Malawi is under heavy pressure for land by an increasing human population, and there is little natural habitat left outside gazetted wildlife and forest reserves. Widespread collecting of birds in Malawi’s small protected rain forests by the National Museum of Malawi in conjunction with Western academic institutions has been taking place almost yearly since 2001 and has continued until at least 2011. The collection of specimens, although often a contentious issue, does have scientific value but should be undertaken in a limited way with careful evaluation of the populations from which birds are being taken. We consider that the numbers collected are likely to pose a threat to some bird populations in view of their isolation and the slow turn-over rates of breeding individuals. Collecting has been carried out in some of the same reserves two or three times within a few years. Examples are given of very small populations in Malawi and adjacent Mozambique where the slightest off-take would be very dangerous. Many species have been collected during their breeding season, which we find both wasteful and unethical. Several of the species collected occur in no more than one or two reserves today in Malawi and in such instances we recommend their complete protection. We are also concerned about the example presented to the local communities, reserve wardens and young conservation biologists by the off-take of hundreds of birds in official reserves which were primarily set up for the protection of wildlife.

We present a response to Dowsett-Lemaire et al. regarding their contention that there is a “new threat” posed by scientific collecting in Malawi and elsewhere.

Swainson’s Warbler Limnothlypis swainsonii is a secretive species of high conservation concern with an estimated global breeding population of 90,000 individuals sparsely distributed across 15 states in the south-eastern United States. Its status as one of the rarest songbirds in North America has been attributed to the scarcity of breeding and wintering habitat. Although the warbler was once thought to be a habitat specialist of lowland canebrakes, it is now known to breed in a wide spectrum of broadleaf forest habitats linked by the common denominator of high stem densities and visual screening in the understorey stratum. Scattered instances of a fundamental habitat expansion into early seral stages of even-aged pine plantations were first observed in east Texas in 1992. Here I report that the colonisation of pine plantations is not only locally extensive in Texas but that it is widespread on the coastal plain eastward to south-eastern Virginia. During two decades of field surveys, breeding territories (n = 297) were documented in young pine plantations in 95 counties and parishes in 10 states. Occupied plantations were mostly 6–12 m tall (median = 7.5 m), corresponding to 8–15 years after planting. Soil type and the presence of interspersed broadleaf vegetation may be important co-factors in plantation occupancy. The chronology of this breeding niche expansion is poorly known but it appears to have occurred after the 1970s, most likely catalysed by the rapid growth of pine plantation silviculture after World War II. As late as 2001, it was believed that > 90% of the breeding population occurred in broadleaf floodplain forest. The recent range-wide colonisation of pine plantations changes the calculus. If the current trend continues, forest lands managed for short-rotation pine plantations will support the majority of breeding populations by the end of the 21st century.

The Yellow Cardinal Gubernatrix cristata is a globally endangered passerine endemic to southern South America. Although the conservation status of this species is alarming, there is no information about factors that affect its reproductive success. We studied the breeding biology of a Yellow Cardinal population in Corrientes province in north-east Argentina and report reproductive parameters, such as timing of breeding, clutch size, hatching success and chick survival and analyse factors influencing nest survival. The breeding season lasted from October to December with most nesting attempts occurring during the second half of November. Re-nesting after nest failure occurred in approximately 35% of pairs but we did not observe re-nesting after successful attempts. Modal clutch size was three eggs and successful nests fledged on average 1.6 chicks. We observed brood parasitism by Shiny Cowbirds Molothrus bonariensis in 33% of the nests. The main cost of brood parasitism was the puncture of cardinal eggs by cowbird females, which very often resulted in nest abandonment. Another factor reducing reproductive success was parasitism by botflies Philornis sp., which occurred in 22% of the nests and reduced chick survival. We determined daily nest survival rate with MARK software and found that during the egg stage, it decreased with time of breeding and brood parasitism by Shiny Cowbirds. Our results indicate that Shiny Cowbird and botfly parasitism represent a threat for Yellow Cardinals. Conservation actions to protect the remaining populations of Yellow Cardinals should consider the impact of Shiny Cowbird parasitism.

The lowland forest on the southern Pacific slope of Costa Rica has an extremely diverse avifauna, including the Black-cheeked Ant-tanager Habia atrimaxillaris. The only known remaining populations of this highly range-restricted species occur in the areas of Piedras Blancas and Corcovado National Park. It is assumed that the population is decreasing due to habitat loss and fragmentation. We assessed the species’ population density in a part of the Piedras Blancas National Park using distance sampling (in February–April 2009 and November 2010–January 2011) and territory mapping (November 2010–January 2011). We also examined habitat preferences based on vegetation structure at point count locations. Black-cheeked Ant-tanagers were exclusively found in old-growth forest. The species’ likelihood of occurrence at census points increased with forest cover (within a radius of 200 m around census points), canopy closure, and density of trees (with diameter at breast height >10 cm). Average population density estimated by distance sampling was 24–27 individuals per km², which is in accordance with the population size estimated by territory mapping (17–25 birds per km²). Based on these estimates, an overall population size of 12,432–20,720 birds is predicted for the remaining 592 km² lowland forest area of the Golfo Dulce region. The Black-cheeked Ant-tanager was only recorded in old-growth forest, but not in gallery forests embedded in a human-dominated landscape matrix. Since the species appears to avoid forest edges, further forest degradation and fragmentation will have a strong negative impact and should be rapidly reduced by adequate conservation measures.

