Petite revue de la bibliographie ornithologique sénégalaise, 2016-2019 (Troisième partie)

Cette troisième et dernière partie de notre petite série sur la littérature ornithologique sénégalaise concerne la documentation des divers ajouts à l’avifaune du pays. Les publications qui suivent décrivent donc les « premières » pour le pays, par ordre chronologique de publication.

Ces articles ont été publiés dans l’un ou l’autre des deux revues de prédilection pour ce type de notes, soit le Bulletin de l’African Bird Club et Malimbus de la Socété d’ornithologie de l’Ouest africain (à laquelle, en passant, chaque ornitho qui s’interésse à l’avifaune du Sénégal ou de manière plus large de l’Afrique de l’Ouest devrait adhérer!).

 

Pour une liste complète des nouvelles espèces de ces douze dernières années, voir ce billet; voir aussi les parties I et II de notre revue bibliographique.

 

• Première mention du Merle obscur pour le Sénégal: Benjumea & Pérez 2016. First record of Eyebrowed Thrush Turdus obscurus for Senegal and sub-Saharan Africa. Bull. ABC 23: 215-216.

Découverte fortuite incroyable, le 10/12/15 dans un jardin d’hôtel, par deux ornithos espagnols en marge d’une de leurs missions d’étude dans le PN de la Langue de Barbarie. Il s’agit de la deuxième mention de cette espèce sibérienne sur le continent africain, alors qu’elle hiverne normalement en Asie du sud-est, la première provenant de Merzouga au Maroc en décembre 2008. Comme quoi presque n’importe quel migrateur à longue distance d’origine paléarctique peut se retrouver égaré dans nos contrées… et comme quoi, ça sert de toujours avoir un appareil photo à portée de main!

 

• Delannoy 2016. Les premières observations de l’Alouette à queue rousse Pinarocorys erythropygia au Sénégal. Malimbus 38: 80-82.

La première observation documentée de cette alouette peu connue a été faite dans le Boundou du 10 au 12 novembre 2015, suivant deux observations antérieures non encore publiées formellement, toutes deux du Niokolo-Koba: la première en février 1985, la deuxième en novembre 1992.

C’est donc une alouette à rechercher en hiver dans le sud-est du pays, mais son apparition est probablement très aléatoire, étant une espèce à caractère erratique qui se trouve ici tout à fait en limite de son aire “hivernale” régulière. Elle fréquente les savanes arborées ouvertes tout comme des zones cultivées, affectionnant particulièrement des zones récemment brûlées.

 

• Première observation de la Bergeronnette à longue queue au Sénégal: Pacheco, Ruiz de Azua & Fernández-García 2017. First record of Mountain Wagtail Motacilla clara for Senegal. Bull. ABC 24: 88-89.

Cette mention de Dindéfélo en mars 2015 reste pour le moment la seule pour le pays, bien qu’il soit possible que cette bergeronnette soit un visiteur non-nicheur plus ou moins régulier dans l’extrême sud-est du pays, dans les contreforts du Fouta-Djallon. A rechercher aux abords du fleuve Gambie et des ruisseaux de vallons autour de Kédougou.

 

• Observations remarquables du Sénégal, dont la première de l’Engoulevent pointillé: Blanc et al. 2018. Noteworthy records from Senegal, including the first Freckled Nightjar Caprimulgus tristigma. Bull. ABC 25: 58-61.

En plus de la description des observations de l’engoulevent, espèce maintenant considérée comme résidente à Dindéfélo et sans doute dans des milieux similaires dans les environs, les auteurs rapportent des données nouvelles concernant l’Engoulevent doré (dans le Khelkom), à Dindéfélo le Drongo occidental (encore le Drongo de Ludwig à l’époque, auparavant connu uniquement de la Casamance), le Traquet de Heuglin (nicheur sur le plateau de Dande) ainsi que le très discret Sénégali à ventre noir, et enfin le Bihoreau à dos blanc et le Martin-pêcheur azuré au bord du fleuve Gambie à Mako. Ces deux derniers sont depuis plusieurs années assez régulièrement observés dans cette région, notamment autour de Wassadou.

Avec l’espèce précédente, le Trogon narina et deux indicateurs différents, Dindefelo détient clairement la palme en tant que hotspot pour la découverte de nouvelles espèces pour le pays.

 

• Première donnée du Fou à pieds rouges au Sénégal: Moran et al. First record of Red-footed Booby Sula sula for Senegal. Bull. ABC 25: 213-215.

Le 19/10/16, un Fou à pieds rouges immature a été photographié à environ 10 milles marins au nord de Dakar, lors d’une sortie en mer en marge du PAOC, observation que nous avions déjà rapportée ici. Depuis, pas moins de quatre mentions supplémentaires sont connues, toutes autour de la presqu’île du Cap-Vert: un oiseau en janvier 2018 au PNIM, puis trois fois à Ngor en 2018-2019 dont quelques oiseaux ayant stationné pendant plusieurs semaines ou même mois (deux ind. en mai-juin 2018, un en novembre 2018, et un vu régulièrement en juin-août 2019 dont encore ce 12/8 comme les quatres jours précédents!).

Avec l’augmentation des effectifs aux Iles du Cap Vert on peut s’attendre à d’autres observations dans le futur.

Red-footed Booby / Fou à pieds rouges, au large de Dakar, Oct. 2016 (B. van Gemerden)

 

• Première observation d’une Frégate superbe pour le Sénégal: Piot & Lecoq 2018. First record of Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens for Senegal. Bull. ABC 25: 216-218.

