KZN Trip – January 2018
We had spent some time talking about going to Zululand/Maputaland in order to do some birding in the area. It was difficult to get information, so in the end we booked for a shorter period (us going to Kenton in February was also a consideration) and limited our movement to 3 locations in the area.
We had a great time and both agreed that we learnt much about the area from interactions with guides, driving ourselves around and finding maps and information as we went.
21 January
We left Johannesburg early on the Sunday morning (6:30) with a plan to get to Mkhuze and have some lunch at the Wimpy there. The trip was uneventful, although there were still lots of trucks on the road.
After lunch we started to drive around a little, but turned around when we realized that we didn’t really know where we would land up! Instead, we drove to Ghost Mountain Inn and they actually checked us in early.
We made good use of the airconditioner in the room and took a stroll out onto the jetty once it was a little cooler. It was also surprisingly windy, but it was lovely to see all the lily pads. There were more than 50 African jacana running around on them.
We had a lovely dinner – bacon and blue cheese spring rolls and fillet of beef with pepperdew, cheese and peppercorn sauce. It was a lovely meal and even Terry had no space for dessert (or perhaps it was the mosquitoes that were biting him!)
Bird sightings: 20
Other sightings: Warthog
22 January
We tried to book to go to the Fig Forest Walk in Mkhuze but the guide who has to be there was off due to an accident. Instead we met Bheki (from GMI) and drove into Mkhuze national park via the Mshophi Gate. We drove to the Malibala hide and then onto Mantuma camp where we stopped and ate our packed breakfasts. From there we made our way to Masinga hide. Our last stop was at Nsumo pan where we visited both hides, seeing cheetah in the distance at the second hide. It was a mother with two cubs and a male (who was collared). It was unusual to see them all so close together.
We then drove back through the camp and made our way out of the park and back to the inn. It was a lovely morning but we both agreed that we could have done the drive ourselves with the help of a map.
We ate our leftover breakfast as a light lunch and then relaxed (sleeping (J) and reading (T)). We took another quick walk out to the jetty later on but it was even more windy than the previous day, so we did not stay long.
Dinner was spring rolls (again – they were really good), lamb chops (T) and dukkah chicken (J). Terry had ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert.
Bird sightings: 67
Other sightings: Cheetah, crocodile, foam nest frog, giraffe, hippo, impala, vervet monkey, nyala, terrapin, leopard tortoise, warthog, wildebeest, zebra
23 January
We had a late start, knowing that there would not be too many other opportunities to do so, only making our way to breakfast at about 9:00. We then finished packing and left the inn about an hour later. We drove through Jozini and then made our way to Tembe Elephant Park, arriving at the gate just before noon.
After we had paid our entrance fees, we had to wait for a vehicle to come down from the lodge and then follow it. We assume that it was to ensure that we found our way and did not get stuck (by comparison, we were allowed to leave a few days later under our own steam).
We were met by a group of ladies who sang us a welcome song and handed our nice cool face cloths. We checked in and paid what was still owing, before going to our tent (the furthest one on the lodge side of the parking) where we unpacked and settled down to rest. Lunch was at 14:00 and we both ate kudu burgers.
Bird sightings: 7
Evening drive
Guide – Carlos
Volunteer assistant – Siya
There were two other couples on the vehicle with us – Yetta (Durban/UK, but originally Danish) and a Danish friend, Margriet; Birgitte and Eduard from Germany, who retired to Ballito in October.
Our first stop was the Mahlasela hide, but there was an elephant between the entrance and us! So we waited until it moved on before going into the hide. We sat and watched a herd of elephant drinking and playing, while doing some birding on our own. We sent a picture of the beautiful view to our trip sharing groups on WhatsApp and our clever nephew sent us back a similar picture (different angle) from the webcam! He even asked us to pass him the biltong!!
From there we made our way around a couple of pans. We found a single buffalo male at a mud pan, while at Mfungeni pan there were elephants drinking.
An unusual sighting was a dead impala deep in the bushes. We watched it to see that it was definitely not alive and also to see whether there was anything else around. On our way back to camp, it was still there with no change in status.
Bird sightings: 15
Other sightings: Buffalo, elephant, impala, samango monkey, vervet monkey, nyala, warthog, waterbuck
Once back at our tent, we had time to take a quick shower before walking to dinner. It is quite strange in that we are allowed to walk to and from our room with no escort, even after dark (the reason is that the camp is totally fenced off, like in Kruger).
