• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Climate Change maps
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2021	Near Threatened	A2bc+3bc+4bc
2017	Near Threatened	A2bc+3bc+4bc
2016	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	does not normally occur in forest
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	818,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	2019-2029
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Generation length	3.2 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is described as fairly common above 1,500 m in South Africa and common above 2,500 m in Lesotho (del Hoyo et al. 2005). The species has been found at the following population densities in Lesotho: 30 breeding pairs per 32 km transect in the Sahlabathebe National Park (Kopij 2002); 29 breeding pairs per 54 km transect in the highlands, and 2 breeding pairs per 120 km in the foothills (Kopij 2015b). 11 pairs per 61.2 km transect were found in Afro-montane Themeda-Festuca grassland at 2,000 - 2,500 m above sea level, while 54 pairs were found per 45 km transect in Afro-alpine grassland at 2,500-3,500 m altitude (Kopij 2015a). 16 pairs per 104 km of rivers were found in the Upper Senque river drainages, while none were found in the Lower Senque drainages (Kopij 2013).

Trend justification: Declines in the western part of its range have been noted since the 1980s (Hockey et al. 2005; Taylor et al. 2015), but the reason for these declines is unknown. Lee et al. (2017) analysed Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP) data (SABAP1 1987-1992; SABAP2 2007-2014. Note SABAP2 is ongoing but data taken from 2014) and suggested that this species is experiencing a decline in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Lee et al. (2017) suggest that reporting rate has declined 34.4%, range has declined 48.7% and core range has declined 38.5% between SABAPs (although the corrected population change metric suggests population declines may be lower than this). Declines may in part be due to incomplete sampling during SABAP2 and the time period for these declines is greater than 10 years, but it is precautionarily assessed that the species may be at least declining moderately rapidly over 3 generations.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Eswatini	extant	native	yes
Lesotho	extant	native	yes
Mozambique	extant	native	yes
South Africa	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	marginal	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	marginal	resident
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude	major	resident
Rocky areas (eg. inland cliffs, mountain peaks)		major	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude	suitable	resident
Altitude	2000 - 3200 m	Occasional altitudinal limits	(min) 600 m

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Wood & pulp plantations - Small-holder plantations	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Climate change & severe weather	Habitat shifting & alteration	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Whole (>90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Sentinel Rock-thrush Monticola explorator. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/sentinel-rock-thrush-monticola-explorator on 22/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/11/2024.