Notre observation de fin avril 2017 reste pour le moment la seule confirmée pour le pays. Bien qu’il puisse s’agir d’une des deux dernières femelles des Îles du Cap-Vert (où l’espèce ne niche plus depuis 1999), une origine néotropicale semble plus probable. Le site de reproduction le plus proche de l’Afrique de l’Ouest est l’île de Fernando de Noronha, situé au nord-est du Brésil à environ 2’650 km de Dakar. D’autres données de frégates dans la sous-région concernent des observations en Gambie (Frégates superbes en 1965 et 1980, puis une frégate sp. en 2005) et au Ghana (Frégate aigle-de-mer F. aquila en 2010, espèce aussi notée aux iles du Cap-Vert en 2017 et donc également d’apparition possible dans les eaux sénégalaises). A quand la prochaine mention dans le pays?

Magnificent Frigatebird / Frégate superbe f., PNIM, April 2016 (BP)

 

• Première donnée du Pipit farlouse au Sénégal: Piot 2018. First record of Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis for Senegal. Malimbus 40: 67-69.

Le 1er janvier 2018, j’ai la chance de trouver un Pipit farlouse aux abords de la lagune de Yène sur la Petite Côte non loin de Dakar. Bien que l’identification ait été confirmée par les cris caractéristiques de l’espèce, plusieurs personnes semblent toujours douter de l’identité de cet oiseau, me disant qu’il s’agit plutôt d’un Pipit à gorge rousse… Le plumage assez contrasté de cet oiseau de permier hiver peut effectivement faire penser à cette espèce, mais d’autres critères et notamment l’absence de stries sur le croupion (visibles sur photo, comme celle-ci) permettent d’éliminer le Pipit à gorge rousse, tout comme le cri d’ailleurs qui est très différent. L’espèce étant connue du sud de la Mauritanie, l’apparition d’un Pipit farlouse égaré au Sénégal n’est pas bien étonnante.

Meadow Pipit / Pipit farlouse, Yene, Jan. 2018 (BP)

 

En plus de ces sept publications, plusieurs autres sont sous presse ou sont sur le point d’être soumis et seront publiés dans les mois à venir : l’Indicateur de Wahlberg vu plusieurs fois en 2018 (Caucanas et al.), le Gonolek de Turati en 2018 (Bargain & Piot) et l’Anomalospize parasite en février 2019 (Bargain, Caucal & de Montaudouin) tous les deux découverts en Casamance, et enfin la Tourterelle turque en 2016 (BP).

Il y a aussi quelques premières obs encore non encore publiées formellement, notamment nos Martinets horus (rédaction prévue!) de l’an dernier et l’Indicateur de Willcocks de février dernier. Tout comme des mentions un peu moins récentes d’oiseaux qui pour le moment ont été observés une seule fois dans le pays (Epervier d’Europe, Milan royal, Grue cendrée, Bécasseau d’Alaska) mais dont je doute qu’une publication verra un jour le jour, bien malheureusement…

Quoiqu’il en soit, je vous tiens bien entendu au courant de la suite!

 

Je me permets de terminer en faisant un peu de pub pour une autre publication sur les oiseaux du Sénégal, dans un tout autre registre de celles qui précèdent mais toute aussi intéressante : un recit de voyage naturaliste sous forme de magazine auto-édité par mes amis Frédéric et Jérémy. Truffée de superbes photos, des textes riches en informations pertinentes et anecdotes diverses, c’est bien plus qu’un simple rapport de voyage, où chacun trouvera quelque chose à son goût. De Dakar au Djoudj en passant par les Trois-Marigots, le Gandiolais, et bien d’autres encore!

A decouvrir (et à commander) ici. 

 

 

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Year in review: 2018

Just like last year we’re bringing our readers a summary of the past year, reviewing some of the ornithological highlights and discoveries made in Senegal, and recycling some of the pictures and posts that appeared on this website during the past 12 months.

2018 certainly has been a busy year!

We’ll start with the best of all: the discovery of what appears to be an isolated (?) population of Horus Swifts (Martinet horus), some 3,000 km from the nearest known breeding sites and more than 1,600 km from the nearest observations of the species (in northern Ghana). This is probably one of the least expected range extensions uncovered in West Africa in recent years, and something we’re of course quite excited (and rather proud!) of. We found these birds during an epic 4-day trip up north together with Frédéric Bacuez and visiting birder Filip Verroens from Belgium, in early January. Needless to say, the year started off with a bang! Read up the full story here and on Frédéric’s Ornithondar blog (in French). A few of these neat swifts were seen again in February by Frédéric and Daniel Nussbaumer, then in October by Vieux Ngom and myself when some 50 birds were present, again showing signs of local breeding and confirming that these birds are most likely residents here, and just last week a group of visiting American birders saw about 25 birds at Gamadji Sare.

Horus Swift / Martinet horus

 

Just a few days earlier, in fact on the first day of the year, we’d already found another species new to Senegal: a Meadow Pipit (Pipit farlouse) at the Yene-Tode lagoon just south of Dakar. This find was a bit more controversial – but probably more expected than those swifts! – in the sense that the pipit shows a fairly unusual plumage for Meadow Pipit and certain characters fit Red-throated Pipit better. However, the unstreaked rump and especially the diagnostic call, which was heard loud & clear several times at close range (but unfortunately not sound-recorded), safely rule out Red-throated Pipit, several of which were present in the area at the same time. Full story, description and many pictures here.

