By Sayyid Azim
Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya – Checklists and binoculars in hand, hundreds of Kenyans fanned out Saturday to see how many of the 1,355 species of birds recorded in the East African nation they could count during a two-day bird watch.
The purpose of the biannual event, organized by the British-based Birdlife International, is to keep tabs on how birds are faring throughout the world and pinpoint where species are endangered or in trouble.
Nature Kenya, a member of the global partnership of conservation organizations totaling 1.5 million members, said Birdlife expected some 18,000 people in 90 countries to be out counting bird species this weekend.
The Kenyan body fielded 2,000 people for the 1999 bird watch during which more than 1,000 species were sighted. Kenya is home to 12 percent of all the world’s known species of birds.
On their first outing, Emmanuel Mugo, 2, and Mark Mwaniki, 4, whose parents work at the Ornithology Department of the National Museums of Kenya, saw a Speke’s weaver, a superb sunbird, a red-eyed dove, an olive thrush, a black kite and a common bul-bul in Nairobi National Park.
Since the event was first held in 1993, Kenya has consistently recorded the highest number of bird species observed within any participating country.
Population pressure on land is the principal cause of threats to birds in Kenya. Sharpe’s Longclaw, one of the country’s distinctive species that is found only in the central Rift Valley, faces extinction as pasture land is plowed up for crops.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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