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BirdLife South Africa is a firm believer that
conservation needs to start with conversation.
This Tuesday, 19 January 2021 at 19:00 (SAST), BirdLife South Africa's weekly webinar series
‘Conservation Conversations with BirdLife South Africa’
returns to your screens to host Dr Krista Oswald, Rhodes University graduate.
Join Krista as she brings you into the wild world of South Africa’s fynbos sky islands, and gives an overview of some of her MSc and PhD research into the endemic Cape Rockjumper. Krista will also provide evidence on what makes the Cape Rockjumper (in her unbiased opinion) the best bird in the world.
Cape Rockjumpers – one of South Africa’s most charismatic endemics – are suffering population declines that are heavily correlated with habitat warming within their current range. They are restricted in their distribution to the mountain slopes of the Western and Eastern Cape provinces: the “sky islands” of south-west South Africa. From 2015 through 2019 Krista spent time studying these fantastic birds to try and find the mechanism for this decline. With a lot of help, she examined Cape Rockjumper physiology, behaviour, breeding success, nest predation, and genetics. Krista's webinar will focus mainly on a few experiences encountered throughout the fynbos mountains while trying to ring and take blood samples from Cape Rockjumpers across their range (including how Anysberg defeated her) and even a few from visiting some of their Drakensberg cousins. Krista will bring it closer to her South African home, and tell you about some of the more endearing experiences she had nest-searching and monitoring their breeding at Blue Hill Nature Reserve. Come along for a video and photographic tour of the Cape Rockjumper and its home, the beautiful and unique fynbos.
This is a talk not to be missed!
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