Meadow Pipit / Pipit farlouse

 

Continuing on the same theme, this past year saw the addition of two more species to the Senegal list: Brown-backed Honeybird – which had already been reported from Wassadou in 2015 but was not documented – and Turati’s Boubou. The former was found by Gabriel Caucanas and friends first at Dindefelo, then at Wassadou and later in the Niokolo-Koba NP (more info here), the latter by resident Casamance birder Bruno Bargain back in October. Both were more or less to be expected and back in July we’d actually predicted that the boubou would be found in Casamance some time soon, given that it is known to occur just across the border in Guinea-Bissau. We’ll write up more about this species in due course, and I hope to soon visit the Ziguinchor area again and see (and record) this little-known species – stay tuned!

Brown-backed Honeybird / Indicateur de Wahlberg (G. Caucanas)

 

With no less than four new species, 2018 definitely boosted the national list which now stands at a respectable 678 species; more on this in a blog piece we wrote on the topic of the national list, which contains a link to a handy spreadsheet with all species seen in Senegal, with English, French and scientific names.

Of course there were also the usual lot of vagrants, mostly Nearctic waders in the Dakar region and especially at Technopole, pretty much as usual!

• Common Shelduck (Tadorne de Belon): eight in the Djoudj NP on 17/1 were likely the same group as seen in the Diawling just across the border in Mauritania on 30/12, while one at Technopole on 18-19/2/18 confirmed the small influx that occurred during the ‘17/’18 winter: 8th and 9th records!
• Red-footed Booby (Fou à pieds rouges): one was photographed at Iles de la Madeleine on 26/1 but was only identified later on, while at Ngor up to two adults were seen on several occasions in spring (17/5-22/5, and again on 11 and 22/6) and one was seen twice in autumn (13 & 15/11). These are the 2^nd to 4^th records for this tropical seabird, which was seen for the first time in October 2016 only.
• Cinereous (=Black) Vulture (Vautour moine): an imm. west of Fatick on 30/1 and one (different bird) on 26/2 near Sagata, east of Kebemer. These observations coincide with the first records for The Gambia (Feb. ‘18) and Mauritania (Dec. ‘17). We also reported the first record of the species, which had not yet been published so far – more details on the status of this increasing Palearctic vagrant in this piece.
• American Golden Plover (Pluvier bronzé): one at Technopole on 8 April, followed by two autumn birds, at lac Mbeubeusse on 3/11 and barely a week later a different bird at Pointe Sarene near Nianing on 9-10/11. Read more on this species in Senegal here.
• European Golden Plover (Pluvier doré): one at Île de Saloulou (Basse Casamance) on 3/1.
• Lesser Yellowlegs (Chevalier à pattes jaunes): the 8^th record was one at Technopole seen by a visiting birder on 8/2 and relocated on 19/2
• Baird’s Sandpiper (Bécasseau de Baird): the second for Senegal (and first properly documented) was found at Technopole on 25/3 and seen again on 8/4.
• Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Bécasseau rousset): two birds stayed for a remarkably long time at Technopole, being present from 13/1 (at least one) up to 19/2 at least, then again on 25/3 though this was probably a new bird given that regular visits earlier in the month failed to relocate the two long-stayers; these are the 8th and 9th records.
• Red-necked Phalarope: (Phalarope à bec étroit): one at Djoudj on 27/2 is the 6th record at least, though it’s quite possible that the species is a more regular visitor than the handful of confirmed records suggest.
• Franklin’s Gull (Mouette de Franklin): one was seen five times between 20/5 and 20/9 at Technopole; we summarised the status and trends of the species in this post.

Lesser Yellowlegs / Chevalier a pattes jaunes, Technopole, Feb. 2018 (B. PIot)

Baird’s Sandpiper / Bécasseau de Baird

Common Shelduck / Tadorne de Belon

American Golden Plover / Pluvier bronzé

Franklin’s Gull / Mouette de Franklin, Technopole, May 2018 (B. Piot)

Buff-breasted Sandpiper / Bécasseau rousset

 

As usual there are also several African vagrants to be reported, such as Lesser Jacana (Jacana nain) seen on 31/1 and 17/2 (three birds!) at Médina Afia near Manda, Kolda dept., and at Ross Bethio on 15/7 – there are only a handful of previous records, including just one in the north (more on status of this species in this post by Ornithondar). A Pharaoh (= Desert) Eagle-Owl (Grand-duc ascalaphe) filmed at Richard Toll on 20/1 was the third record. Six Senegal Lapwings were found at Kamobeul (Ziguinchor) on 30/9 – apparently the first record in 38 years! Three other species with uncertain status in Senegal – true vagrants or scarce but regular visitors? – were seen in the Niokolo-Koba area: Mottled Swift in February and June; a Forbes’s Plover in June and an Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle on 6/3 (Martinet marbré, Pluvier de Forbes et Aigle d’Ayres) .

Lesser Jacana / Jacana nain (V. Ngom)

 

A special mention goes to the Kordofan Lark (Alouette du Kordofan) that was photographed at Richard Toll on 1/3 by a group of lucky Belgian birders; this is the first record in several years, and the first pictures to be made available online for this species, prompting us to discuss ID criteria and status in Senegal of this enigmatic Sahel special, see this blog piece co-authored with Simon Cavaillès – by far the most read article on the blog, with more than 500 views since its publication in April.

