managers, researchers and the general public, all of whom have been engaged throughout the project. Acknowledging that conservation programmes run at multiple spatial and temporal scales, we have developed a granular framework in which indicators are estimated at small scales, and then these are aggregated to compute similar indicators at broader scales. Thus, the online portal is designed to provide spatial and temporal visualization of the indicators using maps, time series and pre-compiled reports for species, sites and conservation programmes. In the future, we aim to expand the geographical coverage of the pipeline to other African countries, and develop more indicators specific to the ecological structure and function of wetlands.

The African Bird Atlas Project (ABAP) is a citizen-science bird-monitoring programme that relies on a robust, repeatable protocol (BirdMap) and allows insights into the distributions of African birds and their conservation. The protocol involves collecting bird lists within spatial sampling units called pentads (5 × 5 minutes of latitude by longitude), in relation to survey effort. It is based on the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2), which is one of Africa’s largest citizen science projects, with over 600 thousand checklists, comprising ∼19 million bird locality records as of December 2021. SABAP2, which focuses on southern Africa, was initiated in 2007 and is ongoing. Both the Kenya Bird Map and the Nigerian Bird Atlas Project, initiated in 2013 and 2015, respectively, use this protocol. These projects have galvanised local birdwatching communities and allow for important comparisons across sub-Saharan African countries. The spatial scope of ABAP covers the entire African continent. Bird species lists are collected by citizen scientists within a pentad, with each list encompassing a minimum of 2 hours of active birding over a maximum of 5 days in the preferred ‘full-protocol’ format. Lists that do not meet the full protocol requirements are called ‘ad-hoc’. Species lists are mostly submitted to the SABAP2 database at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, by the third-party mobile phone application BirdLasser. Incoming data are vetted against existing records, with unusual records verified by Regional Atlas Committees. Data are open access via public websites. Distributional records can be downloaded for each species in the database, or site-specific species lists in various formats can be downloaded for pentads. Here, we introduce technical details of the database to inform researchers on how the data are gathered and curated. Data-access protocols are explained, with examples of data use given from the publication record.

One of the largest citizen science projects in Africa is the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2). SABAP2 is a follow-up project of the Southern African Bird Atlas Project (now labelled SABAP). The primary data collection period for the first bird atlas project was 1987 to 1991;it incorporated data from as far back as 1980, and in some regions included data until 1993, assembling a total of 7.2 million records of bird distribution. SABAP generated the Atlas of Southern African Birds in two volumes. Harrison et al. demonstrated that the SABAP database had become a valuable resource to four main user constituencies: environmental consultants, conservationists, research scientists, and birders. Academic research output (theses and papers) was summarised by Underhill;most of the 102 papers and 19 postgraduate theses listed had been based on SABAP data. Search results were manually scanned for relevance. The 'SABAP' search term alone returned 1190 results;however, as 'sabap' has alternative meanings in other languages, many results were not relevant.

The COVID-19 lockdown has had a marked effect on citizen science projects, such as the Southern African Bird Atlas Project, SABAP2. With their mobility severely constrained, most citizen scientists in South Africa were not able to submit full protocol lists during the Alert Level 5 lockdown. There was a 70% decline in full protocol list submissions in April 2020, and only 20% of the number of pentads was surveyed, compared with the same period in the previous three years. The decline in ad hoc lists is also evident, with about a 50% decline in the number of lists submitted and 25% of the usual number of pentads. The number of citizen scientists submitting ad hoc lists only declined by about 15% in April, compared with previous years, indicating that volunteers were still eager to contribute to the atlas project, despite the challenging conditions. The BirdLasser ‘Lockdown Challenge’ further encouraged participation. Although the ability of citizen scientists to contribute full protocol lists to SABAP2 may have suffered, other projects with a scope more suited to lockdown thrived. The ‘Lockdown Garden Surveys’ instigated as part of a study of urban bird communities proved extremely successful, with 283 people regularly contributing point counts, many on a daily basis. The overwhelmingly positive response to initiatives like these indicates that the lockdown may have actually increased people’s desire to participate in citizen science. The pandemic also has put the spotlight on nature within cities, encouraging people to take a fresh look at their surrounding greenspaces. The accompanying boom in citizen science and interest in nature is something that must be harnessed going forward, and we hope this can be sustained despite the harsh economic climate exacerbated by the pandemic.

The Hadeda Ibis can be a mundane and somewhat automatic addition to an atlas list within the core of its range, but it should be remembered that Hadeda Ibis is one of the most dynamic and successful species in the SABAP2 region. In South Africa's most arid areas it is still expanding its range and increasing in abundance. The factors underpinning the increase are anthropogenic. As the effects of climate change play out - mainly drier and warmer conditions leading to ?hard, sun-baked soil? impenetrable to bills - it seems likely that the momentum of its expansion will be moderated and potentially reversed. The interplay of anthropogenic and climate change factors on the distribution and abundance of Hadeda Ibis makes this an interesting and important species to monitor during the forthcoming decades of the 21st century.

