Annotated bird list for family compound in Festac Town, Lagos, Nigeria

This is a list of the species seen in, and flying over, a small "compound" on 21 Road Extension, Festac Town, Lagos, Nigeria, between 9 and 18 November 2002. Festac Town was established in 1977 for the international Festival of Arts and Crafts, and the exhibition site is nearby. The town now has approaching 100,000 inhabitants and is situated to the W of central Lagos about 2 miles from the coast. The compound is located not far from the northern edge of the town, about half a mile from surrounding open marshes and lagoons.

Species which were only seen overhead are marked with an asterisk *.

1. Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) * - small numbers occasionally seen passing low overhead; common resident around rubbish dumps in the town
2. African Open-billed Stork (Anastomus lamelligerus) * - singles occasionally seen passing high overhead, most commonly early or late in the day, though also at midday; regularly seen soaring over lagoons to the north
3. Black Kite (Milvus migrans) * - small numbers very commonly observed overhead, up to three frequently in sight soaring high about the town
4. Shikra (Accipiter badius) * - single overhead on a couple of occasions
5. Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) * - singles very commonly observed overhead - soaring, hovering and hunting
6. Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis) - common resident, up to three birds consorting on house rooves and song regularly heard
7. Little Swift (Apus affinis) * - small flocks very regularly observed overhead
8. African Palm Swift (Cypsiurus parvus) * - small flocks very regularly observed overhead
9. Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) * - small flocks irregularly observed overhead, usually with other hirundines
10. Common House Martin (Delichon urbica) * - occsionally observed high overhead, with other hirundines
11. African Pied Wagtail (Motacilla aguimp) - single seen low over houses
12. Common Bulbul (Pycnonotus barbatus) - very common and prominent yard resident - one or more usually within earshot at all times!
13. Yellow White-eye (Zosterops senegalensis) - single once searching for insect prey in small lime tree in yard
14. Variable Sunbird (Cinnyris venustus) - most conspicuous yard resident, with a male frequently in song from any elevated perch, particularly the house aerial and those of the neighbours, whilst female seen skulking in the lime tree
15. Pied Crow (Corvus albus) * - small numbers seen irregularly overhead
16. Black-necked Weaver (Ploceus nigricollis)- a pair and possibly others seen daily lurking in the top-most branches of the yard mango tree [NB - Borrow and Demey do not list gardens in the habitats for this species]
17. Bronze Mannikin (Lonchura cuculllata) - small flocks regularly seen passing briskly and noisily low over the roof-tops

Other species seen locally which are probably regular over the garden included:

18. White-faced Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna viduata) - small flocks seen over nearby marshes and lagoons
19. Feral Pigeon (Columba livia) - these are resident along the nearby high street (21 Road)
20. African Pied Hornbill (Tockus fasciatus) - seen elsewhere in the town
21. Ethiopean Swallow (Hirundo aethiopica) - small flocks seen elsewhere in the town
22. Northern Grey-headed Sparrow (Passer griseus) - common inhabitant of most residential areas
23. Slender-billed weaver (Ploceus pelzelni) - an individual was seen in a neighbour's garden (202 road)
24. Splendid Glossy Starling (Lamprotornis splendidus) - individuals seen in nearby housing areas

Other heron, egret and ibis species were also seen over neighbouring marshes and the town and I expect that at least 10 species in this group are probably regular over the garden.

Survey of breeding birds in woods around Whippendell Wood, Watford, Herts, UK (2002)

The following is a personal survey by means of dawn visits to the Whippendell Wood area W of Watford, Herts, UK in May/June 2002

Dates and times

11 May 5.25 – 7.50am (145 minutes)

25 May 4.25 – 6.30am (125 minutes)

1 June 5.25 – 7.45am (140 minutes)

4 June 4.05 – 6.30am (145 minutes)

8 June 4.05 – 6.35am (150 minutes)

Area covered

Survey covered all wooded parts of Whippendell Wood and Jacotts Hill area (c. 1.5 miles x 1.5 miles, or 580 hectares) (map), i.e. the region bounded by:

* North: Redhall Lane, Fire Tree Lane and Grove Mill Lane (but including wooded area in Westwood Quarry as far as M25)

