Zwarts L., Bijlsma R.G. & van der Kamp J. (2023) Birds and bush fires in African savannahs. ARDEA 111 (1): 305-314

Bush fires are widespread in African savannahs. Their impact on birds varies. Many insectivores temporarily profit from the insects escaping fire and smoke, whereas the burnt-through grass and herb layer facilitates feeding for some ground-foraging bird species. Nevertheless, bush fires have a direct, negative impact on many other ground-foraging birds. The average density of seed-eating birds in humid, African savannahs (annual rainfall >800 mm) was 15.9 birds/ha in unburned savannahs, compared to 3.3 birds/ ha (–72%) in recently burned areas. No such difference was found for insectivorous bird species. Eleven of the 13 common ground-foraging migratory bird species were not affected by bush fires in Africa because they spend the northern winter in the arid and semiarid zone, beyond the main bush-fire zone. In the long run, savannah-inhabitant birds profit from bush fires, simply because fires prevent open landscape from becoming overgrown with trees. However, the short-term implications of bush fires might be severe for seed-eating birds that rely on humid savannah, because of the more than 3 million km2 in Africa burned annually, most comprises humid savannah.