Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
The site comprises tall miombo woodland, interspersed with poorly drained grassy patches and grassy drainage lines, on the central plateau around the town of Caconda. No detailed climatic data for the area are available, but the site is situated in the 1,200 mm isohyet. The woodlands are dominated by
Brachystegia spiciformis and
Julbernardia paniculata, with
B. floribunda,
B. boehmii,
B. wangermeeana and
B. gossweileri locally dominant. Grasses of the genera
Andropogon,
Trachypogon and
Tristachya occur in the narrow drainage lines, with
Loudetia simplex dominant. The canopy is more or less continuous and the height varies from 4 m to 12 m. There is a sparse to moderate cover of shrubs and grass below the canopy, with wide breaks in the woodland along the drainage lines. These latter areas are generally fringed with scattered
Uapaca,
Piliostigma and
Erythrina trees. Patches of nutrient-rich soil (old village sites) occur within the miombo woodland, usually with pioneer
Acacia species and
Dichrostachys cinerea trees.
Burkea africana and
Monotes species occur on sandy patches (probably previously cleared areas), further increasing the structural diversity of the woodland
. There are no current data available on the condition of the woodland, or of the area generally.
See Box and Table 3 for key species. The importance of the site lies in the high species-richness of Zambezian-biome species, but the avifauna of the area is virtually unstudied, and most of the current knowledge is derived from collected specimens. Many records from the site date back to the late 1800s, although there has been relatively recent fieldwork (collecting) done in the Caconda area (Pinto 1970) and to the south of the area (Dean 1974); Dean
et al. 1988). Nevertheless, the avifauna is rich, and includes all of the
Brachystegia endemics listed by Benson and Irwin (1966) and at least 35 biome-restricted species, out of the total of 235 bird species that have been collected in the area (the full species list is likely to be substantially larger).
Dioptrornis brunneus, a restricted-range species, is a frequently encountered resident, and two species of the Guinea–Congo Forests biome and two of the Afrotropical Highlands biome have also been recorded from the site.
Open woodland fringing wide drainage lines provides breeding habitat for such species as
Rhinoptilus chalcopterus,
Pinarocorys nigricans,
Lanius souzae and
Lagonosticta rufopicta. The site is one of the few localities where
Coturnix chinensis and
Anthus caffer have been collected, and is the southernmost locality where
Tricholaema frontata occurs (a species generally uncommon in Angola). There is a record of
Ficedula hypoleuca from the site (Bocage 1878), but the specimen no longer exists and could have been a misidentification of the more likely
Ficedula albicollis. Caconda is the northernmost limit of the distribution of
Phoeniculus cynamelas and
Neocichla gutturalis in Angola.
Wetland habitats along the Catani river support 23 or more species of waterbird (16% of the Angolan list), some in numbers considered at least nationally important. The globally threatened
Grus carunculatus is resident and probably breeds.
Non-bird biodiversity: There are no current data on the status of the large carnivores, but Lycaon pictus (EN) and Panthera leo (VU) have been recorded in the past (Cabral 1987; Cabral and Simões 1988). Bats that have been collected at this site include Epomophorus angolensis (LR/nt) (Cabral 1989).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
There is no protected area at this site, nor is there any proposal to establish one. Miombo woodlands are well protected in Cameia National Park, Luando Strict Nature Reserve and Cangandala National Park, and in southern Huíla and Cunene at Bicuari and Mupa National Parks, but may not have the avifaunal species-richness of the woodland at Caconda. The area to the south and east of Caconda, bounded by the main Lubango–Huambo road, the Caconda–Lucunde road, and the Lucunde–Catata-e-Nova road, would probably be suitable for a protected area, as would the area to the south of Caconda, along the Catani river. Threats to the avifauna include clearing of vegetation for subsistence agriculture, and the total removal of woodland over quite large areas (to make charcoal, sold in towns).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Caconda (Angola). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/caconda-iba-angola on 23/12/2024.
