Scopus: Journal of East African Ornithology

The communal roosting behaviour and nesting of a group-living species, the Yellow-breasted Barbet Trachyphonus margaritatus in Djibouti

Mathieu Mahamoud-Issa — 2025-10-20

The African barbets (Lybiidae) are widespread and emblematic African birds, occupying a variety of habitats and usually conspicuous in their plumage colour and loud vocalizations. Some species live in pairs while others form small groups or colonies. Despite such diversity of social organization, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the social behaviour for most of the group-living barbets species. In this study, we collected data on the communal roosting behaviour and the nesting activity of the Yellow-breasted Barbet Trachyphonus margaritatus somalicus in Djibouti. To do so, we monitored 21 roosting sites from 19 territories in four years between 2019 and 2023. Group size ranged from a single pair to more than ten individuals per group. Each group occupied a specific roosting site where several cavities were dug. The group members slept together within one cavity, and for most groups the roosting site did not change over the years of the monitoring. During the nesting period, the group members slept with the eggs and chicks within a single cavity that served for both roosting and nesting. Barbet cavities were also used by other bird species suggesting potential inter-specific competition with other cavity nester species.

The birds of the Parc National de la Garamba, République Démocratique du Congo

Robert J. Dowsett — 2025-10-20

This is an inventory of the bird species known for certain from the Parc National de la Garamba in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It has involved examination of a large, unpublished, collection of specimens, as well as the limited literature and internet resources. A total of 437 species can be considered as confirmed. Many more have been claimed that are likely to be erroneous or for which acceptable documentation is lacking. However, it is clear that the avifauna of this large and important protected area has been insufficiently explored, that many more species can be expected to occur and the status of what is known is fragmentary. Four species represent the first published records for the DRC: Short-toed Snake Eagle Circaetus gallicus, Chestnut-backed Sparrow Lark Eremopterix leucotis, Turkestan Shrike Lanius phoenicuroides and Sahel Bush Sparrow Gymnoris dentata. The park is clearly an important winter area for Whinchat Saxicola rubetra and several other Palaearctic migrants.

An overlooked population of the Black-lored Babbler Turdoides sharpie resembling the subspecies vepres in northern Tanzania, with comments on phenotypic variation in vepres and evidence for past hybridization with the Northern Pied Babbler T. hypoleuca

James E. Bradley — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Comment concerning Saunders’s Tern Sternula (a.) saundersi and subspecies of Little Tern Sternula albifrons

Donald A. Turner — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Details of a shearwater Puffinus sp. recovered at Limuru, Kenya, October 1963: first record from Kenya and the East African region

Donald A. Turner — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Remarks concerning the Black-necked Grebe Podiceps nigricollis in East Africa

Donald A. Turner — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Watercock Gallicrex cinerea in Djibouti: first record for Africa

Mathieu Mahamoud-Issa — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Black-fronted Francolins Pternistis castaneicollis atrifrons near Moyale in northern Kenya

Adrian W. Hinkle — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Clarifying the East African range of the Crested Francolin subspecies Ortygornis sephaena rovuma (Gray) with comments on the type locality of O. s. kirkii (Hartlaub)

James E. Bradley — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Spotted Eagle Owl Bubo africanus [Greyish Eagle Owl Bubo (a.) cinerascens]

Donald A. Turner — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Description of the nest and egg of the Usambara (Montane Tiny) Greenbul Phyllastrephus albigula

Victor J. Mkongewa — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Bamboo Warblers Locustella alfredi in Busia County: the first records for Kenya

James E. Bradley — 2025-10-20

No abstract

East African Rarities Committee Reports for 2023 and 2024

Nigel Hunter — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Scopus, Journal of East African Ornithology

Robert J. Dowsett — 2025-10-20

No abstract

Editorial

Graeme Backhurst — 2025-10-20

No abstract