Current view: Text account
Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Calandula was formerly known as Duque de Bragança and the Quedas de Calandula (the Duque de Bragança falls) are an important tourist attraction. The site lies on the Lucala river, about 55 km north-west of the town of Malanje and within the 1,200 mm isohyet. The vegetation is diverse, with gallery forests along the river and miombo woodland in the surrounding area. Trees along the Lucala river include
Piptadeniastrum,
Chlorophora,
Ceiba and
Xylopia species, while the miombo contains all the elements of climax miombo vegetation in Angola, dominated by
Brachystegia and
Julbernardia species.
See Box and Tables 2 and 3 for key species. The avifauna is rich (180 species collected), with a diversity of forest and woodland species (many known in Angola only from this site) and the area is fairly well explored. The site is important for species of the Afrotropical Highlands, Zambezian and Guinea–Congo Forests biomes that are not found elsewhere in Angola, particularly
Cossypha heinrichi, a rare species of restricted range. This species also occurs at localities in DR Congo (Harrison 1977);(Keith et al., 1992), and its distribution defines the West DR Congo and north Angola forests Secondary Area (s044).
The site is also important for several flufftail species—
Sarothrura pulchra,
S. elegans and
S. rufa have been collected here. In an Angolan context, other rare, or poorly known species that have been recorded include
Gallinago media,
Pachycoccyx audeberti,
Ceuthmochares aereus,
Centropus grillii,
C. monachus,
Halcyon badia,
Lybius minor,
Lybius bidentatus,
Illadopsis fulvescens and
Pseudoalcippe abyssinica. However, very little, if any, studies have been done on the biology of birds at this site and the relative abundance of species.
Non-bird biodiversity: Mammals include Panthera leo (VU) (Cabral 1987; Cabral and Simões 1988), and a diversity of small primates and small forest antelope are likely to occur.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Conservation of the area was proposed by Huntley (1974b), who suggested that the surroundings of the waterfall at least should be protected from vandalism and that the area should receive ‘National Monument’ status. Threats to the avifauna in the area are not known, but probably include hunting with dogs, trapping, and subsistence agriculture, with runaway fires from slash-and-burn cultivation an ever present danger to the birds.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Calandula (Quedas de Calandula) (Angola). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/calandula-(quedas-de-calandula)-iba-angola on 23/12/2024.
