Fire is one of the main threats facing the long-term survival of the forests in the Eastern Arc Mountains. Yet, our understanding of how it affects fauna, particularly birds, is still poor. A fire that originated on surrounding farmland burned approximately half of Kimboza Forest Reserve between 13 and 15 October 2010. To better understand how birds respond to fire, a short-term study of understorey bird diversity and abundance in this forest reserve was conducted by comparing burned and unburned sites twenty months post-fire. Capture rates were significantly higher at the unburned site compared to the burned site. Bird species diversity was also higher at the unburned site than at the burned site. Despite the brevity of the study, the results suggest that fire has negative effects on forest avifauna and forest fires need to be prevented at Kimboza Forest Reserve as they affect the distribution and diversity of understorey birds. R esum eLe feu est une des principales menaces pour la survie a long terme des forêts des Montagnes de l'Arc oriental. Nous comprenons pourtant mal comment il affecte la faune, et particuli erement les oiseaux. Un feu qui avait d emarr e dans une exploitation agricole proche a brûl e approximativement la moiti e de la R eserve foresti ere de Kimboza entre le 13 et le 15 octobre 2010. Pour mieux comprendre comment les oiseaux r eagissent au feu, une courte etude fut men ee sur la diversit e et l'abondance des oiseaux dans les sous-bois de cette r eserve foresti ere en comparant, vingt mois apr es l'incendie, des sites brûl es ou pas. Le taux de capture etait significativement sup erieur dans le site non brûl e que dans le site brûl e. La diversit e des esp eces d'oiseaux etait aussi plus elev ee dans le site non brûl e. Malgr e la bri evet e de cette etude, les r esultats sugg erent que le feu a des effets n egatifs sur l'avifaune d'une forêt et qu'il faut empêcher les feux de forêt dans la R eserve foresti ere de Kimboza parce qu'ils affectent la distribution et la diversit e des oiseaux de sous-bois.

The extent of range overlap of incipient and recent species depends on the type and magnitude of phenotypic divergence that separates them, and the consequences of phenotypic divergence on their interactions. Signal divergence by social selection likely initiates many speciation events, but may yield niche-conserved lineages predisposed to limit each others' ranges via ecological competition. Here, we examine this neglected aspect of social selection speciation theory in relation to the discovery of a nonecotonal species border between sunbirds. We find that Nectarinia moreaui and Nectarinia fuelleborni meet in a ∼6 km wide contact zone, as estimated by molecular cline analysis. These species exploit similar bioclimatic niches, but sing highly divergent learned songs, consistent with divergence by social selection. Cline analyses suggest that within-species stabilizing social selection on song-learning predispositions maintains species differences in song despite both hybridization and cultural transmission. We conclude that ecological competition between moreaui and fuelleborni contributes to the stabilization of the species border, but that ecological competition acts in conjunction with reproductive interference. The evolutionary maintenance of learned song differences in a hybrid zone recommend this study system for future studies on the mechanisms of learned song divergence and its role in speciation.

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1.0 Introduction and Background 2.0 Approach and Methodology 3.0 Results 3.1 Status and trends 3.1.1 Forest Quality and Health 3.1 .2 Area of different types of forest and degree of fragmentation... 3.1.2.1 Forest area 3.1.2.2 Fragmentation 3.1.3 Presence of endemic and globally threatened species, changes in species IUCN Red List category, changes in site status, and new species descriptions 3.1.3.1 Presence of endemic and globally threatened species 3.1.3.1.1 Amphibians 3.1.3.1.2 Birds 3.1.3.1.4 Mammals 3.1.3.1.5 Plants 3.1 .3.2 Changes in species IUCN Red List category 3.1 .3.3 Changes in site status 3.1 .3.4 New species descriptions 3.1.4 Percentage of area within protected areas 3.1.5 Carbon storage 3.2 Pressure 3.2.1 Impact scores for Kenyan IBAs 3.2.2 Change in extraction intensity of key species 3.2.3 Changes in human population density in wards, divisions in the EACF. 3.2.4 Presence and coverage of invasive species 3.2.5 Fire frequency. 3.3 Response Indicators TABLE OF CONTENTS 3.3.1 Response scores for Kenyan IBAs 40 3.3.2 Changes in forest management effectiveness 41 3.3.3 Actions and research targeting biodiversity 43 3.3.3.1 Amphibians 43 3.3.3.2 Birds 44 3.3.3.3 Mammals 44 3.3.3.4 Plants 45 3.3.4 Policy development (including site, species, and focused issues 45 3.3.5 Number of sites from which benefits accue to local communities... 48 4.0 Conclusions and Recommendations 50 References 53 Appendix 1 : List of a collapsed set of monitoring indicators and tools for aggregating information at the regional level as agreed by stakeholders in the EACF 62 Appendix 2: Habitat use of Long-billed Tailorbird Artisornis moreaui in the East Usambara mountains (Tanzania) 64 Appendix 3: Drifting into extinction: results from the long-term monitoring of Taita apalis Apalis fuscigularis 68 Appendix 4: Inventoried sites in EACF with IBA and KBA status and numbers of listed taxa in 20 1 2 and 20 1 3 ...

The Uluguru Mountains form a component block of the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya and are known for a high degree of endemic vertebrate and plant taxa. Among the Eastern Arc Mountains, the Uluguru Mountains rank second in the number of endemic species. Although the forests in these mountains have received considerable ornithological attention, studies on how forest bird communities in the available low elevation forests are affected by seasons remain patchy and sporadic. Such studies are important because in the Uluguru Mountains, forest destruction in the lower slopes has been severe to an extent that there is very little substantial forest survives below 900 m above sea level. Using mist netting, seasonal variation in understorey bird communities in the remaining low elevation forests in the Uluguru Nature Reserve was assessed between 2005 and 2011. Species diversity and relative abundance of the birds were higher during the cold season in comparison with the hot season possibly due to seasonal elevational movements of some species. Elevational migrants made a large proportion of the avifauna in the study area. The results suggest that low altitude forests are important cold season refugia of elevational migrants and these forests need continual protection. R esum eLes monts Uluguru font partie de la chaîne de montagne appel ee Arc oriental, a l'est de la Tanzanie et du Kenya et ils sont connus pour le fort taux d'end emisme de taxons de vert ebr es mais aussi de plantes. Pour tout l'Arc oriental, les monts Uluguru se classent deuxi emes pour le nombre d'esp eces end emiques. Bien que les forêts de ces montagnes aient suscit e une attention consid erable de la part des ornithologues, les etudes sur la fac ßon dont les communaut es d'oiseaux forestiers vivant dans les parties disponibles des forêts de basse altitude sont affect ees par les saisons restent incompl etes et sporadiques. De telles etudes sont importantes parce que, dans les monts Uluguru, la destruction des forêts a et e tellement s ev ere sur les pentes de basse altitude qu'il ne reste que tr es peu de forêt v eritable en dessous de 900 m d'altitude. Entre 2005 et 2011, nous avons evalu e, au moyen de filets japonais, les variations saisonni eres des communaut es aviaires dans les derni eres forêts de basse altitude de la R eserve Naturelle d'Uluguru. La diversit e des esp eces d'oiseaux et leur abondance relative etaient plus elev ees pendant la saison fraîche que pendant la saison chaude, probablement a cause de la migration altitudinale saisonni ere de certaines esp eces. Les esp eces qui migrent en altitude constituent une grande proportion de l'avifaune dans la r egion etudi ee. Les r esultats montrent que les forêts de basse altitude sont des refuges importants en saison fraîche pour ces migrants d'altitude et qu'elles ont besoin d'une protection continue.