The Bird Feeder Project is a BDI citizen science initiative involving school learners and youth eco-clubs. Each learner who participates gets a bird feeder and a bag of wild bird seed. The feeders are hung close enough to a window so that photos (for identification purposes) can be taken with a cell phone. Learners are taught a scientific protocol for doing 10-minute watches and recording the species they see, in the order they see them, and try to count the number of birds. Anyone with a bird feeder in their garden can participate!
The Bird Feeder Project includes a booklet called A Guide to the Common Garden Birds of Cape Town. This is published as part of the journal Biodiversity Observations. This guide contains photos which point out the most important identification features of 32 species commonly seen in gardens in Cape Town. The text for each species ends with a link to the page on the BDI website with more information on each species; this easily enables the user to go deeper into each species than just identification, and to learn more about the biology of the species that interest them. These species texts contain the same identification information as in the booklet. In addition, they have sections on habitat, with photos to illustrate the kind of places where the bird occurs; there is a distribution map from the southern African bird atlas project; and a section on behaviour. If you have the Guide open on your screen, you can click on a link to go to the species text. If you have it printed on paper, there is a QR code to use to do this.
Participants in the Bird Feeder Project will learn how to upload their cellphone photos into the BirdPix section of the Virtual Museum, where they will be curated for posterity. The 10-minute watches will rapidly grow into a valuable monitoring database. The Bird Feeder Project is an excellent opportunity for students to engage with nature and learn more about birds.
Here is a list of the species included in the Guide to the Common Garden Birds of Cape Town, with links that take you to the website for each species:
At the seed bird feeder…
- Cape Canary Serinus canicollis
- Common Waxbill Estrilda astrild
- Pin-tailed Whydah Vidua macroura
- Southern Masked Weaver Ploceus velatus
- Cape Weaver Ploceus capensis
- Cape Sparrow Passer melanurus
On the ground…
- Cape Turtle Dove Streptopelia capicola
- Red-eyed Dove Streptopelia semitorquata
- Laughing Dove Streptopelia senegalensis
- Speckled Pigeon Columba guinea
- Cape Robin-Chat Cossypha caffra
- Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris
- Olive Thrush Turdus olivaceus
- Cape Wagtail Motacilla capensis
In the trees…
- Spotted Eagle Owl Bubo africanus
- Cape Bulbul Pycnonotus capensis
- Cape White-eye Zosterops virens
- Southern Double-collared Sunbird Cinnyris chalebeus
- Southern Fiscal Lanius collaris
- Speckled Mousebird Colius striatus
- White-backed Mousebird Colius colius
- Red-faced Mousebird Urocolius indicus
- Fiscal Flycatcher Melaenornis silens
- Bokmakierie Telophorus zeylonus
Flying overhead and on rooftops…
- Red-winged Starling Onychognathus morio
- Hadada Ibis Bostrychia hagedash
- Pied Crow Corvus albus
- Egyptian Goose Alopochen aegyptiaca
Other interesting visitors…
- Bronze Mannikin Spermestes cucullata
- Southern Grey-headed Sparrow Passer diffusus
- House Sparrow Passer domesticus
- Swee Waxbill Coccopygia melanotis
The BDI is grateful to WESSA, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, for funding to get this project started.