* West: Sarratt Road (but excluding the residential area around Redheath)

* South: Little Green Lane and Rousebarn Lane

* East: Grand Union Canal, but including wooded areas on east bank at the west end of Cassiobury Park

i.e. including Whippendell Wood, Lees Wood, Cartpath Wood, Birch Spring, Harrocks Wood, Merlin's Wood, Merlin's Spring, Newland's Spring, Round Newland's Spring, Dell Wood, Waterdell Spring, Thick Spring, Long Newland's Spring, unnamed isolated wood NW of junction of Rouse Barn and Little Green Lane and all of wood on West Herts Gold Course, and alongside Grand Union Canal (following terminology of Watford Street A-Z atlas by Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd.)

The true area covered was very close to one square mile, and comprised almost entirely woodland of one sort or another.

Coverage

There may have been some double-counting due to mobile birds moving (e.g. tit flocks and woodpeckers) but most records refer to territorial males in song and the overall counts will in most cases be underestimates due to birds not singing and areas missed. For example, noticeably fewer singing Blackbirds and Robins were recorded from 2 hours after sunrise on June visits.

KEY:

Bold - Numbers are totals of territorial (singing) males, family parties or discrete locations were birds making other calls were heard (i.e. approximate number of territories)*

Normal - Numbers are total individuals seen/heard*

Blue - less than "average"

Red - more than "average"

Green - much more than "average"

Shaded - noteworthy (others can be excluded in many cases due to small sample size)

* Normalisation in lower table is simply achieved by dividing totals by total number of territories/individuals in each region

					Regions
Species		Canal	Jacotts	Golf course	Whippendell	Waterdell	Harrocks	Lees
	Total	333	176	118	343	163	60	134
Wren	188	50	19	11	50	29	8	21
Robin	155	23	22	13	47	27	11	12
Blackbird	141	21	23	12	43	19	5	18
Wood Pigeon	126	24	29	9	38	11	2	13
Song Thrush	96	24	16	4	33	9	2	8
Chaffinch	70	16	10	7	14	6	6	11
Blackcap	62	15	7	5	16	9	3	7
Great Tit	57	8	7	14	14	8	2	4
Blue Tit	56	16	5	11	10	4	2	8
Carrion Crow	47	13	5	3	5	16	2	3
Goldcrest	42	9	2	1	20	6	2	2
Jackdaw	41	25	2	5	2	1	4	2
Great Spotted Woodpecker	31	4	4	6	10	4	1	2
Coal Tit	30	1	1	2	12	1	3	10
Mallard	26	20	1	1	4	0	0	0
Magpie	19	3	6	5	2	3	0	0
Starling	18	16	0	2	0	0	0	0
Chiffchaff	13	2	1	1	4	1	1	3
Stock Dove	11	9	0	0	2	0	0	0
Hedge Sparrow	10	3	4	0	0	1	1	1
Mistle Thrush	6	2	0	0	2	0	1	1
Long-tailed Tit	7	1	1	2	2	0	1	0
Treecreeper	7	1	1	0	3	2	0	0
Green Woodpecker	6	1	2	0	1	0	1	1
Tawny Owl	8	1	1	0	4	1	0	1
Jay	9	4	3	0	1	0	0	1
Skylark	4	0	0	1	0	2	1	0
Common Whitethroat	4	1	0	1	0	1	0	1
Grey Heron	4	3	0	0	0	0	0	1
Swift	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Marsh Tit	3	1	0	0	1	0	1	0
Pheasant	3	0	0	0	1	2	0	0
Goldfinch	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sparrowhawk	3	0	2	0	0	0	0	1
Canada Goose	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Moorhen	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Greenfinch	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Nuthatch	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Collared Dove	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cuckoo	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Cormorant	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Common Tern	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Garden Warbler	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Swallow	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Rook	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Barn Owl	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Totals	1328	333	176	118	343	163	60	134
Mammals
Muntjac deer	8	1	0	0	3	0	4	0
Pipistrelle bat	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Red fox	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

Normalised totals (in order to reveal trends in distribution across different parts of the wood).

