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Southern Black Korhaan Eupodotis afra
West Coast National Park, western Cape, South Africa

I have a genuine soft spot for korhaans, those typically shy ‘mini-bustards’ that usually occur in small family parties in secluded areas of grassland or semi-desert. For a start you have to make a real effort to see them - you won’t find them [...]

Blue Crane Anthropoides paradisea
Agulhas Plains, Cape Province, South Africa. April.

One of the smallest of the 15 crane species worldwide the Vulnerable Blue Crane is the national bird of South Africa. It’s endemic to southern Africa, with more than 99% of the population occurring within South Africa (a small disjunct breeding population of approximately 60 individuals [...]

Rooiels and Betty’s Bay
30 May 2008
 
Getting up early after such a previously great day’s birding (Birding the Cape: the west coast) is not all that difficult - actually not difficult at all - and when my guide Brian arrived at 07:30 I was raring to go. Unfortunately so was the rain. In fact I’d been [...]

I’m just back from a superb two days birding in Cape Town, South Africa (just two days? For those who don’t know I work for an airline - I come, I go, what can I say…) with Brian Vanderwalt. It’s going to take me the best part of next week to work through all the [...]

Cape Bulbul Pycnonotus capensis
Cape Province, South Africa (various dates)
 
The Cape Bulbul is a southern South African endemic found in the coastal bush and fynbos of the Western and Eastern Cape, as well as exotic thickets, gardens and parks. A conspicuous species, like many other similar African Pycnonotus bulbuls it tends to sit chattering away at [...]

Hadeda Ibis Bostrychia hagedash
Somerset West, Cape Town, South Africa

The chunky, short-legged Hadeda Ibis is found throughout open grasslands, savanna and rainforests of Sudan, Ethiopia, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania, Gabon, Zaire, Cameroon, Gambia, Kenya, Somalia and South Africa, and also in urban parks and large gardens. It feeds mainly on earthworms, using its long scimitar-like bill to [...]

Orange-breasted Sunbird Anthobaphes violacea
Cape Town, South Africa

The beautiful Orange-breasted Sunbird Anthobaphes violacea is endemic to the fynbos of southwestern South Africa, but also occurs in parks and gardens. Often tame and quite approachable (especially in eg Botanic Gardens), the Orange-breasted Sunbird is a common breeder across its limited range, and an altitudinal migrant moving to [...]

A colleague on a web forum I subscribe to posted the following little exchange from the "GINjA & SHOgA" Restaurant which is based in Cape Town, South Africa. In response to a mail asking the owners to re-think serving foie gras, the arrogant turnips wrote back saying:

"Dear ————
Lordy, lordy, once again we have another Foie [...]

African Penguins Spheniscus demersus
Boulders Beach, Simon’s Town, Cape Peninsula
05 September 2006
 
A straightforward 40 minute drive from either central Cape Town (follow signs to the M4) or Somerset West (the scenic coastal-route following the R310/Baden Powell highway joins the M4 by Muizenberg and is good for excellent views across False Bay and an option to stop [...]

The Tanqua Karoo: Karooport and the R355 towards Calvinia (South Africa)
07 September 2006

(This report was previously posted on Charlie’s Bird Blog)
 

 
What a fantastic day - and what a long one too! I woke up in a very dark room at about 02:30, spent an hour trying to remember which country I was in (South Africa), [...]

Grey-backed Cisticola Cisticola subruficapilla
Karoo, Cape Province, South Africa. September 2006
 
The Grey-backed Cisticola is a SW African endemic, associated with lowland fynbos, karoo scrub, and arid hillsides - typically in drier habitats than the closely related Wailing Cisticola.

These birds were part of a family group photographed moving through acacia bushes alongside a dry stream [...]

Boulders Beach African Penguin Colony Simon’s Town, Cape Peninsula, South Africa
05 September 2006
 

 
There are so many excellent sites in the south-west Cape that choosing where to go when you’re a touch more tired than you want to admit is not as easy as you’d think. Within an easy hour’s drive from where we stay in [...]

Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, Cape Town
07 September 2006
 
After my exertions of yesterday in the Karoo, I was in two minds whether to go out again - but, what the heck, I’m not likely to be back here again for a while and there were still a couple of very easily seen endemics I hadn’t caught up [...]

Cape Canary Serinus canicollis
Kirstenbosch and the Karoo. September 2006
 

Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, September
 
 

(with Black-headed Canary in background)
 

Tanqua Karoo, September

 
Photographs copyright Charlie Moores