Table Of ContentShort Notes
The status of Pel’s Fishing Owl Scotopelia peli
in the Togo-Benin Gap
PatrickM. Claffey
Cheke & Walsh1 state that Pel's Fishing Owl on 12 April 1997, as I was leaving the river after a
ScotopeliapeliisprobablyextinctinTogo,noting swim,theunmistakeablecallwasheard: averydeep,
a lack of records, despite the authors’ extensive softsonorous horn-like boom, first ona single note,
helicopter flights throughout the Togolese river sys- followed by a continous higher-pitched hu-hu-hu.
tems during 1979-1990. The only known record of This lasted some minutes before the bird fell silent,
the species in Togo dates from 1902 at 09°12’N but the performance was repeated the next evening
01°25’E9. at exactly the same time, and for the same short
The species has, however, been observed in the duration. Although the surrounding gallery forest
Pendjari and Arli National Parks, in neighbouring wassearchedon 13April, Iwasunabletolocatethe
BeninandBurkinaFaso,whereitisdescribedasrare bird. Local Gambarifishermanhave since confirmed
in riparian habitat, presumably along the Pendjari thattheyhaveseenthespeciesontheriverrelatively
River6.ItisresidentonseveralriversystemsinParkW, frequently.
Niger,whichalsoencompassespartofnorthernBenin, Theonlypossibleconfusionspecies, duetosize,
and a pair was regularly noted along the Mekrou habitat and, to a certain extent, voice is Giant Eagle
River, which forms the border between Niger and Owl Bubo lacteus, which I have also observed in
Benin". Itwasalso recorded duringthe 1996African Benin. However,thevoiceofthelatterisquitediffer-
Waterfowl Census, in southern Benin2 although it ent, there was no ‘gruff’ quality to the vocalisations
,
appearsthattheseobservationsmaybedoubtful.Itis heardatthe Oueme River, whichcorrespondedper-
now thought that Pel’s Fishing Owl was probably fectly with the recording by Gibbon5 and the
beingconfusedwithAfricanMarshOwlAsiocapensis description ofMaclean8
.
and it is expected that this errorwill shortly be cor- Fromthisobservation,itmaybesurmisedthatthe
rected in print. Pel’s Fishing Owl is an uncommon speciesmaystillbeextantinTogo; giventhatCheke
resident inNigeria, witha small numberofbreeding & Walsh’s1 observations made after arrival in a
records', and a resident in Ghana3 helicopter can scarcely have been favourable for
.
Theauthorrecentlyattemptedtoestablishwhether encountering a largely nocturnal species which is
the species was present in gallery forest along the unlikelytobeflushedbysuchmeans. (%
OuemeRiverincentralBenin. The habitatalongthe
References
rdiuvreir,ngwhoincchhoicselracrigaesliysurnedsiesatrucrhbe(di,nhwahdicbheeCnheckoveearnedd 1. BChOeUkeC,heRc.kA-.liasntdNoW.al1s4h.,TJr.iFn.g:19B9r6i.tiTshheOrBniirtdhsoloofgTiosgtos:’
Walsh participated) but appeared particularly suit- Union.
able.Thereisdensegalleryforestalongtheriver,both 2. Dodman,T. andTaylor,V. (eds) 1996.African Wa-
northandsouthofBeterou(09°19’N02°l6’E)andthe terfowlCensus.Wageningen:WetlandsInternational.
river flows through the Foret Classee ofthe Oueme 3. Dowsett,R.J.andForbes-Watson,A.D. 1993-Check-
Superieur to the north of the town and the largely list ofBirds oftheAfrotropical andMalagasy Re-
unpopulated Forets Classees of Ouari Maro and gions. Liege: TauracoPress.
MontsKouffestothesouth.Theriverhasmanylarge 4. Elgood,J.H. 1994. TheBirdsofNigeria:BOUCheck-
permanentpoolsandapparentlysufficientfishstocks listNo. 4. Second edition. Tring: British Ornitholo-
to support the fishing owl. Gibbon’s recording5 was gists’ Union.
memorised but several evenings in early April 1997 5. cGaisbsbetotne,s.GS.ou1t9h9e1r.nSAofurtihcaenrnBiArfdriincgaccn,BPirOdBSooxun2d4s1.06,6
werespentinthisareawithoutsuccess.Then,atdusk Hilary4024, S. Africa.
