Hinde's Pied-Babbler Turdoides hindei Scientific name definitions

SC Kenya.

Thickets and secondary growth with some remaining trees in river valleys, particularly in fallow and abandoned areas where alien Lantana camara established, fringes of cultivation with scattered trees and bushy cover, also along bushy streams and gulleys in drier open woodland; feeds in coffee and maize plantations, but territories confined to areas with dense vegetation associated with permanent or seasonal water. This is the only known globally threatened species whose abundance is positively correlated with that of Lantana: the species achieves its greatest densities where patches of scrub occur within a matrix of food crops and coffee plantations, as a result of areas being left fallow or abandoned (1 Shaw, P., Njoroge, P., Otieno, V. and Mlamba, E. (2014). The range, abundance and habitat of Hinde' s Babbler Turdoides hindei: fine-scale changes in abundance during 2184184184–218411 reflect temporal variation in scrub cover. Bird Conservation International. 24:453–465. Close ). Significantly more groups present in areas with more than 3% thicket cover (and breeding success improves with more than 9% cover), but group density levels out at 15–20% cover. Original habitat judged to have been rocky hillsides and valleys with Combretum, Terminalia, Croton, Cussonia, Cassia and Commiphora. At 1070–1700 m.

VULNERABLE. Restricted-range species: present in Kenyan Mountains EBA. Scarce and very local. Substantial contraction of range in response to agricultural expansion, reported in 1979, appears not to have occurred, although in 2000 a loss of more than 20% of its range was expected. Current range size estimated at 18,800 km², and population judged to be between 2500 and 10,000 mature individuals, this latter estimate based on average density of 2·4 birds/km². Survey of six sites in 2000–2001 produced minimum population figure of 665 birds in 157 groups, with 75% in two intensively farmed sites and 97% in or adjacent to five Important Bird Areas; extrapolation suggested that global population was then 1500–5600 individuals. Clearance and fragmentation of habitat owing to expanding and intensifying farming are major threats; rice irrigation and dams along R Tana may also have destroyed thickets, while disturbance appears to cause low breeding success and hunting for food causes direct losses in some areas. Three protected areas harbour populations: Mwea National Reserve, Meru National Park and the small, privately owned Wajee Camp (near Mukurweini), but only c. 8% of total population in these reserves. Restoration of habitat so that thicket cover reaches 10% likely to result in greater productivity in population.