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 Route
The 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 Route
Home 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 Zululand Route
This 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.
North Coast Route
460 species of birds have been identified. Expectations are that with the development of the birding route, the final tally will exceed the 500 mark. This concentrated biodiversity is due to the location at a major ecological transition zone with a great variety of habitats including the coast with many estuaries and lagoons, rare grasslands, a diverse range of forests and woodlands as well as upland cliffs, gorges and valleys. The impressive Tugela River is at the core of the region, which stretches from Kranskop inland and along the coast from Tinley Manor in the South, covering the Umvoti and Zinkwazi areas, to Amatikulu in the North. The species richness is also evident amongst other life forms. The area boasts the greatest diversity of butterflies and the greatest concentration of the elusive Bushbuck in the country. It also competes with the best in terms of tree and habitat diversity, and is home to many plant, insect, reptile and mammal endemics.
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The Zululand Birding Route
is in the process of re-launching its membership system - for further information on the benefits and details of becoming “Friends of the Zululand Birding Route” please click here to download the application form, or contact Michael Blose by email or phone 0727340438 for further info on this exciting new development.
Sightings SMS
As part of the Zululand Birding Route’s awareness and marketing drive, a unique “sms update” system will be launched, through which members can opt to receive live sms updates on rare bird sightings, events and birding related info. For further info Email us.