Dinner was tomato and mozzarella salad, followed by roast beef. Terry had caramel cheesecake for dessert (I stole a bite!). We enjoyed watching the thick-tailed bush babies that came down to a table outside the lapa to eat the pineapple that had been put out for them.
24 January
We had an early light breakfast of muesli and yoghurt before making our way out on game drive.
Morning drive
The highlight of the drive was a very brief sighting of a black rhino in the distance. As we drove down a side road to get a closer look at it, it disappeared. (Sadly, due to poaching, the rhino have become more skittish).
Another fascinating thing was the smoldering fire pits. A veld fire happened over 2 years ago and in some places it had remained under ground as there was not enough ground water to extinguish it. The result was that you drove around and could smell burning but just saw light smoke coming up from the ground – almost like a mist.
Bird sightings: 16
Other sightings: Buffalo, red duiker, elephant, giraffe, impala, slender mongoose, samango monkey, nyala, warthog
Breakfast part 2 was bacon, sausage, poached eggs and aubergine (J). As we finished eating Carlos approached us and introduced us to another guide – Ppatric (yes, that is how you spell his name). He had two guests on his vehicle who were keen birders so they proposed that we join them and that Carlos would take the newcomers that evening. We agreed. Ironically, we were expecting it as Bheki had told us about the situation – birders and a German couple who just wanted to see the big 5 on the same vehicle! (Ppatric is Bheki’s cousin.)
We booked a massage for after dinner (there was a special open room next to our tent for this) and then made our way to our tent to relax and read.
We walked back up for lunch – a buffet of fish and chips – and then continued with our reading until time to meet everyone at the parking area at 16:00.
Evening drive
Guide – Ppatric
Volunteer assistant – Nathi
The other couple was from the Vaal (she worked at Baragwanath in anesthesiology) – Chris and Bill.
We spent the bulk of the drive birding (as can be seen by the increased number of bird sightings below), stopping only if we saw something of real interest such as the bachelor herd of elephants that we came across on our way back to camp.
From a birding perspective, we saw the pink-throated twinspot for only the second time and also came across a Verreaux’s eagle owl close to camp.
Bird sightings: 35
Other sightings: Grey duiker, slender mongoose, nyala, zebra
Once back at camp, we quickly dropped our things in our tent and then made our way to dinner. We started with green bean soup – even Terry! It was delicious. This was followed by a buffet of kudu stew, peri peri chicken, baby sweetcorn and rice. Terry had malva pudding and ice cream for dessert.
We then quickly made our way back to our tent in order to have our massage. What bliss – a massage and then bed!
25 January
Morning drive
There had been a massive storm during the night, loud enough to wake us up. And it was still raining when we got up. Terry was also feeling a little under the weather with a sensitive tummy (that’s actually how we found out that Chris is in the medical profession!) so we grabbed a quick slice of toast and Bovril. We then proceeded on our drive despite the rain. Luckily the vehicles are covered so you are protected from the elements (in particular, the sun!)
The drive was a slow one, as we made our way to a patch of sand forest that Ppatric wanted to investigate, stopping whenever we saw some interesting bird movement.
Once we reached the sand forest we stopped for coffee and Ppatric kept looking around and listening out for calls for some endemic birds that were on our list to see. We all chatted until he called us to him and showed us a very rare bird (found more commonly in Mozambique) – a plain-backed sunbird (L). We were all very excited about this as none of us had seen it before.
We saw the pink-throated twinspot a couple of times too, including a really great sighting of one out in the open on the road.
Ppatric stopped and showed us another little brown bird, asking us if we knew what it was. We were all stumped. He then told us it was a neddicky. We have seen them many times, including at Kenton so I was really confused as to why we didn’t recognize it. Until I looked at Roberts and found that the neddicky we are used to is largely grey in front, whereas this one is cream. Roberts shows it as a sub-species (ruficapilla as opposed to fulvicapilla).
Overall we had a really great birding morning despite the wet and overcast weather.
Bird sightings: 37
Other sightings: Grey duiker, elephant, impala, slender mongoose, nyala
Terry was feeling a little better, so we had a small breakfast before making our way to the tent to read and relax.
Lunch was a buffet of sandwiches and snacks (sausage rolls, etc.).
