No bird species native to another continent occurs regularly or normally in intact fynbos vegetation, whether lowland or montane. Several introduced species (summarised in Table 24.1) occur in disturbed and human-modified environments in the fynbos biome. Introduced birds were reviewed recently for South Africa as a whole (Brooke et al., 1986) and unreferenced statements made below are based on that earlier review: major references are cited in this review, however. This chapter covers much the same ground as Brooke et al. (1986) but only in respect of the fynbos biome because of its predominance in the mediterraneanclimate area of South Africa. This chapter focuses on the impacts, if any, on fynbos vegetation. Escaped cage and aviary birds which have not bred in the wild are of little importance ecologically and are not normally observed in the fynbos biome.

The introduced bird with the greatest probable biomass in the fynbos biome is the helmeted guinea-fowl Numida meleagris, deliberately introduced to improve sport-shooting at the end of the last century (Skead, 1962). The source was N. m. coronata which is indigenous to the eastern Cape region of South Africa. Domestic guineafowl were, and to some extent still are, widely kept on farms and these are derived from West African N. m. galeata. Domestic and wild birds interbreed freely and a minority of wild birds show the pallid colouring derived from domestic populations.