This EBA lies at the southern extreme of the Ethiopian highlands, in Oromo (formerly Sidamo, or Borana) region of southern Ethiopia. The five restricted-range species which occur close together here are found in a wide variety of habitat types. An approximate boundary for the EBA has been drawn based on the documented records and altitudinal limits of these birds. The Jubba and Shabeelle valleys (EBA 113) lie immediately to the east of this EBA, and one of the restricted-range species of that EBA also occurs around Lakes Abaya and Chamo-but the birds of that EBA are found at low altitudes (below 750 m), and there is no altitudinal overlap.

The habitat requirements and distributions of the restricted-range species of this EBA are generally poorly known. Hirundo megaensis and Zavattariornis stresemanni are both found in thorn-bush savanna around the towns of Yabello and Mega, in an area of about 10,000 km^>2 (Collar and Stuart 1985); the latter is a monotypic genus which is endemic to the EBA. Heteromirafra sidamoensis is only known from grasslands in the vicinity of the town of Negele (Neghelli) (Robertson 1995a,b, P. O. Syvertsen in litt. 1993). Tauraco ruspolii occurs in Podocarpus and juniper Juniperus forests, and Acacia woodlands where figs Ficus are available, in the vicinity of the towns of Arero and Negele (Sørensen et al. 1997, Borghesio in prep.), although it may prove to have a much greater range, for example in Harenna forest in the Bale mountains well to the east (J. C. Hillman in litt. 1993). The recently described Caprimulgus solala (Safford et al. 1995) is included in this EBA, as the type-specimen (the only record) was found in grassland on the Nechisar plains between lakes Abaya and Chamo, a short distance to the north-west of the known ranges of the other restricted-range species. An undescribed unstreaked Serinus has been reported from near Agere Mariam (or Agere Maryam), c.100 km east of Lake Chamo (Ash 1979).

All the restricted-range species are subject to human activities modifying their habitat (J. C. Hillman in litt. 1993), and all are treated as threatened apart from Caprimulgus solala, which was described too late for consideration by Collar et al. (1994). A more-widespread threatened species which has been recorded in the EBA is Salvadori's Serin Serinus xantholaema (classified as Vulnerable). Threats to the habitats of the EBA include the conversion of grassland for dry-land agriculture, cattle-ranching leading to increased grazing pressure, the burning of forest and woodland, and commercial fuelwood cutting (J. S. Ash in litt. 1993, J. C. Hillman in litt. 1993, P. O. Syvertsen in litt. 1993). A military training establishment at one of the known sites for Heteromirafra sidamoensis has now been removed, and there is little sign of human activity there (Robertson 1995a).

The only protected area within the EBA is the large (2,540-km²) Yabello Sanctuary (IUCN 1992b), which supports populations of Hirundo megaensis and 127> Zavattariornis stresemanni. However, it has never been gazetted and has no active management (P. O. Syvertsen in litt. 1994), and it coincides almost exactly with the area of a cattle-breed-improvement ranch (J. C. Hillman in litt. 1993).

Stattersfield, A. J., Crosby, M. J., Long, A. J. and Wege, D. C. (1998) Endemic Bird Areas of the World. Priorities for biodiversity conservation. BirdLife Conservation Series 7. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: South Ethiopian highlands. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/eba/factsheet/94 on 22/12/2024.