Kordofan Lark / Alouette du Kordofan (J. Heip)

 

Several winter visitors were seen in higher than usual numbers or reached areas further south than their usual wintering grounds, such as Short-eared Owl (Hibou des marais; seen in six locations during January-March including a group wintering at Technopole, following the influx in Nov.-Dec.). Other scarce winter visitors included a Little Gull (Mouette pygmée) at Ngor on 12/1, while a group of five Cream-coloured Coursers (Courvite isabelle) near Maleme Hodar (Kaffrine) on 1/3 were possibly the southernmost record ever. Other examples include a Spectacled Warbler (Fauvette à lunettes) near Kaolack on 3/3, a “Desert” Grey Shrike (now surprisingly lumped again with Great rather than Southern Grey Shrike; Pie-grièche grise) in the Boundou reserve on 15/3, and five House Buntings (Bruant du Sahara) at Richard Toll on 1/3.

Cream-coloured Courser / Courvite isabelle (A. Barbalat)

As usual, a few birds were spotted outside of their regular range in the country: several Pallid Herons on the Cap-Vert peninsula; an African Hawk-Eagle that gave us a bit of an ID challenge at Popenguine (3/11); a Greyish Eagle-Owl photographed at Trois-Marigots on 10/1 (only a couple of previous records from N Senegal, see story on Ornithondar); a Grey Phalarope on 25/2 at Médina Afia (a rare inland record!); a singing Klaas’s Cuckoo near Dagana on 6/10; a Broad-billed Roller at Bango (Saint-Louis) on 31/8; Grey-rumped Swallow at Technopole (7/7); an early Lesser Whitethroat at lake Tanma on 25/9; a Cricket Warbler near Gueuol (north of Kébémer) on 21/11 (Aigle fascié, Grand-duc du Sahel, Phalarope à bec large, Coucou de Klaas, Rolle violet, Hirondelle à croupion gris, Fauvette babillarde, Prinia à front écailleux). In the Djoudj, a Brown Snake-Eagle was reported on 5/12. Familiar Chat and Green Turaco were reported from the Niokolo-Koba NP for the first time, where further observations of Mali Firefinch were made (Traquet familier, Turaco vert, Amarante du Koulikoro). Several species were found for the first time in Casamance, including Glossy Ibis, Singing Bushlark, Plain Martin, Great Reed Warbler – details will follow shortly on this website (Ibis falcinelle, Alouette chanteuse, Hirondelle paludicole, Rousserolle turdoïde). Away from the better known wintering grounds in the north of the country, an Iberian Chiffchaff (Pouillot ibérique) was singing at Wassadou on 25/2, and the Technopole bird found on 31/12/17 continued its presence until 7/1 at least.

New breeding records include what appears to be the first confirmed breeding for the Dakar region of Little Tern in June at Lac Rose with at least 14 nests; in the same location we found a nest of Plain-backed Pipit, while a Quailfinch at lac Mbeubeusse on 18/11 suggests that the species may be breeding in the niayes region (Sterne naine, Pipit à dos uni, Astrild-caille). Successful breeding of White-backed Night-Herons (Bihoreau à dos blanc) was confirmed in two locations in Casamance and breeding is also likely along the Gambia river at Wassadou where Pel’s Fishing Owl (Chouette-pêcheuse de Pel) must also have bred. Black-winged Stilts (Echasse blanche) bred once again at Technopole where low water levels created decent conditions in April-June. And a nice breeding record was that of a female Standard-winged Nightjar found incubating two eggs at Pointe Sarène on 4/8 (Engoulevent à balanciers).

Plain-backed Pipit / Pipit à dos uni

A few unseasonal visitors were noted, e.g. early Marbled Ducks and a Black-necked Grebe near Djoudj on Oct. 6th, Western Olivaceous and Melodious Warblers as well as a Woodchat Shrike and even two European Bee-eaters in June; an adult Sabine’s Gull at Ngor on 30/7 (first July record it seems?), and summer Yellow-legged Gulls at Lac Rose (Sarcelle marbrée, Grèbe à cou noir, Hypolaïs obscure et polyglotte, Pie-grièche à tête rousse, Guêpier d’Europe, Mouette de Sabine, Goéland leucophée). Up north, a White-throated Bee-eater and a Pygmy Sunbird were photographed in January near Saint-Louis (Guêpier à gorge blanche, Souïmanga pygmée).

We also continued our seabird migration monitoring efforts during 2018, both in spring and in autumn. Spring migration was summarised in two posts (covering April and May) but the autumn totals are yet to be published. Highlights included decent numbers of Long-tailed Skua (500!) and Grey Phalaropes (1,256!) seen in August when fairly strong north-westerlies created ideal conditions to see these highly pelagic migrants from the coast; both species saw new day records for West Africa it seems. Other good ones included at least 19 Barolo/Boyd’s Shearwaters in Aug.-Sept., a Sooty Tern on 17/9 and several Bridled Terns, while Great Shearwaters passed through in modest numbers around mid-November (Puffin de Barolo/Macaronésie, Sterne fuligineuse, Sterne bridée, Puffin majeur). A pelagic trip on October 1st yielded reasonable numbers of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels (Océanite de Wilson), some shearwaters and skuas, but no rarities this time round. A visiting birder was lucky to see a White-faced Storm Petrel on 3/12 at Iles de la Madeleine, while an observation of Band-rumped Storm Petrel was reported far offshore off Saint-Louis on 25/9 (Océanites frégate et de Castro).

