Zululand’s birdlife in focus

Zululand, rich with its beach, bush, forest and wetland diversity, is home to an array of wildlife and birdlife, and a group of us aspirant twitchers recently spent some time with one of the top birding guides in the region.

After getting into birding at the age of 14, Junior Gabela later undertook the necessary courses through Birdlife South Africa to become an accredited bird guide.

Almost 20 years on, Junior has made a name for himself, becoming the ‘go-to’ guide for twitchers, aka hardcore birding enthusiasts, who want to see some of Zululand’s most elusive species.

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These include the famed green barbet, which exists only in the Ongoye Forest outside Mtunzini.

With the green barbet on the itinerary for the near future, our recent birding outing focused on the coastal wetlands around Mtunzini.

The mudflats at uMlalazi Nature Reserve are where the sharp tailed sandpiper was seen in recent weeks, but was thought to have left the area before our outing.

A rare vagrant to South Africa, this was the first recorded sighting of the sharp-tailed sandpiper in the country.

The weather not entirely on our side, we set off for a walk in uMlalazi Nature Reserve in search of the elusive green malkoha and Narina trogon.

Despite the wind, some great sightings were enjoyed, including violet backed starling, black collared and white eared barbets, trumpeter hornbill, grey and purple-banded sunbirds, common ringed plover, rufous winged cisticola and yellow bellied greenbul, among others.

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After some searching and a change of location, the highly prized Narina trogon was spotted along a forest walk in Mtunzini town.

This incredibly shy bird barely showed herself, but at least did not sit with her back to us, blending in with the leaves.

Perched relatively high in a tree, we were able to sight her in amonst all the branches and leaves surrounding her.

Had it not been for Junior’s ‘eagle’ eyes, this Narina trogon could easily have slipped through the cracks.

Find Junior Gabela on Facebook or contact him on 082 6673704.

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