WINTER BIRDING IN SOUTH AFRICA

Although all the migrants are gone and it's cold, winter birding can still be rewarding

Well, winter has unfortunately arrived with a vengeance and it’s been very cold, particularly in the interior of the country (although someone sent us pics of Cape Town with the partly frozen sea – brrr!). Birding traditionally gets quieter in the winter months but we have found some great places where you can still expect to see a number of species even when it’s very cold. Here are our suggestions for birders based inland…

If you don’t want to go far out of town or don’t have much time (if you’re based in Johannesburg or Pretoria), Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve is still offering up several different chat species in the grasslands – look out for Common Stone Chat, Mountain Wheatear, Mocking Cliff-chat (in rocky areas) and Ant-eating Chat. At picnic sites and public areas, you’ll find several Familiar Chats (begging for food scraps usually) and Cape Robin-chats. A large section on the southern side of the reserve has been subject to a massive grass fire and this has resulted in an unusual congregation of birds. Look out for Cape Longclaw, Crowned Lapwing, Cape Glossy Starling, Fork-tailed Drongo, Black-headed Heron on the burned areas. In the bushveld areas, you may find Lemon-breasted Canary, White-browed Sparrow Weaver, Fairy Flycatcher (only at this time of year), Tawny-flanked Prinia, Bar-throated Apalis, Chestnut-vented Titbabbler, Brubru and Southern Boubou, to name but a few. Black-shouldered Kite may also be seen sitting on tall, leafless trees on the reserve looking out for food (rodents and other small creatures).

Black-shouldered Kite - a small raptor you'll often find surveying the grasslands from a bare tree during winter

Another nearby reserve is the Rietvlei Nature Reserve, where you can see many of the grassland chat species, Ostrich, Woodlands Kingfisher, Cape Glossy Starling, African Pied Starling, Black-shouldered Kite, Cape Longclaw, Wattled Lapwing, Crowned Lapwing, Southern Boubou, Blue Waxbill, Common Waxbill and various other grassland and bushveld birds. Rietvlei Dam is home to Common Moorhen, Reed and White-breasted Cormorant and African Darter. If you’re lucky, you may also see Malachite Kingfishers in the reedbeds at the picnic site. The Otter’s Bridge area is also home to Hamerkop, Egyptian Goose, Little Egret, Black-headed Heron and other wetland and wetland-associated species. We’ve often heard African Fish Eagles (and on one occasion actually saw one flying overhead). Another raptor you may see is the Black-breasted Snake Eagle. At this time of year, many of the smaller raptors such as falcons are not around as most of them are migrants as are the cuckoos and European Bee-eaters. However, you will definitely see White-fronted Bee-eaters at the picnic site as there is a large colony of these birds in residence.

Crested Francolin may be seen at both Pilanesberg & Borakalalo during winter, often in a sunny, open patch

Our best birding experiences are still in North-west Province and we are equally divided between Pilanesberg National Park and Borakalalo National Park, both of which have excellent birding. The Pilanesberg is situated in a transition zone between the bushveld and arid western regions of the country and is an Important Bird Area with about 400 recorded bird species. At Borakalalo, even though it does not appear to be an IBA or have any other birding status, has proved a “win” for us and we regularly see almost 80 bird species in a day, even during the winter. We are looking forward to going in summer and seeing how the bird count increases then… Here are some details of birds you can expect to see at these Parks in winter (remember this list is NOT exhaustive!):

Wetland Birds: Great Crested Grebe (Borakalalo), Great Egret, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Black Crake, Little Dabchick, Egyptian Goose, African Spoonbill, Green-backed Night Heron (Pilanesberg), Pied Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Giant Kingfisher, Red-billed Teal, Yellow-billed Duck, Three-banded Plover, African Jacana (Borakalalo), Hamerkop, Blacksmith Lapwing

We've seen lots of Bennett's Woodpeckers at Borakalalo recently - interestingly, the birds eat ants!

Bushveld & Grassland Birds: Martial Eagle (Pilanesberg), Black-breasted Snake Eagle (Pilanesberg), African Fish Eagle (especially at Borakalalo) Gabar Goshawk, Black-shouldered Kite, Speckled Pigeon, Cape Turtle Dove, Red-eyed Dove, Pearl-spotted Owlet (Borakalalo), Brown-hooded Kingfisher, White-fronted Bee-eater (Pilanesberg), Crowned Lapwing, African Hoopoe, Green Woodhoopoe, Greater Scimitarbill (Borakalalo), Crested Barbet, Burchells’ Coucal, Lilac-breasted Roller, Bennet’s Woodpecker (Borakalalo), Cardinal Woodpecker, Grey Hornbill, Red-billed Hornbill, Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Southern Grey Tit (Borakalalo), Arrow-marked Babbler, Pied Babbler (Borakalalo), Ground-scraper Thrush, Olive Thrush, Cape Robin-chat, White-browed Scrub-robin (Pilanesberg), Fairy Flycatcher, Long-billed Crombec, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Fiscal Shrike, Fiscal Flycatcher, Marico Flycatcher, Cape White-eye, Chinspot Batis, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Magpie Shrike, Lesser Grey Shrike, Three-streaked Tchagra, White-breasted Sunbird, Amethyst Sunbird, Grey-headed Sparrow, Cape Glossy Starling, African Pied Starling, Red-winged Starling, Brubru (Borakalalo), Black-backed Puffback (Borakalalo), Red-billed Oxpecker (Pilanesberg), White-browed Sparrow Weaver, Southern Masked Weaver, Red-billed Quelea, African Firefinch, Jamesons’ Firefinch, Scaly-feathered Finch (Pilanesberg), Green-winged Pytilia/Melba Finch, Yellow-fronted Canary, Streaky-headed Seed-eater, Black-throated Canary (Pilanesberg), Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Golden-breasted Bunting