Hi Neil,
Anna, Kate and I were birding the Seronera area of Serengeti at Xmas -
oh the views of lesser kestrels, very exciting for me - and the
harriers... though we didnt get up to 53...
Anyway... Anna and I got these foties of two different longclaw
individuals. They have to be yellow-throated, right? It's just that we
were struck by how orangey their throats were (more so to the naked
eye than conveyed in the photos), and then got worried that the yellow
stripe doesnt extend too far behind the eye. (And then started musing
on these westward movements that are being observed in some other
spp). They're not Pangani longclaws are they? Sorry, I'm no fundi on
these birds and a bit lacking in decent books just now - can you
advise.
Cheers
Trev
All photos: Trevor Jones
Hi Trev, tks for this.
ReplyDeleteThis Pangani Longclaw extension of range westwards over the Rift Valley wall
is one of our better documented westward movements.
It's rather simple to state that this bird now occupies habitat that was
previously "too wet" and "structurally" unsuitable for it and that the
habitat is now drier and structurally "more suitable". It may just be that
there have been numerous successful breeding seasons allowing significant
post breeding dispersal of sufficient immature birds to form a breeding
population. There was, after all, a niche waiting to be exploited.
THERE IS NOT VERY MUCH HARD DATA. JUST ABSENCE / LACK OF RECORDS PRIOR TO
1980 (Britton 1980 is our std ref here).
Tony's long term monitoring might pick this up.
Whatever, this leap over the Rift Valley wall is significant and yes, there
is evidence of western range expansion for other dry country species. All we
need is MORE GPS data... hint hint.
A GPS ref for this record AND EVERY OTHER ONE......PLEASE......
I'll produce new maps for both this species and Yellow-throated. The latter
has a population in the Lake Victoria Basin that extends through the western
corridor into the Seronera area. These pops are now surely in contact with
each other. Would be good to know just how close to each other they nest.
Neil