Evening drive
We had a really quiet drive but we were able enjoy the vegetation and particularly some more patches of sand forest. A highlight was watching the groups of swallow-tailed and sword-tailed butterflies who were drinking “elephant dung juice” (Ppatric’s description) on the road. They would congregate on the ground and then take off as we drove forward. It was beautiful to watch.
Bird sightings: 20
Other sightings: Dung beetle, elephant, impala, kudu, banded mongoose, vervet monkey, nyala
Once back at camp, we made our way to the tent where we did some packing until it was time to go to dinner. On our way to the lodge we watched a red spider run around the ground under the lights, obviously looking for dinner. When we asked we were told that it would be the red roman spider.
Dinner was butternut soup, followed by a buffet of impala kebabs, chicken, creamed spinach and assorted patty pans. Terry had chocolate mousse for dessert.
26 January
We met in the parking at 5:45, skipping light breakfast. And we again had a wonderful birding drive (which included four more sightings of pink-throated twinspot!)
We spent a fair amount of time driving along the fence line looking for Woodward’s batis (L) in the forest patches. Eventually Ppatric spotted a pair, but they are so small and they move around so much that it was really difficult to get your binoculars on them. Eventually we all had done so, except for Terry and he was really frustrated. But everyone was determined to have him see them so they all tried to be “helpful”. Luckily Terry found one and got a brief glimpse of it in his binoculars so we all had another lifer, another endemic to the general area.
We stopped at Mfungeni pan for morning drinks, and Terry had a chat with Nathi, realizing that he was actually a volunteer from the Tembe community who was there to see how things worked.
We also discovered Ppatric’s mnemonic for the emerald-spotted wood-dove: “My father is dead, my mother is dead, my heart goes do-do-do-do-do…” And it works!
Bird sightings: 33
Other sightings: Giraffe, impala, slender mongoose, vervet monkeys, nyala, Tsonga red squirrel, waterbuck
We went back to our tent where we finalized our packing, I had a quick shower and then we made our way to breakfast. After that, we said our goodbyes and then made our way back out of the gate and onto the R22 towards Kosi Bay. On our drive out of the park we saw crowned hornbill and impala.
We continued on the R22 to Mbazwana, taking a detour to Sodwana Bay. It was interesting to see it all these years later and we both thought that it could make an interesting area to bird really early in the morning. We turned around at the entrance into iSimangaliso, making our way back to Mbazwana.
We followed the R22 to Hluhluwe, turning off to Muso pan, where we saw yellow-billed storks, African openbill and black-winged stilts. Everything in the area has still not recovered from the ongoing drought, so the water had receded quite far back from the road. We turned around and made our way back to the R22 and on to Hluhluwe.
We tried to follow the directions from Bonamanzi’s website from Hluhluwe but could not find the right road. So we put it into the Garmin and got onto the N2. It looked like it was telling us to drive to Mtubatuba first! So we phoned Bonamanzi and a lady told me a shortcut from where we were on the highway, if we turned around (turnoff only on northbound lane so that is why Garmin was confused). We saw giraffe and zebra behind the fence of another private game park, before making our way to the Bonamanzi gate. Inside the reserve we saw nyala and impala as we drove to reception, arriving just after 14:00.
We checked in and discussed possible outings with the manager, booking a trip for the following day to go out to the floodplains. We then unpacked and settled in to relax.
Just before 17:00 we took a drive to Treehouse 6 as advised to look for both the African broadbill and the green malkoha. We saw a few other birds (brown-hooded kingfisher, yellow-bellied greenbul, yellow-rumped tinkerbird and speckled mousebird) as well as nyala and red duiker. But were out of luck in the lifer department. Later we decided that we had probably gone too early and should have gone closer to 18:00, but on the following evening rainy weather prevented this.
We made our way back to the parking near our room and then took a walk across a bridge and on to a small island where they appear to host weddings. It was really pretty. We saw reed cormorant, pied kingfisher, hadeda ibis and the strangest sighting of pied wagtails – they were at the top of a tree! There were two adults and a juvenile (the latter confused things even more).
We made our way back to the car to fetch the keys to our room as it was almost dusk. On the way to the room, we saw a cuckoo. It was low to the ground on a broken branch, but flew off before we could identify it properly. Fortunately, it flew up into a tree above us and we were able to get a look at it from a couple of angles. We agreed that we had just seen another lifer – the common cuckoo (L).