ShortNotes BullABC Vol4No2- 135
6. Green, A.A. and Sayer,J.A. 1979. The Birds ofArli 9. rica.Sixthedition.CapeTown: JohnVoelckerBird
andPendjariNationalParks.Malimbus1: 14-29. BookFund.
7. Koster, S.H. and Grettenberger,J.F. 1983. Birds in Reichenow, A. 1902. Die Vogel des deutchen
ParkW, Niger.Malimbus5: 62-72. SchutzgebietesTogo./. Orn. 30: 9-43-
8. Maclean, G.L. 1993- Roberts’BirdsofSouthernAf-
B.P.302, Parakou, Benin.
The immature plumage of Sun Lark Galerida modesta
Volker Salewski
D
uringastayinComoeNationalPark,Coted’Ivoire
inJanuary1995,alarkwasobservedandphoto-
graphed in a recently burnt area of savannah. The
identificationofthisbirdcausedsomeproblems.Four
larkspecieshavebeenrecordedinthepark: Flappet
Lark Mirafra rufocinnamomea2 Dusky Lark
,
Pinarocorysnigricans2 Sun Lark Galerida modesta2
,
and Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark Eremopteryx
leucotis6.ItwasclearthatthebirdwasnotDuskyLark
or the sparrow-lark. From the photograph it was
identifiedasaSunLark(presumably,ondistributional
grounds, of the nominate subspecies4), due to its
prominentsuperciliumandblackstripebetweenthe Sun Lark Galerida modesta(VolkerSalewski)
bill andeye. ThesuperficiallysimilarFlappetLarkin
feathers of the upperparts’. This, and the fact that
the area, M. r. buckleyi, lacks a dark stripe between immaturesofsomeotherlarks,egFlappetLark,show
thebillandeye, whilstthe illustrationofthisspecies
this white spotting leads to the conclusion that the
inKeithetal4showsonlyafaintsuperciliumwhichis
describedas‘poorlymarked’.Identificationproblems birdphotographedisanimmature SunLark, t
were caused by the broad whitish tips to the wing References
coverts which formed two distinct wing bars in the 1. Bannerman,D.A. 1953. TheBirdsofWestandEqua-
birdobservedinComoe, althoughthisfeature is not torialAfrica. Vol 2. London: Oliver and Boyd.
illustratedinKeithetal4 Nevertheless,thetextinthis 2. Kronberg, F.G.U. 1980. Liste des oiseauxdu Parc
workstates‘scapularsan.dupperwingcoverts. .tipped National de la Comoe, Cote d’Ivoire. Kronberg &
.
Abidjan.
whitish'.Inthedescriptionofthefieldcharacters,this
feature is not mentioned4. This implies that the 3. Jionncelsu,diRn.gM.th(e19f9irDstThreecsotradtsusoofflSaruknsiLnaTrhkeGGaalmebriiad,a
whitish tips are not usually very obvious, unlike modesta.Malimbus 13: 67-73.
thoseonthebirdinthephotograph.Anotherfeature 4. Keith, S., Urban, E.K. andFry, C.H. (eds) 1992. The
which is not described in the text or shown in the BirdsofAfrica.Vol 4. London: AcademicPress.
illustration4arethewhitishtipstothefeathersonthe 5. Mackworth-Praed, C.W. and Grant, C.H.B. 1970.
back, head and ear coverts. Such features are how- TheBirdsofWestCentralandWesternAfrica.Vol2.
ever described for immature birds of the similar London: Longman.
Flappet Lark*. The plumage ofimmature SunLark is 6. Salewski,V.inpress.NotesonsomebirdsinComoe
apparentlyundescribed147 althoughJones3mentions NationalPark.Malimbus.
findingarecentlyfledgedju,venileinTheGambia,she 7. Serle,W.,Morel, G.J. andHartwig,W. 1977.AField
does notdescribe the plumage. Mackworth-Praed& GuidetotheBirdsofWestAfrica. London: Collins.
Grant3 in theirtextdescription ofSun Lark state that InstitutfurVogelforschung, “VogelwarteHelgoland”,An
‘the young bird has white spots on the tips of the derVogelwarte21, 26386Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
136-BullABC Vol4No2 ShortNotes
