GOOD EVENING AFRICA, GOOD EVENING THE WORLD!

Ruaha National Park, Iringa.

WAHARIRI,WAANDISHI WAANDAMIZI WA HABARI WATEMBELEA HIFADHI YA RUAHA

Wahariri wa vyombo vya habari mbalimbali wakiwa Ruaha National Park

Twiga

Tembo

Simba wakipumzika

Mto Ruaha

The World’s Rarest Birds: an interview with author and birder Erik Hirschfeld

The World’s Rarest Birds is a sumptuous visual treat for birders, featuring a gallery of competition-winning bird photos from around the world. But it is more than that: Erik Hirschfeld – and collaborators Andy Swash and Rob Still – want everyone to be engaged with the plight of the rarest bird species. Here’s what he has to say about the book:

The World’s Rarest Birds compiles information from many different sources and represents a great conservation collaboration. What were your aims in writing the book?

I wanted to give the term “bird conservation” a more recognizable face. In order to evoke feelings, funds, and engagement for a cause, it is essential to make the cause recognizable. By presenting each one of the world’s rarest species in text and image, and sorting them in a geographical context, there is a bird for everyone: regardless of where you live, it should be easy to find the birds in your vicinity. I work much with beginners to birding, as a guide and lecturer, and the taxonomic order does not make sense to them. I think it is important to convince these newcomers about the conservation needs. It does not matter if you are a beginner or expert, Swede or Polynesian – there is a bird in the book that everyone can feel for in conservation terms. And that was my aim, as I think it is extremely important to spread knowledge about endangered birds.

Could you tell us a little about how you became a fully fledged conservation author?

My professional career is in an unrelated sector but I am basically a birder, and was heavily involved on the Swedish twitching scene in my early birding years. Over time my interest in birds has widened – I hardly keep lists any more, and I appreciate the birds’ context in nature more, as well as my own personal experiences of them. I am right now enjoying watching Rooks doing clever things on my street more than twitching a Yellow-nosed Albatross at my local patch (although I did twitch it…). I have always written: identification papers in the eighties, in British journals, and much about migration and faunistics. With the maturing of my interest it was quite obvious I should do something on conservation. I have been a staunch supporter of BirdLife International for 20 years, and am very happy that I could make them benefit from this book. It is important to remember though that the book is a team effort by Andy Swash, Rob Still and myself.

There are some beautiful and striking images in the book, which we loved. Do you feel that the images are an essential way of engaging people with the species?

Yes, as I touched on in the first question. It is a matter of applying simple marketing principles from commercial contexts also in conservation and the NGO world, to make people aware of the birds. You know the old saying: a picture means more than a thousand words.

Some of the image contributions were from winners of an international photographic competition – did you get a good response?

Absolutely, I had tried it out with the Rare Birds Yearbooks so we knew it was going to be a success. The timing has also been good. With the digital photography boom, many people can take decent pictures, and you see much more camera equipment in the field now than 30 years ago when you had to wait a couple of weeks to get your films back. And we are very grateful to the photographers who submitted their images.

The World’s Rarest Birds is quite different in format and content from your previous series The Rare Birds Yearbook, did you also have a different audience in mind?

No, actually not, I thought that basically the same people would buy them. Andy Swash and Rob Still have been instrumental in the evolution to The World’s Rarest Birds and I was convinced by them from the beginning this was the way to go. I remember Ade Long at BirdLife suggesting already after the first edition of the Rare Birds Yearbooks that I should go more for photos and less for texts.

The purchase of this book contributes towards supporting the BirdLife International Preventing Extinctions Programme which is a fantastic cause. Could you tell us about any notable conservation success stories that you have seen since your involvement with the project started?

Several. The Madagascar Pochard project in which the species population recently has quadrupled. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper project with artificial hatching and building up a captive population. The project that established a breeding centre for Spix’s Macaw, and now will release birds into the wild this summer. The banning of diclofenac in the Indian subcontinent which, slowly, helps vultures. Even if they are not saved yet, it is not all gloomy! And the many dedicated people and organizations behind these and other positive trends are success stories in themselves.

Birding in Tanzania - first impressions

Blue-spotted Wood Dove

As I've previously mentioned our house is high (150 m) above Lake Victoria and the business centre of Bukoba.  While the house itself has no garden to speak of we are surrounded on three sides by lush gardens with bananas, plantains, avocados, papaya, mango and assorted vegetable crops.  The front of the house looks over a large grassy paddock used for drying clothes and grazing a small cattle herd.  This combination attracts lots of birds and I've been keeping a daily log for the Tanzanian Atlas of birds seen within 500 m of the house.

Interestingly we have quite a few small eucalyptus groves nearby and there are Silky Oaks (Grevillea robusta) from Queensland and radiata pines scattered around.  Lots of trees I can't put names to of course.

Bronze Mannikin

KATIBU MKUU MALIASILI NA UTALII ATEMBELEA HIFADHI YA TAIFA MKOMAZI

Katibu Mkuu Maliasili na Utalii Bi. Maimuna Tarishi alianza 
ziara yake Same kwa kufika ofisini kwa Mkuu wa Wilaya ya 
Same Mwalimu Herman Kapufi kujitambulisha.

Katibu Mkuu Maliasili na Utalii Bi. Maimuna Tarishi na ujumbe 
wake wakipitia baadhi ya kurasa katika kitabu hicho.

Mkuu wa Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Mkomazi Donat Mnyagatwa
(aliyenyoosha mkono) akimuonyesha Katibu Mkuu 
Bi. Maimuna Tarishi (suti nyeusi) eneo lenye mgogoro wa 
mpaka katika Hifadhi ya Mkomazi. Wengine pichani kutoka
 kulia ni Mkurugenzi wa Malikale Donatius Kamambaa; 
Kaimu Mkurugenzi wa Mipango wa TANAPA 
Dk. Ezekiel Dembe na Mkurugenzi wa 
Utumishi Wizara ya Maliasili na Utalii Said Msambachi.

Mkuu wa Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Mkomazi Donat Mnyagatwa 
akitoa Taarifa ya Hifadhi ya Mkomazi kwa Katibu Mkuu 
Maliasili na Utalii pamoja na ujumbe wake.

Watumishi wa Hifadhi ya Taifa Mkomazi wakiwa makini
 kumsikiliza Katibu Mkuu Maliasili na Utalii Bi. Maimuna 
Tarishi alipowatembelea.

Katibu Mkuu Maliasili na Utalii Bi. Maimuna Tarishi 
(wa pili kulia) akizungumza na watumishi wa
 Hifadhi ya Mkomazi. Wengine pichani kutoka kulia ni 
Mkurugenzi wa Malikale Donatius Kamamba, 
Mkuu wa Hifadhi ya Mkomazi Donat Mnyagatwa na
 Mkurugenzi wa Utumishi wa Wizara ya Maliasili na 
Utalii Said Msambachi.

Katibu Mkuu Maliasili na Utalii Bi. Maimuna Tarishi katika 
picha ya pamoja na watumishi wa Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Mkomazi.

Katibu Mkuu Maliasili na Utalii Bi. Maimuna Tarishi akiangalia 
mbwa mwitu waliohifadhiwa katika uzio maalum kwa ajili ya
 kuwalinda Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Mkomazi.
Picha zote na Pascal Shelutete.

CAMPING:White-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch