The eBird app has a new feature, the range map, that shows where, how many and what birds species can be found at any given time.

“The range map of birds shows what is happening with bird populations over space and time, especially for migratory species,” said Cullen Hanks of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, US, speaking to birders recently to mark the Global Big Day, an annual celebration of birds through sighting and reporting around the world by birdwatchers.

The range map is connecting birding communities around the world and has also proved to be an important tool for country authorities to protect birds, their habitats and fly paths.

The eBird app created in 2015, is free and can be downloaded on smartphones. It has brought on new entries by birding communities competing with established communities like those in Kenya in sighting and recording the most bird species in 24 hours in what has become the Global Big Day. Kenyan birders adopted the app in 2019.

At the same time, birding communities in Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Uganda have been growing, and this year, Kenya was leading in Africa with 793 species recorded from 359 checklists and was ranked sixth in the world.

Significant impact

Tanzania was second on the continent with 664 species from 110 checklists and South Africa was third with 562 species with the most checklists submitted at 402. Uganda was an impressive fourth with 515 species from 107 checklists.

“The competition gets fiercer every year,” states Alastair Newton, coordinating Team Zambia made up of independent birders to keep Zambia high in the Global Big Day rankings in order to promote it as a great birding destination and to raise awareness of conservation-related issues.

Portrait of a crested crane bird. The crane is the national bird of Uganda. PHOTO | POOL

“Kenya, of course, remains Africa’s stand-out star performer,” continues Newton.

Moustached Tinkerbird

“Tanzania continues to improve and Zimbabwe has put in a strong performance this time. The statistics published by Cornell make it clear that the push for greater participation across Africa this time had a significant impact.

“Which is also true for Zambia. Team Zambia was relieved to hang on to our top-20 global and top-5 Africa ranking in the latest GBD. Our final official out-turn of 472 was our all-time high, amounting to just over 60 percent of the species recorded in Zambia.

“We had more birders in the field this time than ever before — around 400 teams — and, encouragingly for the longer term, we had more families with their children.

''This, for us, was the real highlight because the more residents we can get involved in getting out there and birding, the more likely those residents are to step up when it comes to protecting our flora and fauna.”

Team Zambia’s birder Frank Willems at Mafinga Hills on the Malawi border added 25 new species to Zambia’s GBD list like the Moustached Tinkerbird.