Search results

We counted waterbirds along a fixed route in the panhandle of the Okavango River in Mahango Game Reserve in the dry season during two seven-year periods (1991–1997 and 2000–2006). Palearctic migrants represented by 11 species in 1991–1997 and nine species in 2000–2006 together composed only a small percentage of all birds recorded in both periods. The two most numerous foraging guilds were birds foraging in shallow water and those foraging in deep water. The former guild was more numerous in 2000–2006, while the latter guild was more numerous in 1991–1997.

A boat survey conducted on 30 December 2017 along an 8.6 km stretch of the Okavango River revealed 45 adult Rock Pratincoles and 20 young birds. This brings the estimated number of Rock Pratincoles in the Okavango system in Namibia to about 361 birds, and for all river systems in Namibia to about 410 birds. Keywords: Glareola nuchalis, Namibia, Okavango river, Rock Pratincole, status.

The Okavango River system, about 480 kms of which constitutes the border between Namibia and Angola, has previously been largely neglected in the annual wetland water-bird counts programme conducted throughout Namibia. The exceptions have been the Mahango Game Reserve and a section of the river at Shamvura Camp where voluntary wetland water-bird counts have however been conducted over a consecutive period of 15 years and 11 years respectively. The remainder of the river had been left uncounted until 2012.

The Okavango River in Namibia, from the Angolan border just northwest of the bridge on the Trans-Caprivi highway south to the Botswana border; the entire length of the Kwandu-Linyanti-Lake Liambezi-Chobe system, including the whole Mamili National Park; and the Zambezi River for its entire length on Namibia's border, including parts of the adjacent East Caprivi floodplains, were survey from the air in September 2007.