Let's Go Birding: Birding and Wildlife Safaris

Tour Operator – Let’s Go Birding: Birding and Wildlife Safaris

About the Tour Operator:

Driven by a deep passion for birds and the wild places they inhabit, Let’s Go Birding South Africa offers immersive, expertly guided birding experiences designed to connect you with Southern Africa’s remarkable avifauna. Led by highly experienced guide Jacques Giliomee, each outing is thoughtfully crafted to balance targeted birding with a genuine appreciation for landscapes, habitats, and the stories they hold.

From the fynbos-clad slopes of the Western Cape to iconic destinations such as Kruger National Park and beyond, tours are tailored to suit every level of birder – whether you’re chasing lifers, refining your identification skills, or simply enjoying time in nature. With a strong emphasis on personalized itineraries, small groups, and maximizing time in the field, guests can expect a seamless, rewarding experience tailored to their individual birding goals.

What truly sets Let’s Go Birding South Africa apart is Head Guide Jacque’s intuitive ability to find and interpret birds in their environment, combining sharp field skills with a patient, engaging guiding style. The result is more than just a checklist of desirable species; it’s a rich, memorable journey into the heart of Africa’s birdlife, where every sighting adds depth to your understanding of the natural world.

Why Use Let's Go Birding

Let’s Go Birding South Africa is a leading professional birding tour company, offering expertly guided birding experiences for both local and international birding enthusiasts. We cater to small groups and private individuals, delivering highly personalized birding tours across South Africa, Southern and East Africa, and select international destinations, including Costa Rica.

We specialize in custom-designed birding tour packages tailored to suit your budget, time frame, and birding goals—whether you are planning a once-in-a-lifetime birding holiday, a focused lifer trip, or a short birding escape to the Western Cape, Kruger National Park, or beyond. Every itinerary is thoughtfully planned to ensure a worry-free, safe, and seamless experience, with limited travel time to maximize time in the field and overall birding enjoyment.

Let’s Go Birding welcomes all levels of birders, from novice and casual birders to seasoned listers and dedicated twitchers. Wherever you are on your birding journey, our tours are designed to educate, inspire, and deliver meaningful encounters with birds in their natural habitats. Along the way, guests are encouraged to ask questions, learn more about bird identification, behaviour, habitats, and birding equipment, and deepen their appreciation for avifauna and conservation.

With expert guiding, in-depth local knowledge and a genuine passion for birds and nature, Let’s Go Birding offers unforgettable birding experiences that go far beyond simply ticking species—creating journeys that are immersive, enriching and truly memorable.

by joining our very interactive Let’s Go Birding Community Facebook Group.

We can help… we custom-design your trip to reach your target birds!!

“Your Target Birds, Our Strength”

Meet Your Guide

Jacques Giliomee is a registered and highly experienced bird guide based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is qualified to guide across all nine provinces of South Africa, including the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and North West. His guiding experience includes some of the country’s most iconic birding destinations, such as the Kruger National Park, the high-altitude Sani Pass, the Namaqualand region (including seasonal flower and birding tours), as well as key birding areas along the West Coast, Overberg, and Garden Route.

Beyond South Africa, Jacques leads and collaborates on birding tours throughout Southern and East Africa, including Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Uganda, and also internationally in Costa Rica, a global hotspot renowned for its exceptional avian diversity and tropical species richness.

Passionate, dedicated, and deeply knowledgeable, Jacques is the founder, creator, and administrator of the Let’s Go Birding South Africa Facebook group—a highly interactive and welcoming community for birders of all experience levels. He is particularly well known for his detailed bird identification illustrations and for assisting fellow birders, especially beginners, with identifying photographed species and gaining confidence in the field.

Over the years, Jacques has built an extensive knowledge base and access to lesser-known and exclusive birding hotspots, earning a strong reputation for successfully “targeting” sought-after species for both local clients and international twitchers. His ability to consistently locate key birds has made him a trusted guide for those aiming to add meaningful lifers to their lists.

Largely trained through hands-on field experience, Jacques offers birding adventures that go beyond the obvious—often hearing what others cannot and spotting what others miss. He is also well-connected within the professional birding community and actively collaborates with fellow guides when clients travel to other provinces or international destinations, ensuring a seamless, high-quality birding experience wherever the journey leads.

Fledgling Programme

The Fledgling Programme – Inspiring the Next Generation of Birders

Let’s Go Birding South Africa is a leading professional birding tour company for local and international birding enthusiasts, offering expertly guided Let’s Go Birding tours and trips across South Africa and beyond. Alongside our professional tours, we are deeply committed to conservation, education, and inspiring a lifelong love for nature in future generations through our Fledgling Programme.

Founded by Jacques Giliomee—himself a proud dad of five—the Fledgling Programme was created with a clear purpose: to help preserve our natural environment by introducing children to the joy, value, and importance of birding from a young age. In a world where many children spend more time behind screens than outdoors, this initiative encourages kids to reconnect with nature in a meaningful, hands-on way, just as many of us did growing up.

The Let’s Go Birding Fledgling Programme offers free, guided birding outings for children aged 7–10 years and 10–14 years, providing them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to begin their birding journey. These outings are designed to gently guide young birders towards the exciting milestone of identifying their first 100 bird species, while fostering curiosity, respect, and awareness of the natural world.

Birding is widely recognized as a powerful educational and developmental activity for children and is strongly supported by conservation organizations such as BirdLife South Africa. Through birding, children learn far more than just bird names—they develop patience, observation skills, and a deeper understanding of ecosystems and conservation.