In the last ten years, Guinea has emerged as a significant exporter of live wild birds to the United Kingdom and the European Community.  This trade has involved a significant number of birds of prey.  Due to concerns over the sustainability of this trade, some of these species have been subject to import suspensions into the European Community under regulations implementing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

This project was initiated by the CITES Authorities in the UK, in collaboration with the relevant authorities in Guinea, and aimed to provide a shared and improved understanding of the current status and distribution in Guinea of diurnal and nocturnal raptors on which to base assessments of the sustainability of any trade.

Counts of raptors were undertaken by driving road transects, supplemented by spot counts, transects on foot and nocturnal surveys, as a rapid but rigorous and reproducible survey technique which would provide information on distribution and relative abundance of birds of prey in Guinea. Information was gathered opportunistically on other bird species seen and which may also be subject to trade. 

Some 3,635km of road transect were covered, over 27 days, distributed across the natural regions of Guinea and covering a representative range of habitats (forest and savanna) and including rural, urban and protected areas.  These road counts were supplemented by 21km of pedestrian transects in forested areas and 6 nocturnal surveys.  In all, some 47 species of diurnal raptor (equivalent to 76% of the raptor species known to occur in west Africa) and 2,792 individual raptors were recorded along with seven species of owl (31 individuals).  The numbers of diurnal raptors included six species of vulture and 12 Palearctic migrants. The four most abundant species recorded were hooded vulture Necrosyrtes monachus, black kite Milvus migrans, white-backed vulture Gyps africanus and grasshopper buzzard Butastur rufipennis. The survey recorded the first known observations of Eurasian griffon vulture Gyps fulvus, saker falcon Falco cherrug and red-chested owlet Glaucidium tephronotum from Guinea. No African grey parrots Psittacus erithacus, bustards or hornbills were observed at all.

More species of raptor were recorded from rural areas (43 spp.) than any other category but this area had the lowest overall abundance index (62.3 individuals /100km); this land use type covered most of the survey route.  By contrast, urban areas had the lowest species diversity (11 spp.) but the greatest abundance index (168.4 ind./100km), indicating that these areas supported significant numbers of a few species of large raptor. Notable amongst these urban raptors are the hooded vulture and black kite. Protected areas had moderate species richness (30 spp.) and abundance (78.8 ind./100km) but the highest number of species per transect. Three species, Cassin’s hawk eagle Spizaetus africanus, crowned eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus and African hobby Falco cuvierii, were recorded only from protected areas.  By contrast, not a single vulture was recorded in protected areas.

When analysed by natural region, the Haute Guinée was the richest natural region with 37 species recorded but in moderate abundance; it was also the richest region for number of vulture species and for Palearctic migrants.  La Moyenne Guinée was relatively rich in species (33 spp.) and with an index of abundance greater than the survey average.  It was also the region where vultures were most abundant (74.4 ind./100km).  La Guinée Forestière was relatively poor in species (28) and had the lowest abundance index (43.3 ind./100km).  La Guinée Maritime recorded only 15 species but had the greatest abundance index for raptors (128.3 ind./100km) with hooded vultures being the most abundant individual species.

The results were compared with those from two other recent surveys in the region which used similar methodology.  Whilst number of species and indices of abundance varied, there was generally a broad correspondence between the surveys. Whilst one survey recorded 49 species of raptor and the other 40 species, compared with 47 in Guinea by this survey, the other surveys covered significantly greater distances than this study, indicating the relative richness of Guinea for raptors. Notable from this study were the healthy vulture populations still found in the Fouta Djallon highlands of Guinea, in contrast to the pattern of decline for vultures and other large raptors over most of west Africa.