The collection of birds from São Tomé and Príncipe at the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical of the University of Lisbon (Portugal)

The former Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical-IICT (Lisbon, Portugal), recently integrated into the University of Lisbon, gathers important natural history collections from Portuguese-speaking African countries. In this study, we describe the bird collection from the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, which was fully taxonomically checked and georeferenced. The IICT bird collection contains 5598 specimens, of which 559 are from São Tomé and Príncipe, representing 85 taxa, including 19 endemic species and 13 endemic subspecies of birds. The specimens were collected between 1946 and 1973, although 43% of the records are from 1954 and 45% are from 1970. The geographic distribution of samples covers the whole territory, with a higher number of records from São Tomé than from Príncipe. The districts with highest number of records are Pagué (equivalent to Príncipe Island), and Água Grande and Mé-Zochi on São Tomé. Despite the relatively low number of specimens per taxon, the importance of the collection is considerable due to the high number of endemic and threatened species represented. Furthermore, it adds valuable information to the GBIF network, especially for a country whose two islands are each an Endemic Bird Area and for which substantial gaps in ornithological knowledge remain.