Surfbirds News

The species is one of the smallest birds ever to carry a tracking device and its journey has revealed far more about its migration than scientists expected.

Sociable Lapwing © Rony Livne, from the surfbirds galleries

Only now are conservationists realising how important African countries are to sociable lapwings. There are few recent records of the birds in Africa but new surveys could find more. The last sighting of sociable lapwings so far south in Africa was by the RSPB’s Dr Mark Avery, who saw a small flock in Kenya 20 years ago.

The tagging project began last year when scientists from the RSPB and Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan fitted satellite-tracking devices to three birds on their breeding grounds on the barren steppe expanses of central Kazakhstan.

Their journey will be featured on BBC Radio 4’s World on the Move series, being broadcast on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday evenings.

Dr Rob Sheldon, an RSPB ecologist, said: 'The fact that these birds have reached Sudan is remarkable because we had no idea that they would fly that far.

Sociable Lapwing © Rony Livne, from the surfbirds galleries

'A Sudanese team is going out to find them this week and if they see more birds, our efforts to help them will become more complicated but also more gratifying. Their appearance in Sudan is fantastic news and has turned the whole tracking project into a hugely exciting conundrum.”

The sociable lapwing, closely related to the northern lapwing seen in the UK, was given the highest threat status by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 2003, after numbers fell 95 per cent to just 200 pairs.

A flock of more than 3,000 in Turkey last October was the largest seen for more than 100 years and a huge boost to efforts to reverse the bird’s fortunes.

Conservationists from the Sudanese Wildlife Society, part funded by the UK government’s Darwin Initiative, will try to locate the Sudanese birds, count them and find out more about the sites they are using.

Dr Sheldon said: 'The more we know, the easier it will be to improve their protection and help them increase their numbers.'

Dr Avery saw eight sociable lapwings near the Kenyan coast in 1988. He said: 'I had stopped by a water hole in the middle of no-where and the birds were just standing there. It was fantastic to see them but it’s only now that I’m appreciating how lucky I was.'

Ibrahim Hashim, a Research Professor at the Sudanese Wildlife Society, said: 'Finding these birds will not be easy because they are in a remote region where few people go. But that will benefit them because it means they should suffer little disturbance.

'We feel privileged to have these birds in Sudan and are very happy that we can play a part in increasing their numbers. These birds are now being protected on their breeding grounds in Kazakhstan and we hope very much to give them equal protection in Sudan.'