Birding in South Africa’s national parks

South Africa hosts about one tenth of the world’s bird species. The country’s national parks offer excellent venues to view these birds, and with parks located in all corners of the country, in a variety of habitats, each park has its own unique assemblage of species.

BirdLife South Africa ran a series of webinars as part of the Conservation Conversations platform delving into some of our top national parks for birding. These webinars, presented by expert guides and locals, are a fantastic resource for those birders wanting to visit one of our national parks, covering not only the birds, but also other key points of interest, accommodations, habitats, and other facets important to visitors.

Chris Patton (Visitor Services Unit, SANParks) gave us an overall look at what is offered across the SANParks network after which we featured various individual parks.

Below are the links to each of the park features. Make sure to look for each of the parks on our GoBirding map!

SANParks Summary – Chris Patton

Kruger National Park – Duncan McKenzie

Kgalagadi National Park – Dr Albert Froneman

West Coast National Park – Trevor Hardaker

Addo Elephant National Park – Dr Daniel Danckwerts

Mapungubwe National Park – Joe Grosel

Garden Route National Park – Mike Bridgeford

Golden Gate Highlands National Park – Rick Nuttall

Agulhas National Park – Dr Wim de Klerk

Mountain Zebra National Park – Wesley Gush

Mokala National Park – Dr Doug Harebottle

About the Author: Andrew de Blocq

Andrew de Blocq is the Avitourism Project Manager at BirdLife South Africa. He oversees the various tourism projects, including the Community Bird Guide Project, the South Africa Listers’ Club, our network of BirdLife South Africa Recommended Accommodations, Tour Operators, and Course Providers, as well as the GoBirding platform. Andrew joined BirdLife South Africa in 2018 after completing his Masters at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. He is a passionate birder, with nearly 750 birds on his South African list.

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