Checklists of Birds in West Bugwe forest reserve, Uganda

Alexander Mbiro

doi:10.15468/3gsrff

Checklists of Birds in West Bugwe forest reserve, Uganda

Citation

Mbiro A (2022). Checklists of Birds in West Bugwe forest reserve, Uganda. A Rocha Uganda. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/3gsrff accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-12-14.

Description

These data were collected by the Forest Department of Uganda under the ‘Natural Forest Management and Conservation Project’ (No. 6100.37.42.015) and the project of ‘Institutional Support for the Protection of East African Biodiversity’ (UNO/RAF/006/GEF). These data were collected from 1993 to1995 and published in a series of reports edited by Howard and Davenport (1996). The data have been mobilized by the staff of the A Rocha Uganda and A Rocha International under the project "Raising the profile of data for the conservation of four forested African landscapes" funded by GBIF's BID programme, and coordinated by A Rocha Kenya. The mobilised data consist of observation records of birds from West Bugwe forest reserve. The data are based on observation records collected between May,1993 and March,1995.

Purpose

This data was mobilised from a series of biodiversity reports on Uganda’s forests inclusive of Mabira, South Busoga, Bukaleba, West Bugwe, Igwe-Luvunya, Mpigi, Mpanga and Ziika forest reserves. The reports aimed at providing a comprehensive account of the state of knowledge of the flora and fauna of the forest reserve. These technical documents were purposed to provide some of the basic information to forestry planners and the scientific community that is necessary for the development of sound, integrated multiple-use forest management systems The information collected from the forest reserves was also aimed at being used in an analysis of national conservation priorities and the development of a representative system of forest Nature Reserves.

Sampling Description

Study Extent

These data are a checklist of birds recorded from West Bugwe forest reserve in Uganda

Sampling

The sampling methodology used for data collection was observation. Observations were made using 8 x 30 and 10 x 40 binoculars. Effort was made to visit as many habitats as possible with maximum coverage occurring in the early morning and towards evening.

Quality Control

Wherever possible, identification was carried out in the field. Birds were identified using Williams and Arlott (1980), Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1957, 1960), Guggisburg (1986), Sinclair et al. (1993), and Brown et al. (1982), Urban et al. (1986), Fry et al. (1988) and Keith et al. (1992). The order and nomenclature used in the original survey reports followed Britton (1980), Carswell and Pomeroy (1984) with revisions made by the Ornithological Sub-Committee of the East Africa Natural History Society (D. Turner, pers. comm.). The order, taxonomy and nomenclature were subsequently revised according to the HBW and BirdLife International checklist taxonomy (del Hoyo and Collar 2014, 2016). According to the original survey reports: “Ranger ornithologists were trained to make detailed field descriptions of their observations, including notes on the appearance, calls and behaviour of birds and the habitats in which they were observed. Each ranger was provided with a shortlist of (generally common, unmistakable) species that did not require verification, but records of any other species were only accepted... on submission of one (or preferably two) voucher specimens of each species... During the programme, a comprehensive reference collection was made at Forest Department headquarters. Any difficult specimens were taken to the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, or the Zoological Museum at Tring, UK for identification.” The geographic coordinates of sampling locations were recorded during the original fieldwork using the Military Grid Reference System (old version). These were converted to a standard UTM format and then to decimal latitude and longitude using GIS based tools.

