The Birds in Reserves Project, or for short BIRP, started in 1992 and is run as a National “Citizen Science” project by the Animal Demography Unit (ADU), based at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The primary aim of the project is the collection of bird occurrence data, specifically inside South African protected areas (PAs). The process is fairly simple; volunteers go out to any PA and simply make a list of all the bird species observed. Data can be collected up to a maximum of seven days. This project is well suited for people that simply want to contribute their sightings (within protected areas) to a worthwhile cause. Equally, the BIRP project can serve as an avifaunal baseline monitoring tool for all protected areas, whether big or small. The data is submitted to the ADU, processed and made available on this website.

The data collected serves a variety of users; private, recreational, institutional and academic. The project is supported and endorsed by both the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) as well as BirdLife South Africa (BLSA).

The menu on the left provides you with a host of functions in order to obtain information from this site. Species summaries, site summaries, observer summaries including other project related information are available. We also encourage decision makers and managers to use the data available to help them make informed planning and management choices. We hope that this site will serve you as a valuable conservation assessment tool.

If you would like to become involved in the BIRP project, we would dearly like to hear from you. Your contributions will certainly benefit bird conservation in South Africa. Please download the BIRP instruction booklet which contains all the relevant information pertaining to this project. Alternatively contact the project coordinator (telephone 021 650 4698).

We encourage you to use the BIRP information for personal or recreational use; including education, research and conservation purposes. For these applications the data will be provided free of charge. This information may not be incorporated into other websites, or used for commercial gain. Please contact the project coordinator for further details. Effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data, but the ADU cannot guarantee that all data are correct. If you are aware of any errors or omissions in the data, please contact the project coordinator.

Latest news

2010-09-02 Doug Harebottle 
Ornithological Observations - a new on-line bird journal 

Yesterday marked the launch of a new e-journal, Ornithological Observations - http://oo.adu.org.za/. This journal is published online, by BirdLife South Africa and the Animal Demography Unit at UCT and is of a semi-scientific nature. It is edited by Arnold van der Westhuizen, PhD student and ardent ADU/BLSA project participant.

Its main aim is for scientists and citizen scientists alike to submit interesting observations of bird related matters (behaviour, nesting activities, foraging behaviour, annotated checklists etc.) in a reader-friendly format that is accessible to the public and the scientific community. One regularly encounters interesting bird behaviours, or nesting habits, or movement patterns  and it is these anecdotal observations which often do not get into the broader scientific and popular literature. But by getting these observations published in a short, user-friendly format they contribute valuable information to our bird knowledge base that can be used in future editions of Roberts's Birds of southern Africa.

Submissions for OO are encouraged from southern Africa but articles and short papers can be submitted from anywhere around the world. Getting the article from submission to publication is hoped to be a quick process as papers will not be peer-reviewed but the editorial committee will ensure that a high-standard is maintained. Templates have been provided to make the writing process as streamlined as possible. And even if you do not want to write anything you can visit the site frequently for interesting reads on our birdlife.

For more information please visit the OO website. There are already two articles that can be viewed and downloaded as pdf files. These will give you a nice feel for the style and format that is used for OO submissions.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and making OO a successful media platform for birders and scientists!

 
 
 
2010-02-18 Les Underhill 
CWAC and BIRP forms 

With the departure of Marius Wheeler from the ADU, please send all BIRP and CWAC forms to Doug Harebottle (or post to: ADU, Dept of Zoology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701) in the interim.

As soon as a replacement for Marius is found we will notify all CWACers and BIRPers of the new incumbent's contact details.  
 
 
2009-12-18 Les Underhill 
Farewell to Marius Wheeler 

After six years at the helm of the Coordinated Waterbird Counts project, CWAC, Marius Wheeler leaves the ADU to take up a new and challenging position at CapeNature from the beginning of 2010. Marius has quietly and conscientiously built up the momentum of waterbird counts in South Africa. He has also kept the Birds In Reserves Project, BIRP, on track. On top of that, he has made an enormous contribution to the ADU as a whole, and has made a decisive input to the ADU "ethos". We will miss him greatly. We wish him all the best in his new position.

Marius says: "I have really enjoyed the challenges that CWAC and BIRP have presented to me and hope that the progress made will be built upon and even expanded further. Thanks to all of you that have helped the CWAC project in so many ways. Your contributions were always welcome and I appreciated the input. I hope that CWAC will go from strength to strength. I look forward to taking up my new position with CapeNature."

Marius will be based in Porterville, and his territory will be in the northern region of the Western Cape. He will work at the interface between "Research" and "Management" teams at CapeNature – in other words, he will facilitate the communication between the science and the action.

The post of project manager for CWAC will be advertized early next year.  
 
 
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