Historical Bird Atlas and Contemporary Citizen Science Data Reveal Long-Term Changes in Geographic Range of Kenyan Birds

Aim

Historical bird atlases provide comprehensive datasets for investigating long-term changes in species' distribution. In the context of accelerating biodiversity loss, these datasets can lend critical insights into the state of bird distributions across broad spatio-temporal scales and provide much-needed information for impactful conservation. In Africa, the potential of atlas data to understand changes in avian populations remains largely untapped.

Location

This study mapped changes in national distribution patterns of 1088 bird species found in Kenya.

Methods

Tapping into one of the earliest atlas databases, this study compared Kenyan bird atlas data collected between 1970 and 1984 with recent citizen science data sourced from the Kenya Bird Map project and eBird to determine changes in ranges across 50 years. We produced maps displaying, for every 27 × 27 km square of the country, whether a species appeared, was present throughout both periods, or disappeared. We account for the change in data collection effort between the two periods by quantifying the confidence of the change for each square.

Results

The maps produced for each species are publicly accessible through an interactive website: https://kenyabirdtrends.co.ke/. We found that related species tended to experience similar changes in their distribution ranges. The ranges of Palearctic migrants and scavengers declined drastically, while introduced birds experienced a significant range increase over the past 50 years.

Main Conclusions

This study demonstrates the potential of integrating recent citizen science data with historical atlas data to draw out the changes in range for all species at national level. The range contraction of Palearctic migrants and scavengers echoed corresponding drops in abundance at local, regional and global scales. These findings lend additional weight to the need for an increased conservation focus on migratory and scavenging birds in Kenya.