Breeding bird data of Namibia
The timing of bird breeding in Namibia and the sizes of clutches and nesting colonies are presented per species, derived from 7,231 record cards, over 300 publications, museum and private egg collections and via personal communications. Of the 687 bird species recorded to date for Namibia some 514 species are likely to breed in Namibia. Of these 449 species (87.4%) have been confirmed to do so while 65 species (12.6%) expected to breed in Namibia have not yet been recorded doing so. Of the 449 species confirmed breeding in Namibia, 24 species have insufficient information to establish accurate breeding data such as laying month or clutch size. 134 species (26%) have more than 30 records on laying month, 89 species (17%) have more than 50 records and 37 species (7%) have 100 or more records. Only three of Namibia's 16 endemic and near endemic species have more than 50 records of laying month and only 13 of Namibia's 55 breeding Red Data bird species have more than 50 records. Breeding trends for different taxa and for different ecological groups, e.g. birds with different diets, levels of arid-adaption and different lifestyles (migrant versus resident, arborial, cursorial or aerial) are presented and discussed in the context of various ultimate and proximate factors. The information contributes to an improve understanding of breeding in arid tropical and subtropical regions. However, there is considerable scope for more detailed work based on Namibia's growing bird breeding data sets. The data have been placed in the public domain at http://www.the-eis/breeding-birds.php to encourage students, researchers and scientists to investigate in greater depth the environmental factors determining the breeding strategies of birds in arid environments in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa. See: www.the-eis.com/breeding-birds.php for more information.
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Bird Breeding data for Namibia June 2017.xlsx | 1.41 MB |