African Bird of Prey Sanctuary — A must visit for everyone

Cape Eagle Owl

My interest in birds of prey began at the age of 11 when a school out­ing to CROW (Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife) in Durban left me mar­vel­ling at the beauty and strength of these mag­ni­fi­cent pred­at­ors of the air. Soon I was read­ing up on every type of bird of prey you could ima­gine and the more I read the more my interest grew. Within the space of a few months, I was able to identify the vari­ous rap­tors that I came across in the area sur­round­ing our fam­ily home and school and my find­ings often became the topic of many a school oral. However, as time passed and the pres­sures and dis­trac­tions of life took their toll my new­found interest waned although it was by no means extin­guished ... Continued

Sugar Bird & Spider by Leonard Browne (photograph)

This pho­to­graph of a Sugar Bird and Spider was sub­mit­ted to our Novembers Photography Competition by Leonard Browne. The sug­ar­birds are a small fam­ily of pas­ser­ine birds which are restric­ted to south­ern Africa. The two spe­cies of sug­ar­bird make up one of only two bird fam­il­ies restric­ted entirely to south­ern Africa ... Continued

Lesser Striped Swallow Photo

This pho­to­graph of a Lesser Striped Swallow was taken in the Pilanesberg National Park. According to the Wikipedia entry for this bird, the Lesser Swallow is 15–10 cm long, has dark blue upper­parts with a red rump and a rufous-chestnut crown, nape and sides of the head. The under­parts are white with dark streak­ing, and the upper wings and under­wing flight feath­ers are blackish-brown ... Continued

Double Collared Sunbird Photo

This mag­ni­fi­cent pho­to­graph of the Double Collared Sunbird was sent to us by Diane Morrison (who also sub­mit­ted the spec­tac­u­lar photo of the Knysna Loerie). South Africa ranks as one of the top bird­ing des­tin­a­tions in the world and its not dif­fi­cult to see why when we see pho­tos like this. Continued

Ground Hornbill Photo

A great pho­to­graph of a Southern Ground Hornbill taken at the Kruger National Park was sent to us by Lindsay Wedel. The Southern Ground Hornbill or “Lehututu” as it is loc­ally called, may not be around for much longer. These huge black birds with their dis­tinct­ive beaks and bright red wattles are part of the horn­bill fam­ily that occurs nat­ur­ally only in Africa and Asia. However, horn­bill num­bers are declin­ing due to loss of hab­itat ... Continued

Knysna Loerie

One of our favour­ite pho­to­graphs is this one, sub­mit­ted by Diane Morrison, of the Knysna Loerie. Knysna lour­ies clam­ber around in trees, hop­ping from branch to branch in search of fruit and seeds, which they swal­low whole. They exist usu­ally in pairs or small fam­ily groups, and nois­ily defend their ter­rit­ory with a hoarse 'kow-kow' noise ... Continued

Oxpecker Research Facility unveiled at Mokopane

Red-billed Oxpecker

The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa’s Mokopane Centre unveiled its custom-designed oxpecker facil­ity on Friday 18^th July 2008. This facil­ity is for the research of Red-billed Oxpeckers with the aim of breed­ing and relo­cat­ing these endangered birds to areas through­out South Africa.

In the 1900’s oxpecker num­bers were drastic­ally reduced as a res­ult of the use of dips to treat live­stock against tick infest­a­tions. As a res­ult, many oxpeck­ers, whose main source of food is ticks, were killed by the poison. Since that time, aware­ness has been cre­ated of more oxpecker-friendly cattle dips. This has helped to restore the sym­bi­otic rela­tion­ship that pre­vi­ously exis­ted between the oxpeck­ers and the cattle that it rids of ticks. In the wild, oxpeck­ers rid many large ante­lope of ticks. Continued

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! Continued

Stately "Lehututu" may not be around for much longer

Article by: By Fred Katerere, BUA News

Bela Bela — The stately Southern Ground Hornbill or "Lehututu" as it is loc­ally called, may not be around for much longer. These huge black birds with their dis­tinct­ive beaks and bright red wattles are part of the horn­bill fam­ily that occurs nat­ur­ally only in Africa and Asia. However, horn­bill num­bers are declin­ing due to loss of habitat.

