A Contribution to the Ornithology of Northern Gobir (Central Niger) 1st Edition, June 2010 Adam Manvell In Memory of Salihou Aboubacar a.k.a Buda c.1943 to September 2005 Buda was a much respected hunter from Bagarinnaye and it was thanks to his interest in my field guides and his skill (and evident delight) in identifying the birds on my Chappuis discs in the early days of my stay that motivated me to explore local ethno-ornithology. Whilst for practical reasons most of my enquiries were made with one of his sons (Mai Daji), his knowledge and continual interest was a source of inspiration and he will be sorely missed. Buda is shown here with a traditional Hausa hunting decoy made from a head of a burtu, the Abyssinian ground hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus). With incredible fieldcraft, cloaked and crouched, with the head slowly rocking, game was stalked to within shooting distance….but the best hunters Buda told me could get so close, they plucked their prey with their hands. Acknowledgements Several people have played vital roles in this report for which I would like to extend my warmest thanks. In Niger, Mai Daji and his late father Buda for sharing their bird knowledge with me and Oumar Tiousso Sanda for translating our discussions. Jack Tocco for transcribing Mai Daji’s bird names into standard Hausa and helping with their etymology and Ludovic Pommier for getting my records into a workable database. Above all I would like to thank Joost Brouwer for his wise council and unwavering encouragement for this report which I have been promising him to finish for far too long. I would also like to acknowledge the critical role played by three institutions which provided me with access to key ornithological documents: the Alexander Library of the Edward Grey Institute in Oxford, the library of BirdLife International in Cambridge and finally L'Institut de Recherche pour le Développement who have made much of the pioneering Sahelian ornithological research carried out by its predecessor, O.R.S.T.O.M, freely available on-line (http://www.documentation.ird.fr/). 1 FOREWORD This report is a first effort to document the avifauna of northern Gobir and as such it must be considered as work in progress. It is based on three distinct sources: personnel observation over 205 not necessarily successive days (mainly in 2001-02) generally in the territory of the two conjoined villages of Bagarinnaye and Maïjémo, population 928 at November 2001, (henceforth referred to in the singular as the village B&M and with the Hausa term karkara used to refer to its territory), the observations of Mai Daji a B&M farmer and hunter as well as a fairly extensive literature review. The emphasis is on the combined findings from these sources since on their own they have their distinct weaknesses; my raison d’être in the village was not ornithology, my enquiries with Mai Daji were incomplete and my literature review cannot be called exhaustive. Ultimately the report is intended to produce an annotated species list which records the phenology and breeding status of the species encountered. Due to the data used it harbours no pretence at quantification beyond some subjective measures of abundance. However, it is my contention that such a list when combined with good qualitative descriptions of the various habitats and their histories can, with care (see Remsen, 1994), reveal certain species, perhaps even assemblages of species, indicative of the degree of human impact on the landscape. I intend to expand on this topic in a future paper, but in the interim, this report represents the evidence basis and personnel learning ground from which such an objective can spring from. As such it must be stressed that at times I purposefully push the limits of my knowledge by presenting some tentative but flagged hypothesises. My hope is that these will be modified by future observation or commentary and the body of knowledge on the avifauna of northern Gobir will benefit as a result. Table of Contents Locating Gobir 1 Gobir: A Brief History 2 A Regional Perspective of the Gobir Landscape 3 The Climate of Gobir 5 The Vegetation of Northern Gobir 8 Overview of the Vegetation In the Karkara 12 The Avian Habitats of the Karkara 15 The Observations 22 Structure of the Report 23 Ardeidae: Herons & Egrets 26 Scopidae: Hamerkop 28 Ciconiidae: Storks 29 Threskiornithidae: Ibises 31 Anatidae: Ducks & Geese 32 Accipitridae: Vultures, Eagles, Hawks & Allies 35 Falconidae: Falcons 42 Phasianidae: Quails & Francolins 44 Turnicidae: Buttonquails 45 Rallidae: Rails & Allies 46 Otididae: Bustards 47 Rostratulidae: Painted-Snipes 49 Recurvirostridae: Stilts 49 Burhinidae: Thick-Knees 50 Glareolidae: Coursers 50 Charadriidae: Plovers & Lapwings 52 Scolopacidae: Sandpipers & Allies 53 Pteroclididae: Sandgrouse 56 Columbidae: Pigeons & Doves 57 Psittacidae: Parrots 60 Cuculidae: Cuckoos & Coucals 61 Tytonidae: Barn Owls 63 Strigidae: Typical Owls 63 Caprimulgidae: