Congratulations on starting your journey to become one of the millions of birdwatchers across the globe! Apart from being a fun and exciting hobby for people of all ages, the physical and mental activity involved in birdwatching is good for your general wellbeing. Birdwatching doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby so don’t let budget get in the way of making a start. All that you will probably need to buy is a pair of binoculars. You can pick up a pretty decent pair of new entry-level birding...

There is a misconception that most birdwatchers are from the blue-rinse retiree section of society. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, when you start digging around, we found that there is a huge diversity of young and old birdwatchers, from presidents and prime ministers to actors, musicians, scientists and royalty. I think you’ll agree it’s a pretty interesting list.    Famous Birdwatching Politicians   Alec Douglas-Home: UK Prime Minister from October 1963 to Oc...

When looking at the heaviest bird in the world, there are two distinct categories. The first is the outright heaviest bird in the world and the second is the heaviest flying bird in the world. The heaviest bird in the world is the Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus) with an average weight of 104kg. Most subspecies of the Common Ostrich weigh between 63kg and 145kg. The North African subspecies of the Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus) is however the heaviest with a maximum weight of up t...

This Kruger National Park Birding Checklist is compiled from over 13 million SABAP2 records for South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. The checklist includes a count of the number of times each species has been recorded in SABAP2 for both South Africa and Kruger National Park. This will provide users with a good indication of how frequently the species is seen in Kruger. As you will see from these observation counts, there are a number of species that have only been seen in Kruger a handfull of ti...

There is nothing like relaxing in a nice bird hide and settling in for a good days birding. If you are living in or visiting Cape Town, there are myriad beautiful places to visit for some great birding. Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Table Mountain and Cape Point are all spectacular and well-known locations to spot our feathered friends. There are, however, some other dedicated spaces with the opportunity to see fantastic water birds. These are the top 4 nature reserves with bird hides around C...

The rare birds of Kruger National Park is a list of South African species that are generally only seen in Kruger National Park. For example, 2,956 of the 2,981 (99%) of Yellow-billed Oxpecker sightings were seen in Kruger National Park. So, it’s safe to say that Kruger is the place to visit if you want a good chance to tick the Yellow-billed Oxpecker on your life list. Although some of these species may be commonly seen in Kruger National Park, all of them will not be commonly seen anywhere else...

Digital photography has been a game changer for birders and given rise to bird photography at a level never seen before. More and more birders have added long lens cameras to their birding equipment arsenal and have begun identifying birds based on their photographic records rather than just what they see through their trusty binoculars. Choosing the correct size (aka focal length or magnification) camera lens for bird photography has therefore become a really important decision. A camera len...

So, you have probably heard birders taking about their life lists and wondered what they were referring to. If you are new to birding/birdwatching or you just want to know what people are talking about, then this explanation will give you some insight into a life list and the minds of the birders that keep them. A birding life list is typically a list of all the species that a person has seen over their lifetime. Birders describe adding a new species to their list as seeing a new ‘lifer’. For...