On the ring recovery front, we managed to read some 100 colour rings, mainly of Audouin’s and Slender-billed Gulls (41 & 19, resp.) but also several Greater Flamingos from Spain, a Common Ringed Plover from Portugal, and the first mentions of Avocet in our database (two birds from Spain) as well as a French Mediterranean Gull (“RV2L”) which appears to be the first recovery of this species from Senegal (Goélands d’Audouin et railleur, Flamant rose, Grand Gravelot, Avocette, Mouette mélanocéphale). I now have some 420 ring recoveries in my little database: maybe this year I’ll find time to write up some of the key findings.

Mediterranean Gull / Mouette mélanocéphale “RV2L”

A few blog posts on birding sites and other topics were published in 2018, namely the following:

• Senegal as a destination for birders, written up by Paul Robinson following his visit to the UK Bird Fair in 2017
• Blog posts on the birds of Dindefelo and Wassadou following visits to these two major birding hotspots in the south-east of the country
• The Casamance Bird Atlas by the association APALIS
• Birding the Niokolo-Koba: guest blog by John Rose and Dimitri Dagone
• The formal protection of Technopole back in October was of course a major event
• A xeno-canto audio guide to the birds of Senegal
• Last but certainly not least, the last blog piece of the year covered the description of a new species of Square-tailed Drongo

We’ve also been pretty active writing up more formal pieces on birds in Senegal, with several articles published in 2018. This post is actually getting a bit too long so I’ll write about these recent publications in a forthcoming article. For now, go out birding!

Finally, thanks to all our readers for their support and encouragement throughout the year, which has seen a further increase in number of page views (almost 25,000) and website visitors. Oh and do let me know if I forgot anything in the above review, which is just an informal overview – nothing official here!

 

 

Of lists, listing and listers: how many bird species in Senegal?

I have a bit of a confession to make. I’m a bit of an obsessive lister, always counting and collecting birds, new ones if at all possible. Or rare ones. I have a Life List, a Senegal List, Africa, Western Palearctic, a Technopole list. A list of colour-ring recoveries. And so on. Maybe not as far as keeping year lists or garden lists or self-found lists or lists of birds seen while writing up blog posts, but still I’m pretty much counting species all the time. I won’t go through great lengths to “tick” new birds and I don’t take the whole listing thing too seriously, neither will I keep track of my buck-per-bird expenditure rates (yes, it seems that some birders calculate this), but still… lots of obsessive listing.

I’m sure that some of our readers will recognise this – do we need group therapy? Maybe it’s just human (male?) nature, to be collecting and classifying things. Some of these lists may actually be quite useful especially when covering little-known regions as I sometimes get the chance to do on my work trips (think South Sudan, Somaliland, Burundi…), but for the most part they’re just my own little checklists sitting in an old Access database… time to upgrade, right?

Baird’s Sandpiper / Bécasseau de Baird, Technopole – Senegal’s second record (and first documented) and a personal lifer

 

Luckily there’s still lots of new species to be counted, we’re not quite done yet – I’ve only seen less than a quarter of the world’s birds, mostly in Africa (ca. 1,370 species, Wilson’s Indigobird a couple of weeks ago near Lac Togo being the most recent addition), so there are still many new ones to discover.

By now, my Senegal list stands at about 495 species, after three and a half years of pretty active birding in the country. But how “good” is 495? How many species have been reliably recorded in Senegal? This may be an easy question, but the answer is certainly not so straightforward. First of all, what taxonomic reference to follow? Depending on which reference one uses, certain subspecies are elevated to species rank while others are not, and with current tendencies to split species it can be hard to keep up with the understandably dynamic nature of bird taxonomy.

Adamawa Turtle Dove / Tourterelle de l’Adamoua, one of Senegal’s “specials” that can reliably be seen in the south-east

Several years of “service” in the Swiss national rare bird committee and a French regional records committee taught me a bit of discipline in keeping count of records and numbers for rare or scarce species, in ensuring appropriate documentation, in reassessing status of vagrants and scarce migrants, keeping track of changes in taxonomy and advances in identification criteria, and so on. And then there’s the status categories: “A” (species occurs naturally in the wild, seen at least once in modern ornithological history, eg. since 1950), “B” (same as A but not recorded since the cut-off year), “C” (introduced exotic species that have established autonomous breeding populations), “D” (the dreaded uncertain origin category), and finally “E” (escapes). Only species that are in the A, B or C categories are part of a country’s national list. In Senegal, the only established exotic species appears to be House Sparrow (unless Eurasian Collared Dove is also introduced or escaped, though this is far from certain; wild Rock Doves apparently still exist in the Kédougou escarpments).

So, in order to answer our question of the number of species occurring in Senegal, let’s start by identifying an appropriate taxonomic reference. The IOC (International Ornithological Committee) is nowadays usually considered the standard authority, being followed by many countries and authors. The Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) is another reference, I guess a bit more progressive than IOC, and was adopted by BirdLife and the IUCN. I won’t go into reviewing the differences between these and other lists such as Howard & Moore or Sibley, though we should mention that the African Bird Club follows IOC which as such should be an obvious choice here. Unfortunately, the ABC is not very good at remaining up-to-date to the extent that the current version dates back to 2010 – and at the time of writing, the page to download country checklists was non functional… The ABC now also has new “Dowsett country lists” which are largely based on the more conservative Howard & Moore taxonomy. More than anyone else, the Dowsetts are of course a major reference in their own right when it comes to African birds, and it would be great to have up-to-date checklists for each country. To make matters more complex, the ABC also links to checklists by their “partner” iGoTerra; unfortunately, their Senegal list is highly unreliable as it contains about a dozen species that have never been recorded in Senegal as well as several obvious missing species… and I assume that it’s the same for other countries. Really surprising (and disappointing) that the ABC endorses these lists. Similarly, other country checklists, e.g. the Avibase list, contain several serious errors and should be avoided. As such, we hope that the Senegal list that we’re making available here will be of use to local and visiting birders alike.

