Another New Sighting for eBird!

In March of 2020 no one knew what was about to happen. News of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China was just starting to spread. Shortly after, the world began to lock down. We were in Africa at the time and out of cell phone service for a few days, so we were really behind in hearing the news. The first we heard about it was a delayed WhatsApp message from Ross’ mom, which at first we thought was blown out of proportion. In hindsight, it wasn’t, but at the time we didn’t know how it was going to play out. I’m just not one to believe Chicken Little every time he screams the sky is falling; but, I guess sometimes, it really does.
Ross and I had plans to go after a subspecies of Olive-flanked Robin-Chat, but the village we were going to pass through for access into the forest denied us entrance due to us being foreigners. At the time, we opted to drive around to a different section of the same forest to avoid passing through any villages. This worked like a charm and we made it into the Nou Forest where we spent 2 nights completely remote with no other soul in sight. Sadly, we missed our target bird. Obviously we went back to the USA after this to ride the pandemic out, but now that we were back, we wanted to give this “Mbulu” Olive-flanked Robin-Chat another chance and this time around we were allowed to access the forest through the same village that denied us entrance one year ago.

It’s always easier when someone else does the legwork for you. We’ve benefited greatly from the hard work of others, turning up at a specific location and immediately seeing our target bird thanks to a detailed trip report or other piece of logistically valuable information. But sometimes, you have to do your own leg work because no one else has done it before. Such was the case for our visit to find Mbulu Robin-Chat. One expat American, Joshua, leads Penn State University students into the forest and he was infinitely valuable in us obtaining entrance and letting the village people know we were coming; but after that, we were on our own. Karoli, one of the villagers, typically assists Joshua on his visits and was able to meet us in town to ride with us to the campsite otherwise we never would have correctly maneuvered the small village roads to get to the site. When we arrived we were surprised to find a large opening and degraded forest patches flanking all sides. Last year we at least had made it into the forest, but now it seemed like we would have to walk to get there!

There are no recordings of Mbulu Robin-Chat online so we had no idea what it sounded like. We assumed it would sound musical and something like Olive-flanked Robin-Chat. Unfortunately, that assumption was entirely wrong and we ended up on a wild goose chase trying to get into deeper, better patches of forest because where we were camping seemed far too degraded to produce anything of interest. We never found any sign of the robin-chat on our walk, but we did see some nice birds including Eastern Double-collared Sunbird, Streaky Seedeater, and Mbulu White-eye. When we got back to camp to cook our lunch, a certain call peaked our interest. We had heard it first thing in the morning when we arrived at the campsite, but ignored it because it sounded absolutely nothing like what Ross was expecting. Now we were desperate enough to investigate every little noise we heard. Don’t you know that call we heard was in fact Mbulu Robin Chat, and it was just a stone’s throw away from where we parked our truck!

We eBird all of our sightings to keep track of our world lists, and this was yet another one of our first time species entries for eBird! While Mbulu Robin-Chat is currently considered a subspecies of Olive-flanked Robin-Chat, the bird looks and sounds entirely different and is recognized as such a distinct subspecies. I belive it is only a matter of time until it gets upgraded to species status. Take note that there are no olive flanks — the belly is nearly all dark!

If you want to avoid the 50,000tsh per person entrance fee that the village charges on top of the 50 USD Forestry fee, and another 30,000tsh for Karoli to be there, I still think the other side of the forest patch could be a good idea. Now that Ross managed the first audio recordings of this species, it shouldn’t be too hard to call one in; They seemed responsive and vocal. If you want to support eco tourism and show local villagers the importance of saving the forests, entering the Nou Forest from this side will work too. Clearly the degraded forest chalk full of cows is currently enough to support the robin-chats. I just have to say this though: if I ever find a genie in a magic bottle, I will use my first wish to rid the planet of cows’ existence. Until then, let’s hope that the money we paid to the Forestry Department and local villagers can save the Nou Forest!

This birding happened on April 27, 2021