Nightjars 64 Apodidae: Swifts 65 Alcedinidae: Kingfishers 67 Meropidae: Bee-Eaters 68 Coraciidae: Rollers 68 Phoeniculidae: Wood-Hoopoes 69 Upupidae: Hoopoes 69 Bucerotidae: Hornbills 70 Capitonidae: Barbets 71 Picidae: Wrynecks & Woodpeckers 71 Alaudidae: Larks 72 Hirundinidae: Swallows & Martins 76 Motacillidae: Wagtails & Pipits 78 Turdidae: Thrushes, Chats & Allies 81 Sylviidae: Warblers 85 Muscicapidae: Flycatchers 90 Timaliidae: Babblers 90 Nectarinidae: Sunbirds 91 Laniidae: True Shrikes 93 Malaconotidae: Bush-Shrikes 95 Oriolidae: Orioles 95 Corvidae: Crows 96 Sturnidae: Starlings 97 Buphagidae: Oxpeckers 98 Passeridae: Sparrows 99 Ploceidea: Weavers 101 Estrildidae: Estrildid Finches 106 Viduidea: Indigobirds & Whydahs 110 Emberizidae: Buntings 111 Appendix A: Species Summary Lists 113 Appendix B: Historical Records from Northern Gobir 118 Appendix C: Potential Species for Northern Gobir 119 References 122 1 List of Figures Figure 1 Gobir in Regional Perspective 1 Figure 2 The Landsape of Gobir 4 Figure 3 Average Monthly Temperatures from Maradi (1951-1975) 6 Figure 4 Annual Rainfall Totals for Six Stations in and around Northern 7 Gobir, 1981-2000 Figure 5 The Vegetation of Northern Gobir 10 Figure 6 The Landscape Ecology of Northern Gobir 11 Figure 7 Evolution of the Woody Cover at Tapkin Bagarinnaye 15 Figure 8 The Principle Features of the B&M karkara 16 Figure 9 The Dunefields 17 Figure 10 The Barrens 18 Figure 11 The Wetlands 19 Figure 12 The Village 21 Figure 13 Totals for Monthly Number of Bird Recording Days in Northern 23 Gobir Figure 14 Localities Mentioned in the Systematic List 24 2 LOCATING GOBIR Gobir will probably not be a familiar region to many readers and many an atlas will not bring clarification. Indeed on one level it could be considered a defunct regional term since no modern territorial unit bears this name. I have chosen to use it because regional history has been so entwined with the ancient Hausa polity of Gobir and humans are, along with climate, one of the most important factors moulding the region’s birdlife. A second and more accidental advantage of the regional name is that Gobir, though historically a rather fluid territorial unit, is nonethless identifiable1 with two degree squares, which is highly fortuitous with the advent this month of the Niger Bird DataBase (NiBDaB http://www.bromus.net/nibdab/). The observations reported here concern the northernmost of these two degree squares shown in Figure 12 (between 6° and 7° East and 14° and 15° North), henceforth is referred to as northern Gobir. Though by and large the observations come from one village territory (c. 26.5 km2) which falls within the “Dakoro C” half degree square of NiBDaB (c. 3,025 km2) I have nonethless chosen to consider them within the context of the wider northern Gobir degree square and the more diverse habitats it contains. Figure 1: Gobir in Regional Perspective Aïr Termit Ader Doutchi 1 The seat of the King of Gobir, Tibiri, is however a mere 6km east of the 7° E longitude. 2 I have however taken the liberty of including some observations made where the N30 road to Dakoro crosses the Goulbi’n Kaba, which are fractionally south (c. 5km) of the 14° latitude. 1 GOBIR: A BRIEF HISTORY Gobir was an important pre-colonial state situated strategically within the desert-side economy of the Central Sudan. Its power and reach changed markedly through its history in response to warfare and raiding on and by its neighbours as well as internal dissent. Gobir reached its apogee in the late 18th century (Sutton, 1979: 195) when its capital was at Alkalawa (see Figure 1). Previously, from around 1450 to 1600, the capital had been at Birnin Lallé (Laya, 1992: 461), 20 km to the east of where I made the majority of my observations. The surrounding area was apparently densely populated and well watered (ibid.), but following a massacre by the Tuareg, the population relocated to various locations to the south and southwest. The area vacated probably remained uninhabited for the next 300 years, frequented only by nomadic herders and hunters, who may have practised itinerant agriculture. In 1804 a former member of the Gobir court, Ousman Dan Fodio, launched a jihad that was to create the largest empire in Africa at the time of the European partition at the end of the nineteenth century, the Sokoto Caliphate. Defeats at the battles of Alkalawa (1808) and Dakurawa (1835) forced the animist Gobir to move their capital eastwards to Tibiri (see Figure 1) where they could remain independent in the shelter of the Baban Rafi (“great gallery forest”3). This situation more or less pertained until the arrival of the colonial powers at the turn of the 20th century. In the period 1906-08 when a joint British-French expedition demarcated the line between their two respective colonies there were only a few settlements northeast of the Doutchi Zana uplands and north of the Goulbi’n Kaba—see Figure 2—(Grégoire & Raynaut, 1980: 104).