Either way, we settled on the IOC list – the choice of which can of course be debated, but it seems to make sense given that ABC is following it and that there is no proper reference committee for Africa (such as the AERC for Europe, though they’re not quite as authoritative as they ought to be, with many national committees following different standards). Anyway… let’s move on.

Pel’s Fishing Owl / Chouette pecheuse de Pel – one of the most recent additions to my own Senegal list, and a much anticipated lifer.

 

So, I took the African Bird Club country list for Senegal as a starting point, and updated it as per the latest IOC version. As our regular readers will surely know, quite a few species have been added to the national list in recent years, so these were of course included in the list. Several species on the ABC list are marked as uncertain, since at the time no proper documentation existed, such as Blue-throated Roller and Black-and-white Mannikin. I’ve removed those that seem unlikely, as well as Tropical Boubou which is yet to be confirmed (and I replaced Red-fronted Warbler, which was included in error, by Cricket Warbler). I’ve added Vieillot’s Black Weaver based on the account that Lesson described this species in 1840 based on a specimen from Casamance (it’s on the Gambian list, but not on the ABC list for Senegal). Here again, in the absence of a national or regional rare birds committee, these are personal choices and I’d be happy to revise these if there’s a good case to do so.

Below are the new species seen in the last 12 years, in chronological order. Those  marked with a * were formally documented, typically through publications in the ABC Bulletin or in Malimbus; records with a ° symbol await publication or will be written up shortly:

• Western Sandpiper (15.1.07, Langue de Barbarie, Saint-Louis; N. Borrow et al.)
• Black Guillemot* (11.10.08, Ngor, Dakar; Crouzier et al.)
• Lesser Jacana (29.07.09, at a reservoir near Kédougou; ABC Recent Reports)
• Common Crane (22-25.03.10, Djoudj NP; ABC Recent Reports)
• Narina Trogon* (13.4.10, Dindéfélo, Kédougou; Aransay et al. 2012)
• Red Kite (23.2.12, Toubacouta, Fatick; ABC Recent Reports)
• Pacific Golden Plover* (10.5.12, Delta du Saloum, Fatick; Cavaillès et al.)
• Short-billed Dowitcher* (4.10.12, Gandiol, Saint-Louis; A. Hiley)
• Eurasian Sparrowhawk (27.01.14,  Tiougoune/Lompoul-sur-Mer, Thiès; J. Wright et al.)
• Mountain Wagtail* (6.3.15, Dindéfélo, Kédougou; Pacheco et al. 2017)
• Eyebrowed Thrush* (10.12.15 Gandiol, Saint-Louis; R. Benjumea & B. Pérez 2016)
• Freckled Nightjar* (21.3.16 Dindéfélo, Kédougou; J.-Y. Blanc et al. 2018)
• Eurasian Collared Dove° (May 2016, Dakar; BP)
• Red-footed Booby° (16.10.16, Dakar, N. Moran et al.)
• Magnificent Frigatebird* (29-30.4.17, Iles de la Madeleine, Dakar; M. Lecoq & BP; G. Caucanas; Piot & Lecoq 2018 – link to ABC note forthcoming)
• Meadow Pipit* (1.1.18, Yène-Tode, Dakar; Piot 2018)
• Horus Swift° (5-6.1.18, Gamadji Sare, Podor; F. Bacuez, BP, F. Verroens)
• Brown-backed Honeybird° (21.1.18 Dindéfélo, Kédougou; G. Caucanas et al.)

One of the Horus Swifts / Martinet horus found in January 2018 at Gamadji-Sare (F. Bacuez)

 

On average, that’s just one or two additions per year – though note how 2012, 2016 as well as 2018, only half-way through, already stand out with no less than three new species. Also note how four out of these 18 records were also new to sub-Saharan Africa or even the African continent as a whole: Western Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Black Guillemot, Eyebrowed Thrush. The records of Eurasian Collared Dove and Horus Swift, both possibly/probably breeding, constitute major range extensions in West Africa. The fact that another four of the above records are from the Dindéfélo area is also quite remarkable: it just shows how a previously largely ignored border area harbours several species that just creep into the country. Dakar, being relatively well watched in recent years, also stands out as a national “hotspot”, as is the Gandiol/Langue de Barbarie area to a lesser extent.

Add to this list the Canary Islands endemic Plain Swift, which thanks to geolocators was recently shown to transit through Senegal on its way to the newly discovered wintering grounds in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea (Norton et al. 2018) – a nice example of modern technology solving one of the many remaining mysteries in the field of migration. Eleonora’s Falcon is another species that was confrmed to occur thanks to satellite tracking programs (Gschweng et al. 2008) but that is yet to be seen in natura.

