Cape Town, one of the world’s most beautiful cities, is located near Table Bay on the northern extremity of the stunning Cape Peninsula. This morning we will fetch you from your Cape Town hotel and spend the day taking you to some of the Peninsula’s top birding sites. We will try to find a lot of the localized endemics (of which there are many), and we will also see flamingo, pelican, and other waterbird spectacles, plus we will enjoy fantastic botanical garden birding in idyllic surroundings.
We start the day at the famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Here it is quite easy to find some important fynbos endemics such as Orange-breasted Sunbird and Cape Sugarbird. Other fine birds such as Cape Spurfowl, Southern Boubou, Cape Canary, Brimstone Canary, Cape Rock Thrush, Cape Robin-Chat, Karoo Prinia, Swee Waxbill (with luck), and a whole host of other excellent birds abound. European Honey Buzzard, a very rare bird in South Africa, is actually regular at Kirstenbosch in late summer. Many other raptors are possible in the gardens and at other sites we will visit during our Peninsula day trip – including Verreaux’s (Black) Eagle, several exciting accipiters, Jackal Buzzard (endemic), Forest Buzzard (endemic), Rock Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, and others.
After an early lunch, we will visit a wetland, either Rondevlei or Strandfontein Bird Sanctuary. Here we should find wildfowl such as Cape Teal, Maccoa Duck and many others, Greater Flamingo, Great White Pelican, African Black Oystercatcher, Purple Swamphen, three grebe species, shorebirds, African Marsh Harrier, a host of heron species, four species of reed-associated warbler, and many more. We will visit a colony of African Penguin (one of only three mainland colonies of this Namibia/South Africa endemic) en route to the spectacular southwestern-most tip of the African continent, Cape Point. From this “end of the world” spot we should see Cape Gannet, a large breeding colony of Cape Cormorant, and quite a number of interesting terrestrial birds – Cape Grassbird, Cape Siskin, Bokmakierie, and Cape Bulbul are exciting possibilities.
Time permitting, we may be able to briefly visit Kommetjie for both species of endemic Cormorant (Bank and Crowned), White-fronted Plover, and other species. However, we are trying to fit in a huge amount anyway during this frenzied day of Cape birding. In fact, birders wanting a more relaxed pace or wanting to fit in additional sites should definitely add a second day of Peninsula birding. An additional day greatly increases the chances of finding difficult species such as accipiters and Forest Buzzard.
The guide for day trips is allocated only after you have booked, as all of them are run as private trips. But we always use the country’s top birding guides.
Please email us (info@birdingecotours.co.za) for more trip reports from this destination.
