Biometrics form a key characteristic of a species. Here, we provide a summary of biometrics held by the South African Bird Ringing Scheme (SAFRING), which was initiated in 1948, including measures of mass and lengths of the tarsus, head, culmen, tail and wing. We include all species in southern Africa for which there was sufficient data. Accordingly, we present biometric data for 674 of the 904 southern African bird species. We also investigated whether there were sex-specific differences for each species, and provide summaries for species where values significantly differed between the sexes. We found 376 species with significant sex-specific differences for at least one measure (e.g. mass). Although SAFRING holds data entries for many ringed individuals, a sizeable proportion of the entries was not useable as biometric data. Therefore, in this article, we aim to: 1) present a complete, standardised reference of summarised biometric data for the birds of southern Africa; 2) provide ringers with benchmark values that could guide data-capturing; 3) identify data-deficient species; and 4) highlight the importance of collecting and capturing biometric data carefully and consistently.

生物识别技术构成物种的关键特征。在这里，我们提供了南非鸟鸣计划（SAFRING）于1948年发起的生物识别的摘要，其中包括measures架，头部，顶盖，尾巴和翼的质量和长度的度量。我们纳入了南部非洲所有有足够数据的物种。因此，我们提供了904种南部非洲鸟类中674种的生物特征数据。我们还调查了每种物种是否存在性别特异性差异，并提供了性别之间值显着不同的物种的摘要。我们发现至少一种措施（例如质量）具有明显性别差异的376个物种。尽管SAFRING保留了许多有环回个体的数据条目，但是其中很大一部分条目不能用作生物统计数据。因此，在本文中，我们旨在：1）提供南部非洲鸟类生物统计数据的完整标准化参考；2）为铃声提供基准值，以指导数据捕获；3）确定数据不足的物种；和4）强调认真而一致地收集和捕获生物特征数据的重要性。