June-July 2016 : new photo species for the WABDaB; correction to blog of December 2015

Since the last blog 146 records from Niger and exactly 500 records from Chad were added.  For Chad first photos for 11 species were uploaded, including African Crake and Green-backed Eremomela, both also new photo species for the WABDaB as a whole.  There are also some beautiful close-ups of Four-banded Sandgrouse and Abyssinian Roller and an image of a Little Bittern stranded in the sand in the desert.  For those who like a challenge: count these very closely packed Red-billed Quelea at their roost at night!
            New images of Helmeted Guineafowl show that eastern subspecies meleagris occurs in central Chad and in Zakouma NP, while West African subspecies galeatus occurs at least as far east as Termit in eastern Niger.  Where exactly the boundary between the two species lies, and if they overlap, is still to be determined.  Subspecies meleagris in Chad looks to have a rather less pronouced helmet than is shown by  Borrow & Demey in their field guides.
            See also the correction to the blog of December 2015, in which the record of Caspian Plover from SW Niger is withdrawn because of insufficient detail in the description.

Redigé: 2016-07-23 [JBr]