It was time to go to dinner so we dropped off our things and walked to the dining room. Dinner was a fixed menu with choices. It was lovely. We both had a starter of mini samosas and spring rolls with sweet chilli dipping mayonnaise. Terry then chose the seafood platter with hake, calamari, prawns and chips, while I had a platter with steak, mushroom sauce, pork ribs, vegetables and chips. They were both delicious. Terry had ice cream and hot chocolate sauce as dessert. We both agreed that this was our best food on the trip!
27 January
We were up bright and early in order to meet Steve (the guide) at 5:30 at reception. He had a friend with him as he had an allergic reaction that had caused a stye on his one eye. So he had sunglasses on and Fred to assist. They had our packed breakfasts on board so we all climbed into the vehicle and made our way out onto the reserve, first driving past Treehouse 6 and an area where Fred had heard the African broadbill that morning, but still no luck!
We drove on through the Bonamanzi reserve, making our way out of a back gate. When we got there they realized that the lock had been changed, so they had to radio the anti-poaching guys to bring a key. It gave us about 10 minutes, which was lucky for Terry who had been in some pain and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. He realized that he had a kidney stone and started to walk around. Fortunately, it must have been small enough to eventually pass through as the pain receded leaving him feeling a bit achy and sensitive.
We then made our way to some wetlands, passing the grazing cows, some of which had really small calves. We made our way closer to the actually marshy areas but had to be careful not to get stuck (we thought we had at one stage but going forward instead of reversing seemed to work). Amongst others, we saw Kittlitz’s plover, African pipit, wood sandpiper and Temminck’s courser.
We then moved on and stopped for breakfast next to Lake St Lucia (False Bay). From there we drove around looking for the special of the area: the rosy-throated longclaw (L). We had already seen yellow-throated longclaw on our way out to the area, but we were looking for a special one. While we were searching – driving backwards and forwards across the grassy area – Steve mentioned that we would probably see Cape longclaw too. And we did. But eventually Steve said, “There it is” and we had our lifer. In fact, we were able to view them a couple of times as we continued to drive in the area. We then saw the Cape again and wanted to see the rosy-throated in order to compare the coloring as it looked quite orange in color. But once you saw both of them you could clearly see the pinker color. It was definitely a longclaw morning!
We started making our way back to Bonamanzi reserve, entering through the same gate and driving along the fence line for a while. We saw a blue-cheeked bee-eater, something that we had not seen for long time, and a giant kingfisher in a tree overlooking the Hluhluwe river.
Bird sightings: 47
Other sightings: impala, vervet monkey, nyala, common reedbuck
We made our way back to our room and grabbed some things as we decided to take a drive south and make our way to St Lucia. Once there, we drove to the estuary and discovered that there was a boardwalk, but it was hot and windy so we decided not to investigate further. We did however see a thick-billed weaver.
Instead we drove back through town and made our way to an entrance to iSimangaliso. While we enquired about costs and using our Wild card (you cannot, you need a Rhino card!), Terry suddenly felt exhausted (particularly after his morning episode) so we decided to leave it and make our way back to Bonamanzi instead. We did however stop and enquire about river cruises (advertising hippos and crocodiles, but I mentioned that we were interested in birding). They referred me to Themba Birding Tours down the road. We found what we thought was the office which had a number, so we took that and made our way out of St Lucia, past Mtubutuba and back to Bonamanzi, stopping only to buy some cold drinks and a toasted sandwich at a Petroport close to “home”.
Once back at Bonamanzi we ate our late lunch (sandwiches) and settled down to relax until 18:00 when we planned to go out to Treehouse 6 again. But those plans were scuppered by some rain, so we only exited our room (in rain jackets and with an umbrella) in order to walk to dinner later on. We both ate grilled mushrooms on a skewer as starters, followed by chicken schnitzel with cheese and bacon sauce. Delicious again! Terry had sticky toffee pudding for dessert.
Back at our room, we read and had an early night.
28 January
Since we were not in a rush, we did not set any alarm and woke up naturally. We went to breakfast just after 8:00 and then made our way out of Bonamanzi towards Hluhlue-Imfolozi game reserve just after 9:30 (we were obviously channeling other members of the Ochse family!).
En route I phoned Themba (we had looked him up on the internet) and made an arrangement to meet him in St Lucia at 6:00 the next morning.
We got to Memorial Gate just on 10:00 but I battled to find the office (it was at the boom that we had been turned away from in order to park). There I paid the entrance (lamenting the fact that I had not gone to the Crocodile park as indicated the day before to buy a Rhino card) and bought a map (that we later found had all the reserves in the area, including iSimangaliso, Mkhuze and Tembe!).
