Chaona Phiri and the Black-cheeked Lovebird

Posted by Chaona Phiri

In June of 2017, my boss Trevor Robson returned from a visit to the BirdLife International Secretariat in Cambridge very excited about a chat he had with Nigel Collar. They apparently discussed me and the work I was doing on birds in Zambia. One of those species is the Black-cheeked Lovebird Agapornis nigrigenis a localized parrot restricted to the deciduous Mopane woodlands of South western Zambia.

The Vulnerable  Black-cheeked Lovebird Agapornis nigrigenis (Photo: Chao)

My name is Chaona Phiri and I work as an ecologist at BirdWatch Zambia (BWZ), BirdLife International’s partner in Zambia. I have been with BWZ for close to 10 years, having joined them as a student intern in 2008. So, Trevor mentioned that Nigel Collar was interested in having a student in Zambia to work on the Black-cheeked Lovebird (BCL); its now near endemic to Zambia as there have been some local extinctions in wild populations of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. I was apparently the preferred student since I had already done some work on these species and working for the BirdLife partner in Zambia.

Chao and Birdwatch Zambia team counting birds

By the end of 2017, I had not only been talking to Nigel but had also been introduced to Stu Marsden and Christian Devenish who have since been helping with fundraising and designing what exactly we will do on the BCL project. With funding from the Loro Parque Fundacion, I will will undertake a part-time doctoral research programme over a projected five-year period at Manchester Metropolitan University. Part-time because I will be based in Zambia and still working for the BWZ.

Above: Zambia's Mopane woodland on which the lovebird seems to rely; Below: large Mopane tree turned into a canoe in situ (Photos: Chao)

 Presently, this Lovebird is thought to be Africa’s most localised parrot species with a restricted range of around 5500 sq. km. Within its restricted range, the species is clumped and localised to stands of mopane with large trees and permanent water sources. The naturally formed cavities in live mature Mopane trees are A. nigrigenis’ choice of roosting sites; these double as nesting sites during the breeding season. The roost site location is stable for as long as a site remains intact and undisturbed. This makes the bird extremely vulnerable to land-use/habitat change within its range, especially the with increased cutting of large mopane trees for firewood and timber, as well as agriculture expansion for Maize, Sorghum and Millet which have replaced a large section of the woodland habitats. 

Flooded Mopane - water sources may be key to the bird's survival especially in the dry season (Photo: Chao)

 However, perhaps the most important influence on the species has been the fall in surface-water availability over the last 25 years – as a result of both changing climate and patterns of water usage in the region. A significant reduction in surface water sources has been recorded in much of south western Zambia in light of several factors including but not limited to; low annual rainfall (shorter rain season), human population growth and increase in livestock farming. 

Above: An objective of the PhD is to find out how limiting drinking opportunities are for the lovebird; Below: Waterholes are clearly multi-use - a challenge is to find a way that people and lovebirds can co-habit (Photos: Chao)

The primary aim of this project is to improve significantly our level of knowledge of (and hence our capacity to counteract) the factors that currently limit the global population of the Black-cheeked Lovebird (BCL). At the same time, an important secondary aim of the project is to provide a strong ecological training for me, young bird conservationist in Zambia, as a long-term investment in both BWZ and the protection and survival of the lovebird. To achieve both aims, the project will take the following objectives:

1. To assess and establish the species range, abundance and population using point and transect count methods.
 
2. To document the state of the species habitat and its associations as well as possible local perceptions regarding the species and their impacts on its distribution and abundance.
 
3. To identify and monitor a series of waterbodies that are used and unused by BCL using citizen science and remote sensing.
 
4. To use historical and current presence records (e.g. from 1.) to build species distribution models (SDMs) for BCL to determine the influence of landscape features, habitat and waterbody location on its distribution.
 
5. To prescribe management strategies using SDMs of future scenarios regarding water availability and suitable habitat.

It's rare to see our three Loro Parque Fundación parrot PhDers in the same room. L>R Anna Reuleaux (Yellow-crested Cockatoo), Andrea Thomen (Hispaniolan parrots) & Chaona Phiri (Photo: Fraser Combe)