Tennent,J. R. M.

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J.E.Afr.Nat.Hist.Soc. Vol.XXIV No.1 (105) June 1962
NOTES ON THE MIGRATION AND DISPERSAL OF BIRDS AT KITUI
By
J.R.M. TENNENT
Kitui Township lies eighty two miles practically due East of
Nairobi. Two miles beyond the town the rolling plains which stretch
eastwards from the Ukambani hills at an altitude of between 3,700
and 4,000 feet are broken off by a fault scarp running from North
to South. The ground drops precipitously through hilly country for
over a thousand feet into the desert bush which extends almost un-
broken to the coast. Kitui is thus situated on the brink of the
high plateau of Kenya. The escarpment hills produce orographic rain
and Kitui is placed in a marked rain belt surrounded on both East
and West by areas having only between 15 and 30 inches of rain. The
onset of the October rains is violent and within a month the coun-
tryside is transformed from its state of four month old dessication.
The bare trees tak~ on heavy foliage and dense undergrowth and
grasses develop. The rains tail off towards the year's end, but
sporadic rain begins again in March and there is no second dry
season to compare with that from May until October.
In ten months spent in Kitui from Ist.July, 1960 until 12th.
April, 1961 the writer kept day by day records of the species of
birds present in the Township and the results are shown on the
accompanying charts. Fig. 1 shows the palaearctic migrants (the mi-
grating Alpine Swifts, Apus melba (Linn.) were not identified as
to race). Besides showing the wide range between the dates of the
earliest and latest arrivals this chart also shows that some spe-
cies are passage migrants and of these some pass apparently in one
direction only, though as visible migration was not seen, local
movements may be involved. In this chart, as in the others, the
relative abundance is roughly indicated by the use of a broken line
to show that the species was present but only in small numbers.
Fig. 2 shows two groups of species which are resident in trop-
ical Africa. Group 'A' were present for the greater part of the
period of observations but temporarily disappeared, whereas group
'B' only appeared temporarily. The movement of these species seemed
to be clearly related to the rainy season. Of those which disap-
peared from Kitui about the onset of the rains four were noted as
returning accompanied by juveniles and a possible explanation of
their disappearance is that they moved into the hot lower country
to breed during the brief wet season, moving back into the rain
belt gradually as the country dried up and food supplies decreased.
Of the seven species which appeared in Kitui at or soon after the
onset of the rains, it will be noted that five were cuckoos.
Fig. 3 shows a group of species showing no commonfeatures in
their times of appearance. The appearance of the Crested Francolin,
Francolinus se haena rantii Hartlaub and the Spotted Thicknee,
Burhinus capensis Lichtenstein), both abundant in the lower
country East of Kitui, raises interesting questions as to the nature
of the local movements involved. The Mottled-throated Spinetail,
Telacanthura us sheri stictilaema (Reichenow), about the movements
41
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Fig.3
Migration of Birds at Kitui
Bird Migration at Kitui
of which little is known, was represented by a number of birds
which gradually increased from two in late August to eight by mid-
October. Nothing was seen to suggest breeding. Of Boehm's Spinetail,
Neafrapus boehmi (Schalow) only one was ever seen at anyone
time.
In sum the charts raise more questions than they answer but
could provide a useful basis for comparison with similar observa-
tions in other areas. Of particular value for comparison would be
details of movements in an area lying in the desert scrub belt
between the Highlands and the coastal region.
(Received 28th. August 1961)
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42


Notes on the migration and dispersal of birds at Kitui

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/content/part/EANHS/XXIV_No.1_105__41_1962_Tennent.pdf

Notes on the migration and dispersal of birds at Kitui

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