Although birds are among the best studied taxa, many of the globally threatened species lack the information required to fully assess their conservation status and needs. One such species is the Anjouan Scops Owl Otus capnodes which was presumed extinct until its rediscovery to science in 1992. Based on the limited extent and decline of the moist forests in the highlands of Anjouan in the Comoro Islands, a population size of only 100–200 pairs was estimated and the species was classified as ‘Critically Endangered’. The current study is the first comprehensive survey ever conducted on this species, and aimed to establish the current distribution and population size. Point counts with distance sampling were conducted across the agroforestry and forest zones of Anjouan in both a dry and wet season. A niche suitability model predicted the species distribution to be wider than expected with owls observed as low as 300 m altitude and in highly modified agroforestry habitats. However, the encounter rate in natural relatively undisturbed forest was significantly greater than in other habitats. The wider than expected geographic range of O. capnodes supports a possible downlisting of this species on the IUCN Red List to ‘Endangered’. Population size was found to be far greater than previously thought, at approximately 3,450 individual owls in the dry season and 5,450 in the wet season. These results show the importance of investing in robust surveys of poorly known and cryptic bird species, and provide up to date and important information for landscape scale conservation planning in the Comoros Islands.

Anthropogenic habitat alteration has probably contributed significantly to the decrease of raptor populations in West African savannas. To evaluate the impact of habitat degradation on foraging by sedentary Afrotropical raptors, we investigated the differences in microhabitat selection, foraging effort and energy returns between Dark-chanting Goshawks Melierax metabates inhabiting natural and transformed savannas in Cameroon. We expected that the agro-ecosystems in the transformed savannas have become unprofitable for Dark-chanting Goshawks due to scarcity of food resources. In both savanna types we radio-tracked six mated, adult males during the non-breeding season and determined foraging effort, by time spent at each perch and distance covered between perches, and energy intake through estimation of the energy value of prey items. Goshawks in natural habitats had smaller home-ranges and exploited their range more intensively than Goshawks in transformed habitats. In both natural and transformed habitats, Goshawks selected foraging patches with comparatively tall trees, underlining their importance to foraging Goshawks. The extent of shrub and herbaceous layer cover, agriculture cover, and tree density were other important predictors of foraging patch use, but their importance differed between habitats. The extent of shrub, herbaceous layer and agriculture cover were positively associated with foraging patch use in transformed habitats, suggesting that cultivated fields and ground vegetation support important prey resources for Goshawks in agro-ecosystems. The composition of broad prey categories to the diet, foraging effort and returns were comparable between habitats. However, we found indications that the proportion of heavy-bodied lizard species among reptile prey items was higher in natural than transformed habitats, whereas on average smaller lizards were more commonly caught in the latter. Mean herbaceous layer height and tree density within home ranges, both higher in natural habitat, were negatively related to prey capture rates. Tree clearance and livestock grazing thus favored greater prey capture rates in transformed habitat, offsetting a lower meal energy value compared to natural habitat. We conclude that foraging Dark-chanting Goshawks may cope with moderate land transformation, but practices focused on conservation of tall trees and ground vegetation cover would be beneficial by maintaining important prey resources and their exploitability under growing land pressure.

Declines in Old World vulture populations have been linked to anthropogenic pressures. To assess these threats, the social dimensions of vulture conservation must be explored. Prior research in Africa focused on commercial farmers’ perceptions of vultures and identified that small stock farmers used poison more than large stock farmers to deter livestock predators. However, the vulnerable Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres breeds throughout communal farmland in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Consequently, community interviews were conducted within the foraging range of the Msikaba Cape Vulture colony, separating regions according to the amount of transformed land. Residents in the least transformed land region perceived the smallest reductions in livestock ownership over the past ten years, while residents of the moderately transformed region perceived the greatest reductions in livestock ownership. Livestock carcasses were reported to be available for vultures at ‘informal vulture restaurants’. Arrangement of livestock carcasses was found to be independent of land use; however type of carcass consumed varied. None of the respondents stated they used poison to eliminate livestock predators. More respondents cited illegal poaching of vultures for traditional medicine as a threat, although the majority stated that vultures benefited the community.

Winter oilseed rape represents an important food source for Great Bustards. Great Bustard surveys during four consecutive winters (2005/2006–2008/2009) were used to identify characteristics of oilseed rape fields, which increase their attractiveness for the species in its West Pannonian wintering area. The study was conducted in study areas in Eastern Austria, around the Austrian–Slovakian–Hungarian border and in the Hungarian Moson Plain. To test for effects of field size and isolation of fields from other rape fields, and the distance to the nearest paved road on occurrence and abundance of Great Bustards (maximum number of birds counted in individual rape fields per winter), we calculated generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) including all three predictor variables as fixed effects and winter as random effect for each of the three study areas. Field size most strongly affected occurrence and abundance of Great Bustards. The availability of large (>>15 ha) winter rape fields far from paved roads is recommended as a prime conservation measure to improve the quality of rape fields as foraging habitat for Great Bustards during the winter months (November–March).

The current distribution and recent population trends of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) in Iran were investigated based on a literature review and unpublished data (1995–2008) followed by three years of census (2009–2011) in areas where the species is still breeding. Results suggest that Great Bustards have disappeared from a large part of their former distribution in the country, including East Azarbayjan, Hamedan and Kurdistan provinces. The surviving groups are concentrated in West Azarbayjan where numbers are rapidly declining. The present population is estimated at about 43–48 birds in 2011, confirming a marked decline compared to the 200–300 birds estimated in the early 1990s. About 80–90% of the extant birds are concentrated in the plains of Boukan. Strict conservation measures are urgently needed to prevent the extinction of this species in Iran.