Birding Tour South Africa: Elusive Owls and Flufftails


Tour Costs

Fully customizable owl and flufftail tour!

Price: Usually between R14,000 / $841 / £641 / €765 and R25,000 / $1,502 / £1,145 / €1,367 per person sharing, based on group size and various other factors.


Recommended Field Guide

(Please also read our blogs about recommended field guides for the seven continents here)


Tour Details

Duration: 4 days
Group Size: 2 – 6
Tour Start: Johannesburg
Tour End: Johannesburg


Price Includes:

Transport
Guiding fees
Accommodation

Price excludes:

All flights
Meals and drinks

Elusive Owls and Flufftails

 

This short Birding Tour South Africa adventure concentrates on finding four particularly tough birds: African Grass Owl, Cape Eagle-Owl, Red-chested Flufftail, and Striped Flufftail. Although there is no guarantee, we have good chances of tracking these difficult avian denizens down.

Owls and flufftails birding toursThe elusive Cape Eagle-Owl can be seen with some effort!

 

The African Grass Owl is considered a vulnerable bird in South Africa, with only between 1,000 and 5,000 remaining in this country. We quite often see this species on this ‘Birding Tour South Africa’ excursion.

The flufftails are placed in the family called “Sarothruridae”, small birds related to the rails. They are restricted to seven species in sub-Saharan Africa and two species found in Madagascar. Their name is derived from the short tail, which has degraded fluffy feathers. All species except the White-winged Flufftail display sexual dimorphism in their plumage but not their size.

Owls and flufftails birding toursRed-chested Flufftail can occasionally show well!

 

Flufftails are highly secretive and seldom observed. In addition to the two species occurring in South Africa, there are two species, the Buff-spotted Flufftail and the White-spotted Flufftail, that inhabit dense forests; the remaining species are found in deep grasslands and marshes. One species, the Streaky-breasted Flufftail, is known to be migratory; it is uncertain whether other species are as well. The extremely rare White-winged Flufftail breeds in Ethiopia and South Africa, however, there is still a lot to be figured out about this cryptic and poorly understood species.

Flufftail toursStriped Flufftail is targetable at certain times of the year in South Africa. 

We attempt to spot the birds listed in bold above on this South African birding adventure.

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