Method steps

The national survey of Uganda forests collected data in 65 forests. The original field survey results including all data were published in a series of reports by the Forest Department of Uganda (Howard et al. 1996). The current dataset comprises records of birds that were mist netted during this survey. We selected a sample of forests that had been surveyed in the Central and Eastern Regions of Uganda in order to digitise the data for GBIF. Electronic copies of the written reports and a separate electronic database of records were made available for this purpose by the original authors of the reports (Peter Howard). We extracted the bird mist netting records from the electronic database and supplemented these with location data provided in the narrative reports. The species names were updated to modern taxonomy by aligning the names and regionally appropriate forms (subspecies) with the HBW and BirdLife International checklist taxonomy (del Hoyo and Collar 2014, 2016) paying particular attention to potential taxonomic splits and lumps that had occurred since the original data were collected. The location data in the original reports were provided in Military Grid Reference System. These were first converted to standard UTM coordinates, noting that the MGRS was using an old datum (MGRS-AL scheme also called "MGRS old"). UTM coordinates were then converted to decimal degrees using an online conversion spreadsheet (https://giscrack.com/download-excel-template-convert-geographic-coordinates-utm/). The converted locations were then checked against Google Maps imagery to confirm that a satisfactory conversion had been made. Species records from each Forest Reserve were checked against the distribution maps in Carswell et al. (2005) and through expert assessment (J. Lindsell) to ensure that no unsubstantiated or extralimital records were included.

Taxonomic Coverages

A total of 89 bird (Aves) species were recorded and identified.

Ciconia abdimii Lichtenstein, 1823
common name: Abdim's Stork rank: species
Podica senegalensis (Vieillot, 1817)
common name: African Finfoot rank: species

Geographic Coverages

The data were collected from West Bugwe forest reserves based on observation records.

Bibliographic Citations

Davenport, T., & Howard, P., (Eds.). (1996). West Bugwe and Igwe-Luvunya Forest Reserve: Biodiversity Report no. 29. Forest Department, Kampala -
Howard, P. C. andDavenport, T. R. B. (1996). Forest Biodiversity Reports, vols. 1–33. Uganda Forest Department, Kampala, Uganda. -
Britton, P.L. (Ed.) (1980). Birds of East Africa. East Africa Natural History Society, Nairobi. -
Brown, L.H., Urban, E. and Newman, K. (1982). The Birds of Africa. Vol. 1. Academic Press, London. -
Carswell, M. and Pomeroy, D. (1984). Check-list of the birds of Uganda. Ornithological Sub-Committee of the East Africa Natural History Society. -
Carswell, M., Pomeroy, D., Reynolds, J. and Tushabe, H. (2005) The Bird Atlas of Uganda. BOU, Oxford. -
del Hoyo, J. and Collar, N.J. (2014). HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World Volume 1: Non-passerines Lynx Edicions, Barcelona - http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/taxonomy.
del Hoyo, J. and Collar, N.J. (2016). HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World Volume 2: Passerines Lynx Edicions, Barcelona -
Fry, C.H., Keith, S. and Urban, E.K. (1988). The Birds of Africa. Vol. 3. Academic Press, London -
Guggisberg, C.A.W. (1986). Birds of East Africa. Volume 2. 2nd ed. Sapra Safari Guide No.6. Mount Kenya Sundries Ltd., Nairobi. -
Keith, S., Urban, E.K.and Fry, C.H. (1992). The Birds of Africa. Vol. 4. London, Academic Press. -
Mackworth-Praed, C.W. and Grant, C.H.B. (1957, 1960). Birds of Eastern and North-Eastern Africa. 2nd ed. (African Handbook of Birds; series one). 2 Volumes. Longman, London. -
Sinclair, I., Hockey, P. and Tarboton, W. (1993). Birds of Southern Africa. New Holland, London. -
Urban, E.K., Fry, C.H. and Keith, S. (1986). The Birds of Africa. Vol. 2. Academic Press, London. -
Williams, J.G. and Arlott, N. (1980). A Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa. Collins, London. -

Contacts

Alexander Mbiro
originator
position: Research and conservation Officer
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
UG
Telephone: +256783282622
email: alexander.mbiro@arocha.org

Alexander Mbiro
metadata author
position: Research and conservation Officer
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
UG
Telephone: +256783282622
email: alexander.mbiro@arocha.org

Roger National Forestry Authority
user
position: Data collector
National Forestry Authority
Plot 10/20, Spring Road
Kampala
UG
Telephone: +256-312-264035/6
email: info@nfa.go.ug

Peter Howard
administrative point of contact
position: Researcher
Natural World Heritage Sites
P.O. Box 24994, Karen 00502, Nairobi, Kenya
Nairobi
Karen 00502
KE
email: peterawayfromhome@hotmail.com