Ringing effort

In 2017 (1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017) SAFRING received 65,196 ringing records (54,018 birds ringed; 8,652 recaptured; 1,973 resighted; 553 recoveries) relating to 726 species (Figure 1). There was a notable decrease in record totals since 2016, with the greatest change being seen in the resighting count (colour ringed/tagged birds sighted in the field). As some records are still outstanding these values may differ in future summaries.

During 2017, 253 active ringers submitted records to SAFRING and thirty-one new ringers qualified (Figure 2). 103 ringers ringed over 100 birds, with 12 of these ringing more than 1,000 birds (Table 1). Most ringers ringed a variety of species distributed across southern Africa (Figure 3). The top ringer, Dr Ursula Franke-Bryson (ringer: 1240), ringed 3,761 birds and produced a total of 3,875 records. Dirk Heinrich (ringer: 573) had the greatest overall record count (4,375 records) and produced the most retraps (799 retraps) of any of the individual ringers. Dr Ursula Franke-Bryson ringed the most species during 2017 (215 species) followed by James Rawdon (ringer: 1607, 190 species) (Table 1).

The ringing effort has been well distributed across southern Africa (Figure 3), with most records (initial, retrap, resighting, recovery) originating from South African provinces and Namibia (Table 2). The South African province to produce the most ring records was Gauteng (9,850 records; Table 2), while KwaZulu-Natal had the most species records (279 species; Table 3).

Table 2: Regional ringing effort (number of records) in the 2017 ringing year (all regions with over 100 SAFRING records)

Table 3: Regional ringing effort in the 2017 ringing year (all regions with over 100 SAFRING records). Percentages of the total number of species do not not total 100 due to representation of certain species in multiple regions.

Of the 54,018 initial records for 2017, most (97.7 %) had age categories assigned. 46,142 (87.4 %) of these were reported as adults and immatures with the remainder, 6,630 (12.6 %), being reported as pullus (chicks) and juveniles. This difference is a result of most ringers favouring trapping (mist nets, snap traps etc) over ringing nestlings.

Several ongoing targeted research projects were undertaken in 2017, for example: sociable weavers (Philetairus socius) – Sociable Weaver Research Project, Cape gannets (Morus capensis)- Department of Environmental Affairs Republic of South Africa, albatross species – various island projects (Anonymous 2019), and vulture species – Vulpro. These inflated numbers were still surpassed by common species caught by Citizen Scientist ringers (Table 4).

Table 4: The most frequently ringed species over the 2017 ringing year. Code 1 = ringed birds, 2 = retraps, 4 = resightings, X = dead birds

Retrap/Resighting/Recovery Effort

Resightings of colour ringed birds increased the overall subsequent (retrap/resighting) numbers (Table 5). Foreign ringed birds sighted in southern Africa were predominantly common terns (Sterna hirundo) (27 reports) and Sandwich terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis) (61 reports), with several other interesting migrants being resighted in South Africa (Table 6). Most of the foreign tern sightings were reported by Mark Boorman (ringer: 572) in Namibia (Figure 4).

Table 5: Conditions of retrap/resighting for the 2017 ringing year

Table 6: Foreign recoveries, retraps and resightings from South Africa during the 2017 ringing year. Values marked as unknown have not been received from relevant schemes. BTO: British Trust for Ornithology

Of the 553 recovery records received; the most commonly recovered species were sociable weaver, kelp gull (Larus dominicanus), Cape gannet and laughing dove (Spilopelia senegalensis) (Table 4). Most recoveries did not have a known cause of death, with many being reported after washing up on beaches and others being found around residential areas (Table 7).

Table 7: Causes of bird mortality over the 2017 ringing year

Ringing papers

Fifteen peer-reviewed research articles were published during 2017, either using stored SAFRING data directly, or producing ringing data of their own and using SAFRING’s services (Table 8). In addition to these publications four PhD theses were completed in 2017 assisted by SAFRING-related ringing data. AFRING News (published in Biodiversity Observations) published 8 new bird ringing related articles. In addition to these publications, many other popular articles featuring bird ringing, were published in birding newsletters, magazines, and online.

Table 8: Scientific (peer-reviewed) publications produced utilising records (either self-produced or archived) within the SAFRING database for the year 2017. Note: This list may not contain all publications. *Reports that only produced their own SAFRING records

Acknowledgements

We at SAFRING really appreciate all the effort of ringers and the general public (the latter for reporting recoveries) and would like to thank everyone that has taken part in ringing and resighting in southern Africa. During 2017, SAFRING was housed by the Animal Demography Unit and funded by the South African National Biodiversity Institute, and the Namibian Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism during 2017.

References

Anonymous. 2019. Conserving Southern Ocean seabirds, viewed 25/01/2019, http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/fitz/research/programmes/maintaining_species_level/southern_ocean_seabirds.

Paijmans DM, Catto S, Oschadleus HD. 2017. SAFRING ringing report for 2016. Biodiversity Observations, 8 (36): 1-8. Available online at https://journals.uct.ac.za/index.php/BO/article/view/458