					Regions
Species		Canal	Jacotts	Golf course	Whippendell	Waterdell	Harrocks	Lees
	Total	333	176	118	343	163	60	134
Barn Owl	1	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Wren	188	1.0575	0.7626	0.6585	1.0297	1.2568	0.9418	1.1070
Robin	155	0.5900	1.0710	0.9439	1.1740	1.4192	1.5708	0.7673
Hedge Sparrow	10	1.1928	3.0182	0.0000	0.0000	0.8147	2.2133	0.9910
Treecreeper	7	0.5680	1.0779	0.0000	1.6593	2.3278	0.0000	0.0000
Blackbird	141	0.5922	1.2308	0.9578	1.1807	1.0979	0.7849	1.2652
Song Thrush	96	0.9940	1.2576	0.4689	1.3309	0.7638	0.4611	0.8259
Mistle Thrush	6	1.3253	0.0000	0.0000	1.2906	0.0000	3.6889	1.6517
Blackcap	62	0.9619	0.8519	0.9076	0.9992	1.1827	1.0710	1.1189
Garden Warbler	1	3.9760	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Chiffchaff	13	0.6117	0.5804	0.8657	1.1913	0.6267	1.7026	2.2870
Goldcrest	42	0.8520	0.3593	0.2680	1.8437	1.1639	1.0540	0.4719
Common Whitethroat	4	0.9940	0.0000	2.8136	0.0000	2.0368	0.0000	2.4776
Great Tit	57	0.5580	0.9266	2.7642	0.9509	1.1435	0.7766	0.6955
Blue Tit	56	1.1360	0.6737	2.2107	0.6914	0.5819	0.7905	1.4158
Coal Tit	30	0.1325	0.2515	0.7503	1.5487	0.2716	2.2133	3.3035
Long-tailed Tit	7	0.5680	1.0779	3.2155	1.1062	0.0000	3.1619	0.0000
Marsh Tit	3	1.3253	0.0000	0.0000	1.2906	0.0000	7.3778	0.0000
Chaffinch	70	0.9088	1.0779	1.1254	0.7743	0.6983	1.8971	1.5574
Pheasant	3	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	1.2906	5.4315	0.0000	0.0000
Grey Heron	4	2.9820	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	2.4776
Cormorant	1	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	3.8717	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Canada Goose	2	3.9760	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Mallard	26	3.0585	0.2902	0.4329	0.5956	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Moorhen	2	3.9760	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Sparrowhawk	3	0.0000	5.0303	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	3.3035
Common Tern	1	3.9760	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Tawny Owl	8	0.5680	0.0000	0.0000	2.2124	1.1639	0.0000	1.4158
Wood Pigeon	126	0.7573	1.7367	0.8039	1.1677	0.7113	0.3513	1.0225
Stock Dove	11	3.2531	0.0000	0.0000	0.7039	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Collared Dove	1	3.9760	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Great Spotted Woodpecker	31	0.5130	0.9736	2.1782	1.2489	1.0513	0.7140	0.6394
Green Woodpecker	6	0.6627	2.5152	0.0000	0.6453	0.0000	3.6889	1.6517
Nuthatch	2	0.0000	0.0000	5.6271	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	4.9552
Swift	4	3.9760	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Swallow	1	0.0000	0.0000	11.2542	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Cuckoo	1	0.0000	7.5455	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Skylark	4	0.0000	0.0000	2.8136	0.0000	4.0736	5.5333	0.0000
Carrion Crow	47	1.0998	0.8027	0.7184	0.4119	2.7735	0.9418	0.6326
Jackdaw	41	2.4244	0.3681	1.3725	0.1889	0.1987	2.1593	0.4834
Rook	1	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	3.8717	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Magpie	19	0.6278	2.3828	2.9616	0.4075	1.2864	0.0000	0.0000
Jay	9	1.7671	2.5152	0.0000	0.4302	0.0000	0.0000	1.1012
Starling	18	3.5343	0.0000	1.2505	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Goldfinch	3	3.9760	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Greenfinch	2	1.9880	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	4.9552
Totals	1328	69.4127	38.3775	47.3628	35.1079	32.0757	43.0943	43.0143
Mammals
Muntjac	1	0.4970	0.0000	0.0000	1.4519	0.0000	11.0667	0.0000
Bat	1	3.9760	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000
Fox	1	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	0.0000	9.9104