Then there are two special cases, both of hybrids: a Greater x Lesser Spotted Eagle, that was GPS-tracked from its Central European breeding grounds into Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia; neither of the parents have been confirmed from Senegal as “pure” birds, but does this mean that this bird somehow needs to make it to the national list? To a lesser extent, the probable Woodchat x Red-backed Shrike seen last year is also an interesting case since the latter parent species has never been recorded in Senegal, though there are records from nearby Mauritania. Logically, hybrids should not be included on the national list, but I’d be happy to be convinced otherwise (in this specific case though, we cannot be 100% that the second parent of the hybrid shrike was indeed a Red-backed Shrike).

Presumed Woodchat x Red-backed Shrike / Pie-grieche à tête rousse x écorcheur, Lac Tanma, Aug. 2017

 

So now for the list: with the recent additions, and following the latest IOC taxonomy, we end up with at least 671 species. The full list is available HERE as a handy Google spreadsheet  – of course it’s work in progress and I’d be happy to receive contributions. You’re more than welcome to download the list as an Excel file and use it as a checklist for the country. I did include a small number of species for which there are unconfirmed older records but that are likely to be present; these are marked with a ? in the list, and if confirmed would bring the total to 676 species. One of these is likely extinct in the wild by now: Common Ostrich, marked with an “E” (and Secretarybird probably shares the same fate though could still show up as a wanderer). Vagrants are listed as “V” in the list; for some of these – e.g. Little Gull – it’s not quite clear whether they should be considered as true vagrants or whether they are merely rare migrants that do in fact make it to Senegal on a more or less regular basis.

For those who tend to prefer the HBW/BirdLife taxonomy, the Senegal list should be at least 664 species – quite surprisingly this is quite a few species less than the IOC list, due to several splits that aren’t recognised by HBW (Boyd’s & Barolo Shearwaters are treated as part of Audubon’s Shearwater, White-breasted Cormorant is a ssp. of Great Cormorant, Yellow-billed Kite is rather suprisingly considered conspecific with Black Kite, Barbay Falcon part of Peregrine Falcon, African Reed Warbler a ssp. of Eurasian Reed Warber, and Atlas Flycatcher a ssp. of Pied Flycatcher). The only additional species is Seebohm’s Wheatear which surprisingly is not recognised by IOC, despite it being very distinctive from Northern Wheatear. Other splits do not directly affect the number of species on the Senegal list, though names may differ (e.g. Black-faced Firefinch is now known as Vinaceous Firefinch Lagnosticta vinacea, endemic to West Africa). When I find the time, I’ll also include a link to the HBW country checklist.

There are probably a few other species missing from the list, as not everyone goes through the effort of writing up notes or publishing pictures of potential first records. For instance, what would be the first record of Cinereous Vulture was only just recently uploaded to eBird and while it certainly seems like a credible observation, I’m awaiting further details from the observers. Likewise, there’s only one formally published record of Citrine Wagtail, but I found a reference to another observation that pre-dates the 1999 Technopole bird, which was mentioned along with a succinct (but in my view sufficient) description in the waterbird expedition report by Schepers and colleagues (27.1.97 at Djiffer, Saloum), and found out recently that a British tour operator that regularly visits Senegal has a few records of the species from Nianing. Once again, a real shame that the commercial birding companies rarely contribute to our knowledge of the areas that they visit. Corrections are more than welcome of course.

Senegal’s first Meadow Pipit / Pipit farlouse (Yene-Tode, 1.1.18)

 

What will be the next species to be added to the country list? One can surely make a few predictions in terms of what species are likely to be added in the future – think various American vagrants with Ring-necked Duck and White-rumped Sandpiper being the most obvious candidates (and why not Wilson’s Phalarope or Solitary Sandpiper, or a Forster’s Tern or maybe even a Stilt Sandpiper), tropical seabirds such as Swinhoe’s Storm Petrel, Fea’s and Black-capped Petrels or Masked Booby, various desert passerines (Dunn’s Lark in particular should be sought for in the far north, White-crowned Wheatear is also a good possibility in winter), songbirds from northern Europe and Siberia such as Richard’s and Olive-backed Pipits or even Little Bunting, all of which have been reported from Mauritania. The lists goes on and on really – lots of potential to find new stuff!

Key areas to search for northern and American vagrants are of course the coastal wetlands, while the northern border regions should be targeted for winter vagrants and desert species. Finding new seabirds will likely require pelagic trips and a decent amount of luck¹ – and it’s likely that seabird monitoring programs that use satellite tracking will turn up some new species in Senegalese waters. For those lucky to go out birding in Casamance, chances are that Turati’s Boubou and Preuss’s Cliff Swallow are already established in a few localities and that they are just waiting to be discovered. Quailfinch Indigobird may well occur but apparently remains to be confirmed. And for those making it to the far south-east, why not search for Rock Pratincole which should occur at least occasionally along the Gambia river (or even along the Falémé), or try for low-density species that occur not too far out in Mali or Guinea of the likes of West African Seedeater and Cabani’s Bunting, and that may well just creep over the border into Senegal.

And then there are of course those species that one may expect the least, such as our Horus Swifts earlier this year – an incredible range extension (if confirmed to be regular) of some 1,600 km at least. Or Damara Tern, known from a single recent record from Mauritania (in 2006, Isenmann & Benmergui 2018). Only time will tell – what’s clear is that there’s still lots to discover.

Now, time to get out there and find new birds. And keep listing.

 

Bram, with useful contributions by Simon and Frédéric – merci à eux!

 

¹ and chum.