Southern Ground Hornbill

Many spe­cies will not sur­vive without human inter­ven­tion," says chief exec­ut­ive officer of the Limpopo Tourism and Parks Board, Benny Boshielo. "For any suc­cess­ful con­ser­va­tion effort, the act­ive involve­ment of pro­vin­cial author­it­ies, con­ser­va­tion agen­cies and com­munit­ies is needed," said Boshielo.

The world's 60 spe­cies of horn­bills are rap­idly declin­ing in num­bers world­wide. There are less than 1 500 Southern Ground Hornbills left in South Africa. Their num­bers have dropped by more than 10 per­cent in the past three dec­ades. The province has made the Lehututu its avian flag­ship in the same way it has made the mighty baobab its pro­vin­cial sym­bol and flag­ship of the savan­nah biome.

Mabula Game Reserve is also the base for the The Ground Hornbill Research and Conservation Project star­ted in 1999.

Article from BUA News

Related Links:
South Africa Birds
Visit Limpopo

Seabird Viewing off Simon's Town and Cape Point

Birding Tours

Simon's Town has long been inter­na­tion­ally acclaimed for its unique African Penguin colony and its 'fyn­bos' bird spe­cials such as the cha­ris­matic Cape Sugarbird and the strik­ing Orange-breasted Sunbird. Now it enjoys world­wide recog­ni­tion as a base for inter­na­tional bird­watch­ers in search of seabirds or 'pela­gic' spe­cies as they are known in bird­ing circles.

Throughout the year 'birders' set off to sea from the old quay on a vari­ety of off­shore craft of which Harry Dilley's con­ver­ted motor tor­pedo boat 'Zest' is the best known. Continued

A Birders Delight — Avian Leisure

Avian Leisure

Avian Leisure — Simon's Town, Cape Peninsula, South Africa: For nature lov­ers and other dis­cern­ing tour­ists who want lux­uri­ous yet afford­able self-catering accom­mod­a­tion in nat­ural sur­round­ings, Avian Leisure has a mag­ni­fi­cent situ­ation at the top of Froggy Farm, Simon’s Town, over­look­ing False Bay. Set amidst pristine Cape Fynbos means you can see whales, pen­guins and a host of other birds right from your bedroom.

South Africa Birdlife and Wildlife Tours — We would be delighted to assist you in plan­ning your trip to the Western Cape and South Africa, whether it be guided or self-drive. In par­tic­u­lar we spe­cial­ise in com­pil­ing com­plete bird­ing and wild­life tour itin­er­ar­ies tailored to your spe­cific require­ments, through our net­work of per­son­ally selec­ted safari operators.

View: Additional Information and Photographs

Useful Links:
For addi­tional inform­a­tion see:
South Africa Birdlife
South Africa Tours

South Africa for Birders

Jackal Buzzard

South Africa ranks as one of the top bird­ing des­tin­a­tions in the world. An incom­par­able com­bin­a­tion of vari­ety of birds, first class South African hotels and accom­mod­a­tion facil­it­ies, an excel­lent net­work of internal air­line routes and a mul­ti­tude of car hire com­pan­ies (includ­ing the large inter­na­tion­als) and a sup­port­ive avi-tourism industry makes South Africa one of the most desir­able bird­ing des­tin­a­tions in the world.

Birders from around the world come to exper­i­ence both the great vari­ety of typ­ic­ally African birds, migrants, and endemic birds. These birders enjoy excel­lent bird­ing, whether they are with an organ­ised com­mer­cial bird­ing tour or are tour­ing inde­pend­ently. Of the +/- 850 bird spe­cies recor­ded in South Africa, about 725 are res­id­ent or annual vis­it­ors, and 50 of these are endemic or near-endemic to South Africa, and can only be seen in South Africa. Apart from the res­id­ent birds, South Africa hosts a num­ber of intra-African migrants such as cuckoos and king­fish­ers, as well as birds from the Arctic, Europe, Central Asia, China and Antarctica dur­ing the year.

Useful Links:
For more inform­a­tion see:

• South Africa Birdlife
• South Africa Birder-friendly Lodgings