As we drove into the reserve we came across a buffalo lying in the grass. He had clearly been in a mud wallow not too long before. There was also a large flock of cattle egrets a little further down the road. We decided to take a gravel loop to the east of the main road and had a lovely sighting of a breeding herd of elephant, who crossed the road in front of us and then made their way off into the bush.
We returned to the tar road and decided to stay on it, driving down to a picnic spot where we had a bathroom break. We then drove on a little further, before turning around and making our way to Hilltop Camp. We stopped there, enjoying the view while we had an ice cream (it was really hot!) and visiting the shop where we bought more maps (one for Michael and one for us to write in and annotate).
On our way back to the gate we saw the buffalo again, as well as the egrets. The latter had moved to another pool. We also watched a family of warthogs (3 adults and 5 piglets) come down to drink and then wallow in the mud. A little further on we found two white rhino lying in a pool of water on the side of the road.
The strange thing was that we hardly saw any antelopes. Those on the list below were only one per species. Very unusual!
From a birding point of view the highlights were two separate sightings of martial eagle – one juvenile and one adult – and a dusky indigobird.
But all in all we enjoyed our 4 hours in the park, even though it was in the heat of the middle of the day! We will definitely go back and would be happy to stay at Hilltop Camp.
Bird sightings: 24
Other sightings: Dung beetle, buffalo, elephant, giraffe, samango monkey, vervet monkey, nyala, terrapin, warthog, waterbuck
From the gate we made our way back to the N2 and carried on to the Petroport to buy the Sunday Times, before making our way back to Bonamanzi. We organized a packed breakfast for the next day and then went to read and relax. The rain again canceled our evening walk, although it had eased back enough for us to carry our rain jackets (just in case!) as we made our way to dinner. We started with crumbed calamari, followed by peppered fillet steak with coconut rice and stir-fried peppers. The steak was divine! Terry followed this up with jelly cocktail with ice cream. And then it was time for bed in preparation of our very early start the next morning (we had to leave Bonamanzi at 5:00 to get to St Lucia on time).
29 January
We were up and about even before our alarm went off at 4:30! We got ready and packed what we thought we might need, including breakfast (picked up from the dining room when we had dinner), and then we were on the road just after 5:00. Unfortunately the weather was really overcast and the app showed that it would rain on and off during the day, which it duly did.
We ate our breakfast en route and got to St Lucia just after 6:00, meeting the guide, Themba, at his office in the main street. As we climbed out the car to greet him, there were about 50+ banded mongoose running across the road and into a garden/driveway on the other side of the road.
Themba climbed into our vehicle and we drove the road towards the estuary (like we did on Saturday), but he told us to pull over into a small parking area. We walked along a pathway and out into a road lines with houses and gardens. We saw some lovely birds there, including white-eared barbet, trumpeter hornbill, Rudd’s apalis and our first lifers of the day – the brown scrub robin (L) and Livingston’s turaco (L). As we returned to our car, we also saw a very relaxed Woodward’s batis just sitting in the curve of a small branch, preening itself. So we could have a really good look at it this time!
From there we drove a short way and pulled over onto the side of the road. We walked across the road and into a pathway into forest area. It was beautiful but we were literally attacked by mosquitoes. Terry was killing them in 2s and 3s on my legs. He was being chewed too, and I was bitten on my back – through my T-shirt. We walked a short way into the forest looking for some special birds (green twinspot and green malkoha again) but turned around after a while and made our way back to the vehicle. We did manage to see the Livingston’s turaco again and also the grey sunbird.
We then drove down to what we thought was a dead end when we were there on Saturday but Themba indicated that we should drive past the building and we came out to a lovely garden-like area on the other side. We parked and then made our way up a pathway to a network of walkways used by the locals to exercise. It was really beautiful, but unfortunately we were still bugged by mosquitoes. We still didn’t find our two bogey birds, but we did see the olive sunbird. Once we were back at the car, we noticed that it was after 8:00, so we turned back into town and stopped at the pharmacy to buy some Tabard. We sprayed ourselves liberally and then we were off again.
The next stop was the sewerage works – it is a popular birding spot in many areas! Amongst others, we saw the little rush warbler, purple-banded sunbird, grey waxbill, ruff and a lesser moorhen (L), which flew off. We were unable to go and investigate any further as there were 3 hippo lying in the “water”.
