There’s a feast of birds to be seen in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park

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More than 500 bird species have been recorded within the borders of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, making it one of the country’s most rewarding bird-watching destinations – a fact that was once again proven to be undeniable during my latest tour of “The Place of Miracles and Wonders”. Even if I hadn’t ticked the Lesser Moorhen for the first time this would still have been a bumper birding trip! Lets start the birdwatching off with a few videos.

African Pygmy Kingfishers are little winged jewels and in our experience iSimangaliso is one of the best possible places to search for them during summer.

Another bird that you are more likely to see in iSimangaliso than probably anywhere else in South Africa is the Crested Guineafowl.

Grey-headed Gulls are the most commonly observed of their family on the beaches of iSimangaliso. This one found a dead fish but is struggling to gulp it down!

There were so many Hamerkops to be seen all over the Park – they’re obviously enjoying the inundated conditions and the boom in fish and frog numbers associated with it!

Of course, with so much of the Park under water now it’s hardly a surprise that waterfowl are to be seen in exceptional numbers, but what was especially gratifying to me was the plentiful sightings of African Pygmy Geese and White-backed Ducks – elusive species I’ve only rarely seen previously.

At the KwaMalibala-hide this flock of White-faced Whistling Ducks dabbling and diving for food were great entertainment. In the hot weather their splashing seemed quite refreshing!

Altogether we managed to see and identify 174 different species of birds in the 10 days that we spent in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park on this latest tour that included the town of St. Lucia and its surrounds, the Eastern and Western shores sections and the uMkhuze Game Reserve.

African Darter
African Pied Wagtail
African Pygmy Geese among Blue Water Lilies
African Pygmy Kingfisher
African Swamphen
African Wattled Lapwing at her nest with eggs
African Wattled Lapwing nest with eggs
Bearded Scrub Robin
Black Crake
Black Heron
Black-bellied Bustard
Broad-billed Roller
Brown Snake Eagle
Cape Cormorant
Cattle Egrets in flight over the sea at the estuary of Lake St. Lucia
Collared Pratincole
Common Buzzard
Common Ringed Plover
Common Sandpiper
Common (left) and Swift (right) Terns
Crested Guineafowls
Dark-backed Weaver
Fan-tailed Widowbird
Giant Kingfisher
Glossy Ibis
Great Egret
Green-backed Heron
Grey Heron
Grey-headed Gull
Hamerkop
Immature Kelp Gull
Laughing Dove
Female Lesser Masked Weaver
Little Bee-eaters
Little Egret
Long-crested Eagle
Little Grebe
Malachite Kingfisher
Narina Trogon
Purple Heron
Rattling Cisticola
Red-billed Teal
Reed Cormorants
Ruddy Turnstone
Saddle-billed Storks
Sanderlings
Secretary Bird
Spectacled Weaver
Squacco Heron
Squacco Heron
Southern Banded Snake Eagle
Swift Tern
Trumpeter Hornbill
Village Weaver
Wahlberg’s Eagle
Water Thick-knee
Whimbrel
White-backed Duck
White-backed Duck diving
White-faced Whistling Ducks
White-fronted Plover
Wood Sandpiper
Woolly-necked Storks
Yellow Weaver
Yellow-billed Egret
Yellow-billed Storks
Eastern Nicator
Yellow-throated Longclaw

Remember that DeWetsWild will gladly assist you with reservations and guided tours of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park if you’d like to visit this wonderful place as well.

19 thoughts on “There’s a feast of birds to be seen in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park”

  2. Pingback: iSimangaliso’s animals – great and small | DeWetsWild

      1. scrapydo2.wordpress.com

        Ek het voor Covid al begin neerskryf wat ek gesien het om in my Journal wat ek spesiaal gekry het om in te teken/verf wat ek gesien het met ‘n datum en beskrywing by. Dit het toe net gebly by aanteken en geen tekeninge. Gelukkig het ek aantekeninge. Moet nou net begin om dit te teken en te verf. Laaste was nog Bellbird wat ek vir eerste keer gesien het.

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