The South African Bird Ringing Unit

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Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk Project

Researcher/s: Gerard Malan, Ronelle Visagie, Herman Bernitz, Zephne Bernitz

Project Webpage


Species: Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk (Melierax canorus)
Location: Accross Southern Africa, Whole Country, South Africa
Click to view sighting map
Running From: 2003 to present
Ring Type: Legring: Engraved colour rings
Colour Combination: Yellow with Black Text; 1 Alpha 2 Numeric


The Pale Chanting Goshawk (Melierax canorus) is distributed throughout Namibia and Botswana, except in tall woodlands in the north, and in most of the Cape Province and the western regions of the Free State and the Transvaal. It also occurs sparsely in southwestern Zimbabwe and Lesotho. It is near endemic to southern Africa with less than 5% of its range extending into southern Angola. Geographically its range is separate from that of the Eastern Chanting Goshawk M. poliopterus of East Africa.

This project has supplied each ringer/group with his/her own ringing codes. Canadian colour rings with certain number series (see below) were issued to raptor ringers. There are at this stage 7 people/groups taking part in the project who largely trap in the following areas:

  • Albert Schultz (D) in the Eastern Cape
  • Herman and Zephne Bernitz (V & X) in the entire country
  • Abrie Maritz (K) in the Kalahari
  • Francois Taljaard (B) Central Karoo
  • Ronelle Visagie (C) Central Karoo
  • Gerhard Malan (A) in the Little Karoo
  • Birdlife Northern Gauteng Bird Ringing Group (P) in the entire country
  • Large areas "untrapped" are Namaqualand, Namibia and Botswana. 


    All will use plastic YELLOW rings with black Alpha-numeric codes.

    Members of the public and birding fraternity that observe marked birds only have to report species, date, location and the code.

    All data on birds marked, measured and resighted must be sent to SAFRING. You can resight marked individuals as often as you like.

     

    Further Reading:

    EWT - Ringing and colour-marking of raptors

    Gerard Malan. 1996. Two rings recovered from one Pale Chanting Goshawk. Safring News, 25: 46.

    Anderson MD. 2000. Raptor conservation in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. 71(1-2):25-32.

     



    Birdlife Northern Gauteng Gauteng