Instead we returned to the vehicle and made our way towards the beach, seeing grey-headed gulls en route. But the road was closed so we had to turn around and take an alternative route to the mudflats. We walked along the boardwalk and off the other end, making our way closer to the many birds and waders that we could see. While we were scanning the reeds for cisticolas, we saw the blue-cheeked bee-eater. But we eventually did find what we were looking for – the rufous-winged cisticola (L). As we got closer to the actual mudflats, we stopped in order to identify the 100s of birds wading in the waters and mud: many different sandpipers, stilts, avocets, small plovers and terns. We were able to see one tern that we had not seen before – the lesser crested tern (L) but it was hard work as we were still a distance away. Even harder work was the little stint (L), but find it we did. We also saw two African fish eagles, water thick-knee and a goliath heron. Luckily there was a lesser crested tern sitting on a pole a little bit closer to us so we could get a good look at it. We then made our way back to the boardwalk and walked carefully back to the car since it had rained most of the time while we were on the mudflats.
After a brief stop in town for a pie for Themba (his breakfast) and water to drink, we made our way to the Eastern shore of iSimangaliso wetland. We took the time to purchase our Rhino cards and then paid the levy and Themba’s entrance fee. As we drove along, we saw swifts and swallows flying around, so we pulled over and had a good look. Luckily we did, as we were able to see the grey-rumped swallow (L). There were also plenty of striped kingfishers on the telephone wires as we drove. We made our way to Cape Vidal. It was a beautiful drive, despite the weather and we saw both game and birds.
At Cape Vidal, we drove through the forest around the bungalows looking for the green twinspot. Themba regards this as his failsafe plan to find it, but the weather was not on our side. He spoke to one of the cleaners and she said that she had not seen any the whole morning and that it was because of the rain.
We made our way back to the main road and to the Bhangazi Gate (the same one we had entered through), passing three massive kudu bulls as we drove. We also stopped at the Catalina Bay lookout to enjoy a view of the lake.
We dropped Themba back at his office and then made our way to The Ocean Sizzler to get some lunch. It was already 14:00 and a long time since we had eaten breakfast. Despite the name, we share two pizzas – bacon & feta, boerie & biltong. They were delicious, so much so that we ate more than we expected to but still took some as padkos for the drive home the next day.
Bird sightings: 81
Other sightings: Buffalo, bushbuck, red duiker, hippo, kudu, samango monkey, vervet monkey, nyala, giant land snail, land snail (small), Tsonga red squirrel, wildebeest, zebra
We drove around a little, following our path of the morning (but not getting out of the car). The first bird we saw was our first lifer of the day again – the brown scrub robin! As we began to feel weary after our busy (and long) morning, we decided to make our way back to Bonamanzi. There we packed, showered and relaxed until dinner.
For dinner we started with a chef’s snack plate of samosas, spring rolls and chilli bites, followed by sirloin steak. Terry finished the meal with ice cream and chocolate sauce.
30 January
And just like that our trip was over! We started the day a little later than the previous one, going to breakfast at 7:00. Ironically, we watched some bats flyng around the palms outside as we waited for our meal. They had obviously been disturbed.
Once we had eaten and settled up, we got on the road, arriving home at about 14:00. It was a tiring drive with lots of trucks to overtake! But it didn’t dull the memories of our lovely trip. We managed to see 11 lifers overall! And we learnt a lot about the area and the parks in the area, so we are ready for our next trip to KZN…
Birds
1. Rudd’s apalis
2. Yellow-breasted apalis
3. Pied avocet
4. Black-collared barbet
5. White-eared barbet
6. Bateleur
7. Chinspot batis
8. Woodward’s batis (L)
9. Blue-cheeked bee-eater
10. European bee-eater
11. Little bee-eater
12. Red bishop
13. Southern boubou
14. Brubru
15. Dark-capped bulbul
16. Golden-breasted bunting
17. Gorgeous bushshrike
18. Orange-breasted bushshrike
19. Black-bellied bustard
20. Common buzzard
21. Jackal buzzard
22. Lizard buzzard
23. Green-backed camaroptera
24. Yellow-fronted canary
25. Rattling cisticola
26. Rufous-winged cisticola (L)
27. Zitting cisticola
28. Reed cormorant
29. White-breasted cormorant
30. Burchell’s coucal
31. Temminck’s courser
32. Black crake
33. Long-billed crombec
34. Pied crow
35.Common cuckoo (L)
