Contact Us
SAFRING, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology
University of Cape Town
Cape Town, 7701
South Africa
safring@birdmap.africa
- If you have found a numbered metal ring with a plastic cover, this likely belongs to escaped cage birds or racing pigeons. These records are not curated by this project and pigeon rings should be reported to SANPO.
- If you have found an injured bird, please contact your local vet or a bird rescue centre, eg: SANCCOB, SPCA, Vulpro
- If you have found a captive bred pet bird (eg. Parrot, budgie etc) please visit Parrot Alert (Lost & Found Parrot and Bird Reporting)
History of SAFRING
Bird ringing in South Africa started in 1948 when the Southern African Ornithological Society (SAOS) initiated a bird ringing scheme under the leadership of Dr EH Ashton. The first birds to be ringed were 31 Cape Vultures Gyps coprotheres, ringed on 1 August 1948 at Kranzberg by a team of birders and mountaineers. A year later one of these, ring C00086, was found near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the first recovery of a southern African bird ring.
Bird ringing was initially organized by an NGO, the Southern African Ornithological Society (SAOS). The ringing effort steadily increased and by the 1960s the cost and complexity of administering the scheme exceeded the resources of the SAOS. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) coordinated a deal whereby the four provincial conservation departments became the major sponsors of the National Unit for Bird Ringing Administration (NUBRA) in 1971, based at the University of Cape Town.
In 1991, the unit became part of the Avian Demography Unit (ADU) within the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cape Town. The ADU later evolved into the Animal Demography Unit and, in January 2008, it moved to the Department of Zoology. In 2018, following the closure of the ADU, SAFRING was relocated to its current home under the management of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, a research unit within the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town.
Dieter Oschdleus
AFRING Coordination
My interest in the birds started in our garden while I was in high school. The Southern masked Weaver was of particular interest with the male’s bright colours and interesting habits. While studying at UCT, I trained to become a bird ringer. After my initial studies, I started working at the CSIR in Pretoria, where I started ringing weavers and other birds on a regular basis. In 1998 I was employed at UCT to coordinate SAFRING, the bird ringing scheme. I remained in this post for 20 years, first transforming the recovery data from a Unix system to a desktop application, which was later changed to a Sequel database, where ringers upload all ringing data. I also organised many ringing training weeks, held initially at the BirdLife SA Wakkerstroom wetland, and later at many other sites. During this time I also completed my PhD on the primary moult patterns of southern African weavers, using my own data and the SAFRING database.
When I left SAFRING in early 2018, I started Birds4Africa as a registered bird guide, and continuing bird ringing courses and expeditions, much of which is being done with the Biodiversity Development Institute. I have been fortunate to join ringers and visit ringing schemes across the globe, but my passion is for ringing in Africa and Indian Ocean islands. Thus I have been actively promoting the concept of Afring since I started working at SAFRING.
Contact: https://birds4africa.org
Mr Michael Brooks
Data and systems development; systems management
Michael is the Chief Technical Offier at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, where he is responsible for all the management and information systems development for SABAP2 and the African Bird Atlas Project, as well as various other monitoring projects hosted at the Fitz. He is an avid photographer, and is a registered bird-ringer
Contact: michael.brooks@uct.ac.za
Contact: +27 21 650 4751
