Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2

29/04/2026

The year by numbers 2025
Can you believe that over 500 milestones were achieved by atlassers in 2025?! Take a look at the other wonderful achievements in the infographic 👏👏

17/04/2026

👏👏 The year by numbers 2025 👏👏
Here's how all your atlassing efforts in 2025 increased the number of records and atlassing in certain countries of the Southern African subregion. Well done, everyone!

10/04/2026

👏👏👏 2025 👏👏👏
Thanks to your dedication and atlassing efforts, 2025 was a productive year for SABAP2. Here's the first of a series of summaries of the project's achievements and products based on the SABAP2 data.

26/03/2026

14/01/2026

Join Dave Ehlers Smith and the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority on an atlas bash in Lesotho targeting no- to low-coverage pentads! A 4x4 with high clearance is essential. A lot of the regions are very remote and mountainous, and often without cell signal, so participants must be self-sufficient and comfortable surveying in wilderness conditions. Please contact Dave Ehlers Smith at [email protected] for more info or to confirm your attendance.

13/01/2026

👀 Digging deeper into the stats for 2025 (on 12/01/2026) 👀

The graphic below illustrates the percentage increases and decreases for the SABAP2 region countries between 2025 and 2024. Mozambique had the largest percentage increase in the number of cards and pentads covered, followed by Lesotho and then Botswana.
Additionally, the graphic clearly shows that it's essential to increase the number of local and visiting observers in six countries within the SABAP2 region, and that we need to continue developing the positive trend in observers in South Africa, Namibia and Lesotho.
Equally important, a great number of Adhoc Protocol cards were submitted. Some of these records are significant, especially when it comes to Threatened species and tracking species' range expansions or movements in the face of climate change.
A big thank you to all our atlassers for your immense efforts! 🙌

12/01/2026

🙏 An expression of gratitude to all our atlassers 🙏
Thanks to you the number of Full Protocol cards and records submitted in 2025 has surpassed that of 2024 by 753 cards and 23 946 records! The submissions have increased even further since 2024 records topped those of 2023! Here are the stats for the SABAP2 region 👏👏🔥

17/11/2025

A wonderful, sobering book. Do get a copy, learn about these species, observe them and send in your records!

Alan Lee: 'Its been a huge honor and privilege to work with so many conservationists and conservation organisations as part of the Red Listing project, culminating in the Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa Lesotho and Eswatini online. Part of that was to tell the fate of our threatened birds in an accessible format, through the experiences of the huge breadth of people that make conservation happen. For me, in a world where nature is taking hits from so many sides, all of you doing something pulled me through some dark times - Thank You. We provided some words and photos, and the amazing publishing team produced the beautiful book that is Birds on the Brink - such a team effort. All proceeds go to supporting conservation work at BirdLife South Africa, so if you don't have a copy yet, what you waiting for: https://www.birdlife.org.za/botb/'

03/09/2025

Invasive Species Awareness Spotlight
Our next invasive species that we would like to shine a spotlight on is the Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)

Please see the infographic attached for more information on this invasive species and how it poses a ‘threat’ to successful livelihoods of not only humans, but our native bird species.

The second image also shows a screenshot of the current mapping of SABAP2 observations for the species (take a closer look: https://sabap2.birdmap.africa/species/941)
Please note: In the forthcoming weeks, we will also post some updated distribution maps of the species to help show how their distribution is spreading, and how information on knowing their distribution can be applied to upcoming and novel research.

What we need from you: Please continue to help by submitting your observations of this species to the SABAP2 data base if you spot it while atlas sing. Your observations can really help our records of monitoring how this species continues to make use of our environments and helps us understand how they may be affecting other native biology, humans, or the general ecology of our landscapes.

Thank you to Craig Whittington-Jones for the information booklet that was used to derive information for the infographic, and to you, the atlases for your continued efforts monitoring southern Africa’s birds

20/08/2025

Invasive Species Awareness Spotlight
Our next invasive species that we would like to shine a spotlight on is the Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) - i.e., the infamous bully of our native species

Please see the infographic attached for more information on this invasive species and how it poses a ‘threat’ to successful livelihoods of not only humans, but our native bird species.

The second image also shows a screenshot of the current mapping of SABAP2 observations for the species (take a closer look: https://sabap2.birdmap.africa/species/734)
Please note: In the forthcoming weeks, we will also post some updated distribution maps of the species to help show how their distribution is spreading, and how information on knowing their distribution can be applied to upcoming and novel research.

What we need from you: Please continue to help by submitting your observations of this species to the SABAP2 data base if you spot it while atlas sing. Your observations can really help our records of monitoring how this species continues to make use of our environments and helps us understand how they may be affecting other native biology, humans, or the general ecology of our landscapes.

Thank you to Craig Whittington-Jones for the information booklet that was used to derive information for the infographic, and to you, the atlases for your continued efforts monitoring southern Africa’s birds

18/08/2025

📣 ALL ABOUT NAME CHANGES! 👀
The African Bird Atlas Project (ABAP/BirdMap), Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2 (SABAP2), BirdLife South Africa, BirdLasser, Bindo and BirdPlus apps (used for atlassing) will be adopting the AviList taxonomy.

What is AviList? AviList, a unified global checklist of bird species released in June 2025, aims to provide a single, authoritative taxonomy for bird species. AviList is designed to be a common language for researchers, conservationists, and anyone interested in bird taxonomy. The AviList team has already worked for four years to harmonize the global checklist of birds and the process is continuing. AviList will be annually updated and name changes will be ongoing to incorporate taxonomic revisions using the latest analytical methods and new scientific discoveries. An aligned, global taxonomy really facilitates data analyses and streamlines many aspects of conservation work.

The BirdLife South Africa National Rarities and Names Committee is engaged in a consultation process with the South African birding community to vote on the common name changes and produce a resolution on the common names to be adopted for South Africa. Discussions in academic meetings are in process to resolve contentious name changes.

It will still take some time for the new AviList names to go through the procedures to update the scientific and adopted common names by all partners, including name changes in the SABAP2 database.

In the interim, please continue to use the existing names for species until the names have been finalised and a communique has been issued to start using the new names.

Thank you for your patience and support!

PS. Learn more about AviList at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrhNDXLRLDY.