Birding in Marakele National Park

Marakele National Park has some of the most stunning scenery in South Africa. It is also very contrasting, with thorny scrub in some areas and steep rocky hills in others, providing a rich mix of habitats. On the two occasions that I visited this park with my family, I was always pleased with the accordingly large diversity of birds.

The campsite itself was the perfect site to while away the time that was not spent in our car doing game-drives. The most entertaining sighting was an inquisitive (or agressive) Bennett’s Woodpecker which took a fancy in its reflection in car windows and mirrors when the owners were not around.

On one visit, the campsite also played host to a large family of Arrow-marked Babblers that were driven crazy by a hungry juvenile Levaillant’s Cuckoo. The cuckoo’s incessant begging calls even annoyed us after a few days, since the group was always at our campsite and combined with the routinous babbles of the babblers, turned into quite the cacaphony.

In the drier areas near the campsite, Southern Pied Babblers were a common sight. Family groups of these birds are an absolute delight to watch as they busily go about their business, babbling all the time true to their name. The cherry on top is that these groups are also usually accompanied by Crimson-breasted Shrikes, adding a welcome splash of colour to the dry vegetation.

Ascending towards the rocky hills, Klipspringers are a common sight. While not a bird, we often stopped to look at them next to the road (as in Karoo National Park), and admire them effortlessly careening over the boulders. On the top of the hills, Buff-streaked Chats and Gurney’s Sugarbirds were evidence of the starkely different avifauna to that of the plains below. The Cape Vulture colony can also be admired here, with the large birds regularly soaring past. We once also saw a bird that landed on the road on top of the plateau, which was probably injured as it did not move from the road.

Looking back at my old photos, I realised that my first sighting of Black-winged Pratincole was also in this park, although back when my birding skills were not sufficient to clinch this ID. The park thus has a great deal to offer, and definitely deserves extended visits for birders interested in exploring the various habitats.