Bird distribution dynamics 2 - Maccoa Duck <i>Oxyura maccoa</i> In South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland

Abstract

The global conservation status of the Maccoa Duck Oxyura maccoa was classified as "Near-threatened" in 2007; this is also its regional conservation status in South Africa. The species has been the subject of an intensive species action plan process starting in 2005 and culminating with the formal endorsement and adoption of the International Single Species Action Plan by the Fourth Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement in 2008. The aim of the action plan was to "To stabilise or increase natural populations of Maccoa Duck as indicators of sustainable wetland management for the benefit of people in Africa by 2010". One of priority activities listed in the action plan is to "obtain improved population estimates and distribution of the Maccoa Duck". This paper aims to do the latter, by presenting the distribution map from the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) for the Maccoa Duck. It also aims to help to understand changes in distribution, and to a lesser extent, changes in abundance, in the quarter-century between SABAP1 (mid-date 1989) and SABAP2 (mid-date for data collection so far falls in 2012).