Weaver Wednesday 3: range changes in S Africa
(species text)
White-winged Widowbird Euplectes albonotatus
White-winged Widowbird, Range-change map between SABAP1 (1987-1991) and SABAP2 (2007-current).
Red, orange and yellow = cells with very large, large, and small relative decreases
Blue, dark green and light green = cells with very large, large and small relative increases.
Cells = quarter-degree grid cells; Only cells with at least 4 checklists in both SABAP1&2 shown. All cells had this species recorded in SABAP1 or in SABAP2 or in both (more about interpretation at Biodiversity Observations 7.62: 1-13).
White-winged Widowbird, figure from Birdpix
Range changes in SA
Range change summary
More
4 lists
30 lists
increases
n
%
n
%
Decrease
228
36
99
30
Tiny change
129
21
86
26
Increase
273
43
147
45
Total
630
100
332
100
In South Africa the White-winged Widowbird has slightly more grid cells with increases in reporting rate than cells showing decreases, between SABAP1 (1987-1991) and SABAP2 (2007-).
The points below match the points on the map above.
Areas with very large increases include:
1. SW Mpumalanga and much of Free State - there has been a range expansion into these areas since SABAP1 due to higher rainfall.
2. Eastern Cape - scattered records of small wandering flocks.
Areas with very large decreases include:
3. Along the Limpopo River/Botswana border.
4. Most of KwaZulu-Natal.
Range changes elsewhere
Zimbabwe: increase due to increase in rank grass around Harare (Brooke 1963a).
Exotic populations established in Australia: Appendix of Dyer EE, Redding DW, Blackburn TM. 2017. The global avian invasions atlas, a database of alien bird distributions worldwide. Nature Scientific Data 4 no: 170041.
