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The Zululand Birding Route - Way beyond the big 5
Zululand Birding Route has a spectacular 605 bird species and a wonderful range of destinations where they occur. It is a treasure trove of specials such as Green Barbet, Pel’s Fishing Owl, Pink-Throated Twinspot, Neergard’s Sunbird and Palmnut Vulture. The Zululand Birding Route lights this jewel, marketing a service for birder, a natural evolution in response to the rapidly-increasing demand for birding tourism in South Africa by both domestic and international clients. The Zululand Birding Route makes sure you get your birds and go far beyond the Big Five.
But this is one part of a rich story. The Zululand Birding Route is much more than a convenient information and booking system - the Zululand Birding Route is a conservation programme, proving that birding can generate income for local communities - in this way, birding tourism adds real value to wild birds and habitats in which they occur; it provides tangible reason to conserve natural habitats and the birds that occur in them.
The Zululand Birding Route is helping create a new career path for young South Africans from disadvantaged communities through training as birding guides. Individuals are selected from communities neighboring the birding spots for training, and through ongoing follow up assistance and mentorship this sharpens and assesses their skills and empowers them to make a success of their careers.
And so to you, the visitor, your participation in Zululand Birding Route is helping to conserve birds and create awareness of their value for the people of Zululand. So much more than “just” a birding route, the Zululand Birding Route is an integrated approach to a sustainable environment and responsible tourism, promoting low impact sustainable tourism that benefits a broad range of people in Zululand.
Thank you for using the Zululand Birding Route, you are helping this quiet little revolution in birding conservation to succeed.
Elephant Coast RouteThe Elephant Coast is bound in the North West by the Ubombo Mountains, in the east by the warm Indian Ocean and in the south by the Umfolozi River just below the Isimangaliso Wetland Park Estuary which is part of a World Heritage site. The area is steeped in history containing a number of paleontological sites of scientific importance. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park and game reserves like the Tembe Elephant Park, the legendary Ndumo, Mkhuze, Hluhluwe, Kosi Bay and surrounding areas offer some of the richest bird and game viewing in the world.
North-West RouteHome to about 500 species, North West Zululand provides the visitor with a wide variety of birds. From the low altitude, subtropical thickets in the east to the high altitude temperate grasslands in the west - this region covers many habitats and their accompanying birds.The North West Zululand is well known for its large wetlands, rolling hills and wide variety of big game, including the big five. Fifty eight of Southern Africa's endemic and near endemic birds are found here too, many of them confined to the extensive grasslands and wetlands
Southern RouteThis premier forest birding route is home to a great diversity of bird species. Starting on the warm coast of Zululand between Mtunzini, the "place of shade," and Richards Bay, the route moves inland through estuarine swamp forest up to coastal scarp forest in the foothills of Eshowe.Surrounding Eshowe are a number of forested regions where the endemic Green Barbet of Ngoye Forest is just one of many forest specials which inhabit this region. Further inland are the towns of Melmoth and Nkandla, which, although they fall in the mistbelt, drop sharply down to dry thornveld habitat providing a range of cliff faces where Lanner Falcons, Rock Kestrels and Bald Ibis breed annually.
ZBR Changing Lives
ZBR Bird Guides
The Zululand Birding Route has an excellent network of community bird guides at most of the birding sites. These guides know their areas and ensure that your birding is productive and of course safe! Guides charge R350 for half a day and R500 for a full day (per group, not per person)Guides can be booked by clicking here
