White-winged Flufftail's call recorded for the first time

23 Apr 2019

With a population of 250, this secretive bird has always been hard to study, but advances in technology have helped us to discover more than ever. Last year, we found new breeding grounds - then its call was identified for the first time. Is this the final piece in the puzzle to protect this bird?

In December last year, the call of one of the world’s rarest birds was identified and recorded for the first time by our Partner BirdLife South Africa. With fewer than 250 mature individuals remaining in the wild, the White-winged Flufftail Sarothrura ayresi is Critically Endangered, and at severe risk of extinction. Restricted to high-altitude wetland habitats in South Africa and Ethiopia, the flufftail’s secretive nature makes it hard to monitor the species’ behaviour, which in turn makes it harder to know how best to protect it.

Before the call was discovered, surveying an area for the bird meant trying to flush it out, either on foot or by using a rope. This method, however, was intensive, slow, and yielded few sightings. Then in 2016, BirdLife South Africa developed an innovative method to survey the species called the BirdLife South Africa Rallid Survey Method. It uses a camera trap system to record the flufftail’s behaviour.  In February last year, the camera traps discovered surprising evidence that the species, which was thought to only breed in Ethiopia and visit South Africa, was actually breeding in South Africa as well.

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Rewrite the bird books: new breeding site found for one of world's rarest birds

17 Feb 2018

The White-winged Flufftail (Critically Endangered) has just been confirmed to be breeding in South Africa – not only Ethiopia as previously thought – thanks to a discovery by BirdLife South Africa’s hidden camera traps. This sheds new light on the bird’s conservation.

By Jessica Law

Everything we thought we knew about the White-winged Flufftail Sarothrura ayresi has been shaken up by recent footage captured by camera trap technology. At Middelpunt Wetland in South Africa, a site previously thought to cater only to non-breeding visiting Flufftails, strange photos were recorded. They depicted intriguing wing-flapping behavior, with both males and females displaying their white wing feathers. Could it be that something more than feeding was going on? It seemed almost too good to be true. But later, the ultimate proof appeared – the unmistakable image of a rotund, speckled juvenile scuttling through the undergrowth. This new knowledge changes everything.

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The bird runner

KAMCILLA PILLAY

Running more than 10 000km for environmental issues close to his heart – with one journey spanning almost the full breadth of Canada – was not enough for Dave Chamberlain.

The athlete and former scuba-diving instructor will now be lending his talents to saving the critically endangered white-winged flufftail in a run from Dullstroom to Johannesburg.

“This species is one of those ‘hidden gems’ with a population found in Mpumalanga, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal – and the next closest group found nearly 4 000km away in Ethiopia. That’s fascinating,” Chamberlain told Daily News this week.

The birds have been found in high altitude wetlands in KZN, including Franklin Vlei, Penny Park, Hebron near Kokstad, Ingula and Murphy’s Rust near Ladysmith, as well as a single record from Mfabeni in the St Lucia area.

Chamberlain’s new six-day, 281km adventure starts on February 1. He will cover on average about 50km a day, pulling a trailer containing his food supplies. He will use the trailer as a makeshift shelter at night.

The Pretoria man said environmental issues were something he was passionate about, having spent considerable time under water in various oceans around the world.

“We must look after what we have and do what we can to protect it. Think about what goes into a migration. Some animals travel thousands of kilometres and we take that for granted,” he said.

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