WITH A FLASH of scarlet underwing, a Purple-crested Turaco flies across the road, its staccato alarm call unexpectedly loud. White-fronted Bee-eaters are far more relaxed about being exposed and hawk insects from bare branches. A White-browed Robin-chat is of similar mind-set to the turaco, calling boldly from a concealed position in a dense thicket, happy to be heard but not necessarily seen. A flowering coral tree is abuzz with sunbirds, Yellow-fronted Canaries, a Black-headed Oriole and a flock of Village Weavers, while African Green Pigeons squawk and flutter in a nearby fig tree. A Red-faced Cisticola pipes loudly from the overgrown stream bed and a curious clicking sound draws your eyes skywards to search for an African Goshawk in display flight.
With all this going on you may think that you’re in the Kruger National Park or some other wild reserve, but you’re actually taking a morning stroll through the suburbs of Mbombela (formerly known as Nelspruit) in Mpumalanga. Indeed, this small city (which feels more like a big town) is home to an enviable array of bird species – roughly 350 species have been recorded since the late 1970s. It also boasts some lovely birding venues, making it worthy of being more than simply a last-minute shopping stop on the way to Kruger.
Lowveld National Botanical Garden
The botanical garden is the first destination for some classic Mbombela birding. If you are Kruger-bound and leave Joburg early enough, you can even pop in for a few hours en route, as it is conveniently situated just off the R40 to White River and beyond, and makes for a great lunch venue.
Esta historia es de la edición September/October 2021 de African Birdlife.
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Esta historia es de la edición September/October 2021 de African Birdlife.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
