The African Black Oystercatcher Haematopus moquini is a charismatic, southern African near-endemic, wader species, that is often seen as a flagship species for coastal bird conservation, as it was recently down-listed regionally to Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. To celebrate this rare conservation success story, BirdLife South Africa named it the 2018 Bird of the Year and ran a year-long programme in collaboration with the Nature’s Valley Trust highlighting aspects of the species’ biology, current threats, and conservation success. We used data collected by the Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1 and SABAP2) to examine changes in the species’ range and relative abundance, both in the records between the two projects, as well as trends within the SABAP2 sampling period (2008–2017). This case study enabled us to assess whether such metrics can accurately reflect abundance and distributional changes in a species. We found increases in the reported range and the reporting rates between the two Atlas projects, and that the SABAP2 reporting rate was stable. Regionally, across four coastal categories, the reporting rate was lowest in KwaZulu-Natal, though this region also showed an increase in the probability of reporting during the SABAP2 period. While corroborating the recent change in the species’ conservation status, we also provide good evidence that the long-term SABAP data can be used successfully to assess population trends and range changes over time.

非洲黑蛎Ha（Haematopus moquini）是一种有魅力的，南部非洲近地方性涉水物种，通常被视为沿海鸟类保护的旗舰物种，因为该物种最近在世界自然保护联盟（IUCN）的《濒危物种红色名录》中被列为最不关注的物种。为了庆祝这个罕见的保护成功故事，南非BirdLife将其命名为2018年度鸟类，并与自然谷信托基金会（Nature's Valley Trust）合作开展了为期一年的计划，重点介绍了该物种的生物学，当前威胁和保护成功方面。我们使用了南部非洲鸟类图集项目（SABAP1和SABAP2）收集的数据，检查了两个项目之间的记录中物种范围和相对丰度的变化，以及SABAP2采样期间（2008-2017年）的趋势）。该案例研究使我们能够评估此类指标是否可以准确反映物种的丰度和分布变化。我们发现两个Atlas项目之间的报告范围和报告率都有所增加，并且SABAP2的报告率是稳定的。从区域来看，在四个沿海类别中，夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省的报告率最低，尽管该地区在SABAP2期间报告的可能性也有所增加。在证实该物种最近的保护状态变化的同时，我们也提供了充分的证据，表明长期SABAP数据可成功用于评估种群趋势和范围随时间的变化。并且SABAP2报告率保持稳定。从区域来看，在四个沿海类别中，夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省的报告率最低，尽管该地区在SABAP2期间报告的可能性也有所增加。在证实该物种最近的保护状态变化的同时，我们也提供了很好的证据，表明长期SABAP数据可成功用于评估种群趋势和范围随时间的变化。并且SABAP2报告率保持稳定。在区域上，在四个沿海类别中，夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省的报告率最低，尽管该区域在SABAP2期间报告的可能性也有所增加。在证实该物种最近的保护状态变化的同时，我们也提供了很好的证据，表明长期SABAP数据可成功用于评估种群趋势和范围随时间的变化。