And we’re off to a good start… with a new species for Senegal

New Year, New Birds! Apparently I found another new species to Senegal – needless to say that this resulted in a rather successful day out birding. Which left me wondering, rather pointlessly, how many country firsts have been found on the first day of the year.

Lac Rose

So I first went to Lac Rose, and more specifically the steppe to the NE of the lake as this area had produced a lot of good birds last winter, including three or even four Buff-breasted Sandpipers. I was keen to go back and see if any of the “specials” were around again this winter. One of the first birds I found in the short grass was Greater Short-toed Lark, so things were off to a good start.

Greater Short-toed Lark / Alouette calandrelle

As I started walking on the far end of the steppe, I found a very pale wheatear: a textbook Isabelline Wheatear, just like last year in January.

Isabelline Wheatear / Traquet isabelle

The same area held three Tawny Pipits and a few other birds, though not the hoped-for Temminck’s Coursers.

Tawny Pipit / Pipit rousseline

Towards the end of my visit I came across this Southern Grey Shrike – cool bird, but a bit too flighty to allow for decent pictures.

Southern Grey Shrike / Pie-grièche meridionale

Also around were several Kittlitz’s Plovers (+ Common Ringed and Kentish on the lake shores), at least four Quailfinches thus confirming the species’ presence in the Niayes IBA, a Black-headed Heron, Vieillot’s Barbet dueting in the distance, and so on.

Yene

Next up: the Yène-Tode lagoon. While on my previous visit, barely two weeks earlier (17/12), there was still a good amount of water, by now the lake has all but dried up: just a little trickle here and a small pool there, with just a handful of Black-winged Stilts, Spur-winged Lapwings, a lone Knot, Common Sandpiper and a few other waders. With all the waterbirds gone, I didn’t think I’d see much on this visit, but was soon proved to be very wrong!

Shortly after getting out the car, I located a small flock of Yellow Wagtails feeding on a green patch in what used to be the lagoon just a few weeks earlier. A pipit amidst the wagtails was either going to be a Tree or (more likely) a Red-throated Pipit, so I got the bird in the scope… and was a bit puzzled at first that it didn’t fit either species?! As I approached, it flew off and called a few times, confirming my suspicion: a Meadow Pipit!! It landed a hundred meters or so further in more dense vegetation. I knew this was a good species for the country and wanted to get better views and maybe even a few pictures (I didn’t quite realise it had never been confirmed in Senegal before!), so I went after it, flushed it and again heard the diagnostic hurried hiist-ist-ist-ist flight call. It returned to the original spot, and this time round I got really good views plus a few record shots:

Meadow Pipit / Pipit farlouse

Meadow Pipit / Pipit farlouse

Note the dense streaking on a pale buffy background with streaks clotting together on middle of breast, general lack of warm tones (as would be the case for Tree Pipit), fine bill with diffuse yellowish base, absence of clear pale lines on the mantle (as in Red-throated), the “gentle” expression with fairly pale lores, an indistinct supercilium and narrow-ish submoustachial (what a word!) stripe. The rump was clearly unstreaked (thus ruling out Red-throated Pipit) and while I didn’t manage any good pictures of the hind toe, it did appear quite long and pictures show it to be only moderately curved (ruling out Tree Pipit). These pipits are no easy birds to identify on plumage, but luckily the call is so typical and unlike any other pipit that it allowed for a safe ID while I was watching the bird, and I was lucky to get a few decent shots. A few people have asked me to provide more pictures, so here they are – all are originals without any editing except for cropping.

This bird was obviously in a fresh plumage, and can be aged as a first-winter bird based on the shape and colour of the median coverts: the ‘tooth’ on the dark centre with a clear white tip (Svensson 1992) is quite visible in the pictures.

Meadow Pipit / Pipit farlouse

Meadow Pipit is of course a common species throughout much of Europe, be it as a breeding bird or on passage or as a winter visitor. Its non-breeding range covers western Europe and most of the Mediterranean Basin, extending along the Atlantic coast down to the Canary Islands and Morocco. In Mauritania it is considered to be scarce but regular, reaching as far as the Senegal river delta, more or less as shown on the map below (borrowed from xeno-canto). Surely it must occur at least irregularly in northern Senegal, given its status in nearby Mauritania?

 

While relocating the Meadow Pipit, I also flushed no less than eight Red-throated Pipits as well as three Common Quails. Two Collared Pratincoles were hanging out by the last puddles; the Marsh Harriers and most of the Ospreys are now gone, but there were still at least two Short-toed Eagles in the area, with another two along the track back to Rufisque. Two Mosque Swallow were also around, while two Zebra Waxbills were rather unexpected, given that they’re not supposed to occur in the Dakar region (see last year’s post on the sighting of a group at Technopole). Tawny Pipit was another addition to the site’s ever-growing list.

Collared Pratincole / Glaréole à collier

 

Technopole

Following a very successful morning yesterday at Technopole (Short-eared Owl! Iberian Chiffchaff! Jack Snipe!) I stopped by to have a closer look at the numerous waders, given that yesterday I’d forgotten my telescope at home… Nothing out of the ordinary to report today, just tons of waders, gulls (incl. two Mediterranean Gulls) and lots of Caspian Terns (+150, and now also 27 Greater Flamingos (nine were present yesterday). And I relocated the Iberian Chiffchaff quite easily as it’s singing regularly, and tends to keep to a single bush – more on this in another post.

 

Oh and happy new year!

 

bram