Cape Town - A top birder’s chance visit to a northern suburbs, Cape Town, pet shop may have turned up something amazing: a new African bird species.
That’s the possibility Ian Sinclair is pondering after his visit last week prompted an investigation by CapeNature and the confiscation of several indigenous birds.
Sinclair – noted bird guide, best-selling author of bird books and an expert on African birds – said he had been “totally shocked” by the cages packed with South African seed-eating birds he had found at the pet shop during a casual visit.
After alerting conservation group BirdLife SA, which asked CapeNature to investigate, Sinclair decided to visit another northern suburbs pet shop, where he found lots of empty cages.
“Most of the cages were empty but recently used. I suspect they were tipped off by (the first pet shop) or by the article in the Cape Argus,” he said.
“However, they may have removed what they thought were wild-caught South African birds, but forgot a few. These were Orange-cheeked Waxbill, Orange-breasted Waxbill, Red-billed Firefinch, Common Waxbill, Crimson-rumped Waxbill, Black-rumped Waxbill and Black-and-white Manniken.”
One bird in particular caught his attention: a “yellowish-orange” bishop known in the pet trade as the Black-crowned Bishop, but which doesn’t appear in the scientific literature.
“It was something I’d never seen before. I thought it might be a hybrid but it’s not.”
Sinclair said he’d done more research, but hadn’t been able to shed any light on the bird.
“It doesn’t appear in any books and the nearest I can get is the Northern Red Bishop, which I know well from Ethiopia. But the real Northern Red Bishop is a deep red and our bird is way paler and about a third smaller.
“This is something new… and I am trying find out where the birds were caught in Africa. Interesting stuff and possibly a new species to science!”
Sinclair also did a price calculation of the indigenous birds in the two shops and said they were worth “around R60 000”.
“That’s probably just the tip of the iceberg,” he added.
Paul Gildenhuys, programme manager of CapeNature’s Biodiversity Crime Unit, said yesterday that “good progress” was being made in the investigation of the first pet shop.
BirdLife SA was “vehemently opposed” to the trade in wild birds, its chief executive, Mark Anderson, said. It supported efforts by the government and groups like the International Union for Conservation of Nature and wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic to stop illegal activities. “Birds are captured using… harmful methods, with many individuals succumbing during capture, housing and transport.” - Cape Argus