With its enormous nest structures, the Sociable Weaver is a unique species, an avian engineer. The nests modify climate within the nest chambers, and create substantial areas of shade beneath the nests. Besides the weavers themselves, these structures are exploited and taken advantage of by a remarkable diversity of animals. Thus bird atlas monitoring of the Sociable Weaver is an important initiative, with interest and significance beyond this single species of bird.

The Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver has shown a range expansion westwards in the Northern Cape. This may be due to good rainfall in previous years It appears to have been present in the Swaziland to Zululand savanna corridor at low density for many decades.

The paper considers the two species in the family Recurvirostridae which occur in southern Africa, the Pied Avocet and the Black-winged Stilt. It presents maps showing the SABAP1 distribution, the SABAP2 distribution, and a range-change map which shows how the distributions have changed in the quarter-century between the two atlasing projects....

Overall, the conclusion has to be that the Cape Vulture is extremely likely to have experienced a major decrease in abundance in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland in the two-decade period between SABAP1 and SABAP2.

In South Africa, the White-browed Sparrow-Weaver has more grid cells with increases in reporting rate than cells showing decreases, between SABAP1 (1987 - 1991) and SABAP2 (2007 - ). The highly urbanised Gauteng region has low reporting rates for the species. This results in a hole in the core of the distribution, which stretches from Limpopo to the Free State. The White-browed Sparrow-Weaver has increased in numbers and range in the Eastern Cape, spreading southwards through the Cradock district since 1950. This species appears to be expanding westwards in KwaZulu-Natal and the Kruger National Park, although reporting rates are currently low. The eastern Free State and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park show large increases between SABAP1 and SABAP2.

Overall, the Pale-crowned Cisticola is extremely unlikely to have experienced a dramatic increase in range and reporting rate due to rapid colonisation of new areas in the two-decade period between SABAP1 and SABAP2. Instead, the observed expansion needs to be attributed to a dramatic growth in observer skill. Citizen scientists, in both SABAP1 and especially in SABAP2, have probably had a larger, more profound effect on our knowledge of the status and distribution of the Pale-crowned Cisticola in South Africa than any ornithologists have managed since its discovery in 1904.

...The paper considers the 10 kingfishers that occur in southern Africa. It presents maps showing the SABAP1 distribution, the SABAP2 distribution, and a range-change map which shows how the distributions have changed in the quarter-century between the two atlasing projects....

The papers considers the seven storks that occur in southern Africa. It presents maps showing the SABAP1 distribution, the SABAP2 distribution, and a range-change map which shows how the distributions have changed in the quarter-century between the two atlasing projects.

...The paper considers the three species of grebes that occur in southern Africa. It presents maps showing the SABAP1 distribution, the SABAP2 distribution, and a range-change map which shows how the distributions have changed in the quarter-century between the two atlasing projects....

One of the objectives of the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) was to be able to make comparisons with the distribution data collected during the First Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1); the spatial grid for SABAP2 was set up with a view to facilitating this. Strategies to make these comparisons have proved to be more difficult than were anticipated at the outset of SABAP2 in 2007. The objective of this paper is to document a procedure to construct maps which show the changes in bird distribution patterns between the two projects.

The inference from these considerations is that maps on a pentad scale are desirable, and that reporting rates should be shown to represent approximate relative abundance, but reporting rates should only be shown for pentads which meet some minimum threshold for coverage, currently taken as four full-protocol checklists.

The contributions of every citizen scientist to the life of the Animal Demography Unit are celebrated. On 1 December 2016, the ADU had been in existence for 25 years. There is one area in which we have seriously failed. We have never thought to make any special mention of the citizen scientists who have made an especially amazing contribution to our projects. We have a list of at least one hundred people who have been the lifeblood of our projects. Here, we are celebrating the contributions of a subset of this longer list. We are making Biodiversity Observer awards to 31 citizen scientists for whom the phrases long term contribution to projects and deep involvement in projects have been the watchwords.

The purpose of the citizen science weeks of the ADU is to increase awareness of, and encourage participation in, the citizen science projects of the ADU. This article summarizes participation in the Cape Union Mart Heritage Hunt, the citizen science week that took place over the period Saturday 24 September through to Sunday 2 October 2016. 3,137 photographic records were added to the ADU Virtual Museum, and the database of the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) grew by 58,773 records.

This paper recommends strategies for undertaking bird atlasing in Africa, making use of aspects of the SABAP2 protocol, in such a way that it is compatible with it. We call this protocol the BirdMAP protocol. The key element of compatibility is the five-minute grid system which generates cells known as pentads.