36. Dideric cuckoo
37. Jacobin cuckoo
38. Black cuckoo-shrike
39. Cape turtle dove
40. Namaqua dove
41. Red-eyed dove
42. Fork-tailed drongo
43. Square-tailed drongo
44. White-faced duck
45. African fish eagle
46. Long-crested eagle
47. Martial eagle 48.
Wahlberg’s eagle
49. Little egret
50. Western cattle egret
51. Western great egret
52. Yellow-billed egret
53. Amur falcon
54. African firefinch
55. Red-billed firefinch
56. Common fiscal
57. Greater flamingo
58. Ashy flycatcher
59. Blue-mantled flycatcher
60. Pallid flycatcher
61. Southern black flycatcher
62. Spotted flycatcher
63. Crested francolin
64. Egyptian goose
65. Spur-winged goose
66. Sombre greenbul
67. Yellow-bellied greenbul
68. Crested guineafowl
69. Helmeted guineafowl
70. Grey-headed gull
71. African harrier-hawk
72. Retz’s helmetshrike
73. Black-headed heron
74. Goliath heron
75. Green-backed heron
76. Grey heron
77. Purple heron
78. Squacco heron
79. African hoopoe
80. Crowned hornbill
81. Trumpeter hornbill
82. Bald ibis
83. Hadeda ibis
84. Sacred ibis
85. Dusky indigobird
86. African jacana
87. Brown-hooded kingfisher
88. Giant kingfisher
89. Pied kingfisher
90. Striped kingfisher
91. Black-shouldered kite
92. Yellow-billed kite
93. Blacksmith lapwing
94. Wattled lapwing
95. Rufous-naped lark
96. Sabota lark
97. Cape longclaw
98. Rosy-throated longclaw (L)
99. Yellow-throated longclaw
100. Bronze mannikin
101. Sand martin
102. Lesser moorhen (L)
103. Red-faced mousebird
104. Speckled mousebird
105. Indian myna
106. Neddicky (ruficapilla – paler, more brown)
107. African openbill
108. Ostrich
109. Verreaux eagle owl
110. Red-billed oxpecker
111. Great white pelican
112. Pink-backed pelican
113. African pipit
114. Common ringed plover
115. Kittlitz’s plover
116. Three-banded plover
117. White-fronted plover
118. Black-backed puffback
119. Green-winged pytilia
120. Common quail
121. Red-billed quelea
122. Bearded robin
123. Brown scrub robin (L)
124. White-browned scrub robin
125. Red-capped robin-chat
126. European roller
127. Lilac-breasted roller
128. Ruff
129. Common sandpiper
130. Curlew sandpiper
131. Marsh sandpiper
132. Wood sandpiper
133. Black saw-wing
134. Common scimitarbill
135. Red-backed shrike
136. Grey-headed sparrow
137. African spoonbill
138. Black-bellied starling
139. Cape glossy starling
140. Red-winged starling
141. Violet-backed starling
142. Black-winged stilt
143. Little stint (L)
144. White stork
145. Woolly-necked stork
146. Yellow-billed stork
147. Collared sunbird
148. Grey sunbird
149. Olive sunbird
150. Plain-backed sunbird (L)
151. Purple-banded sunbird
152. Barn swallow
153. Grey-rumped swallow (L)
154. Lesser striped swallow
155. Red-breasted swallow
156. White-rumped swift
157. Wire-tailed swallow
158. Black-crowned tchagra
159. Brown-crowned tchagra
160. Caspian tern
161. Lesser crested Tern (L)
162. Sandwich tern
163. Swift tern
164. Water thick-knee
165. Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
166. Southern black tit
167. Pink-throated twinspot
168. Livingston’s Turaco (L)
169. Purple crested turaco
170. Cape wagtail
171. Pied wagtail
172. Little rush warbler
173. Blue waxbill
174. Common waxbill
175. Grey waxbill
176. Dark-capped weaver
177. Southern masked weaver
178. Spectacled weaver
179. Thick-billed weaver
180. Village weaver
181. Yellow weaver
182. Cape white-eye
183. Long-tailed paradise whydah
184. Pin-tailed whydah
185. Fan-tailed widowbird
186. Long-tailed widowbird
187. Red-collared widowbird
188. Emerald-spotted wood-dove
189. Green woodhoopoe
190. Cardinal woodpecker
191. Golden-tailed woodpecker