Welcome to Kenya Bird Trends

The Kenya Bird Trends Platform is an initiative designed to track and monitor bird populations and trends across Kenya. The platform serves as a crucial tool for bird conservation efforts, environmental monitoring, and public engagement. It aims to provide a centralized space for collecting, analyzing, and sharing data on bird species found in Kenya, enabling researchers, conservationists, and policymakers to make informed decisions based on up-to-date information.

Key Features of the Kenya Bird Trends Platform:

1. Bird Monitoring and Data Collection: The platform collects real-time data on bird sightings, migration patterns, and population dynamics. It allows both professional ornithologists and amateur birdwatchers to report their observations, contributing to a larger body of knowledge.

2. Collaboration and Research: The platform fosters collaboration among researchers, conservation organizations, and government agencies. By pooling resources and data, stakeholders can assess the health of bird populations, identify trends, and develop effective conservation strategies.

3. Public Engagement: The Kenya Bird Trends Platform actively involves the public in bird conservation efforts. Birdwatchers, school groups, and nature enthusiasts are encouraged to contribute their observations, increasing public awareness about the importance of birds in ecosystems and biodiversity.

4. Bird Species Information: The platform offers detailed profiles of bird species found in Kenya, including their habitats, behavior, and conservation status. This helps users understand the diversity of bird life and the ecological roles these species play.

5. Conservation Alerts: The platform provides updates on species at risk, including those facing threats from habitat loss, climate change, and other environmental pressures. These alerts help prioritize conservation efforts for vulnerable species.

6. Educational Resource: The platform serves as an educational resource for schools, environmental organizations, and the general public. It offers educational materials, reports, and guides on birdwatching and conservation.

7. Data Visualization and Reports: The platform uses data visualization tools to present bird trends and patterns, making it easier for users to understand complex information. Periodic reports and analysis are made available to inform decision-making at local, national, and international levels.

8. Support for Policy Development: The data collected through the platform can be used to inform policy decisions regarding wildlife conservation, land use, and environmental protection. It aligns with global biodiversity initiatives such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Impact and Importance:

The Kenya Bird Trends Platform plays a vital role in ensuring that bird populations are adequately monitored and protected. By collecting and sharing critical data on bird species and trends, the platform helps conserve Kenya’s rich avian biodiversity, which includes a wide variety of endemic and migratory species. This contributes to Kenya’s broader environmental goals, including the protection of ecosystems, support for sustainable development, and the promotion of biodiversity at both national and global levels.

The platform also enhances Kenya’s participation in international biodiversity conservation efforts and the achievement of global targets, such as those under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

If you’re interested in contributing or learning more, the platform often encourages participation in birdwatching events, community science programs, and educational campaigns focused on bird conservation.

Kenya has seen significant changes in its landscape over the past 50 years: exponential population increase has been accompanied by growing urbanisation, intensified agriculture, deforestation, and increased pollution, among others. How have these changes impacted birds on a large scale? Answering this question is key to better protecting birds today.

Thanks to the contributions of thousands of citizen scientists across the country, we can now offer initial answers to this question. To do so, we compare citizen science data with one of Africa's oldest and most comprehensive bird atlases to map changes in bird distribution patterns across the past 50 years.

On this platform, you can visualize the change in the range of each bird species in Kenya between a historical and a recent time period. Changes are displayed on a grid of 55x55 km squares spanning the entire country. We compare bird presence within each square to define whether the species has gained, kept, or lost this square between the two periods considered.