A Visit to "Birds of Eden" in Plettenberg Bay

Birds of Eden

Birds of Eden is a unique and enorm­ous 2 hec­tare dome which spans over a gorge of lush indi­gen­ous forest. It is, in fact, the World’s largest free flight bird sanc­tu­ary dome. The nets are placed rather high in the air to allow the birds to fly around freely. They are pro­tec­ted from any unwanted predators.

The decision to develop Birds of Eden stemmed from the need to cre­ate a safe envir­on­ment in which to release a large col­lec­tion of free-flight African birds and mini­ature mon­keys. This gor­geous dome is home to over 100 spe­cies of vibrant birds includ­ing a few endangered spe­cies. More than 2000 birds hab­it­ate this dome.

When we entered the dome, it is as if you have lit­er­ally entered para­dise. It is abso­lutely exquis­ite! We were wel­comed by 2 African Grey Parrots. These gor­geous birds seemed to be keenly inter­ested in us! These birds have become so accus­tomed to humans that they like to amuse them­selves with them. It felt rather won­der­ful hav­ing birds fly on your shoulder and arms. Yet, while there were some that were friendly and leis­urely sit­ting on our arms, there was another African Grey Parrot try­ing to bite our feet and fol­low­ing us wherever we went!

Birds of Eden

In Birds of Eden, pre­pare to be com­pletely swept away. You could spend any­where between 4–7 hours in this spec­tac­u­lar place. The wooden walk­ways lead you through the lush forest, over a river, under a water­fall and even­tu­ally to a dam where the geese and ducks are prolific.

Just like Monkeyland, there are numer­ous wooden plat­ters of food which the birds are attrac­ted to. They are rather dif­fi­cult to phot­graph as they are incred­ibly fast. When we sat on the benches, the birds came near us to cure their curiosity.

It is truly spec­tac­u­lar to be in a para­disi­acal envir­on­ment where hun­dreds of birds are pro­lific in the area and are not bothered about a human’s pres­ence. Some decide to intro­duce them­selves whereas oth­ers fol­low you and watch from a short distance.

Birds of Eden

After a few hours, we arrived at a dam and pond where hun­dreds of gor­geous ducks and their little ones, flamingo’s and many other tall birds roam around. There is a res­taur­ant on the waters where we enjoyed refresh­ing drinks. You can also buy spe­cial food and feed the ducks and geese.

When in Birds of Eden, do not hur­riedly walk through it. Take your time and leis­urely walk through this exquis­ite dome.

Take in the beauty and admire the abund­ance of mag­ni­fi­cent birds. Just sit and watch. You will be truly amazed and com­pletely appre­ci­ate the earth so much more!

Useful Links:
For des­tin­a­tion inform­a­tion see:
Plettenberg Bay Attractions
Plettenberg Bay Hotels
Plettenberg Bay Accommodation