Endemics of Cape Town


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I came to South Africa because it ranks as one of the top birding destinations in the world. Now that I’ve arrived and have had a chance to explore, I found that statement to be true. I booked a birding expedition with a tour group and got to stay in one of the Five Star Cape Town Hotels which was included in the tour package. South Africa offers an unbeatable combination of variety of birds and a well developed transportation systems.

I came to experience both the great variety of typically African birds, endemics (birds found only in Africa) and migrants. On my tour, I met birders from all around the world. They enjoy as much as I do the excellent birding, whether they are with an organised commercial birding tour, like the one we’re on, or just touring by themselves which is easily enough done because of the 850 or so species that have been recorded in South Africa, about 85 percent are resident or annual visitors. About 50 of those are endemic or near-endemic to South Africa and can only be seen in the country.

I found that it’s the endemics to be to most sought after sitings for birders visiting this country. Many are found in the grasslands, so that’s where our tour took us first. But, it was our next stop, The Western Cape region with which I fell in love, it not only had great birding, but I was treated to great wine, whales, jaw dropping scenery and a fantastic spotting of a Great White shark! I know that’s not a bird, but what a spectacular specimen. Well, apart from our pelagic, our tour included fynbos sitings like the orange-breasted sunbird, the protea seedeater and the Cape siskin. I found the Cape rock-jumpers located on the craggy mountainsides to be the most delightful. All in all, my birding expedition was phenomenal, I was pleasantly over-whelmed with the amount of birds I got to watch. Pleasantly surprised and pleasantly satisfied.

Related posts:

  1. Western Cape Town
  2. Cape Town Townships
  3. Cape Town and Johannesburg Gear Up for the Cup
  4. Mesopotamia in Cape Town South Africa
  5. Protoculture in Cape Town

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Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 Animals, Travel

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