Special announcement

February 2010: Birdwatch magazine voted Birding Africa, which includes Cape Town Pelagics and Cape Birding route, as one of the top 5 bird most recommended bird tour companies in the world. (Click here for more survey details.)

Latest Updates

26 July: New trip report and photographs from the 15 May Cape Town Pelagics trip led by Barrie Rose. See photographs of specials seen such as Black-bellied Storm Petrel: click here.

21 July: Last place: Cape Birds & Flowers tour, 6-17 August. Join Callan Cohen and see birds, spring flowers and mammals. Have a sneak preview - click here to see a slideshow.

4 July: New Cape Town Pelagics trip report and photographs. Click here to see photographs and read about the sightings of Wandering Albatross, Humpback Whale and more.

5 July: Trip report, Western Cape: Guide Tertius Gous reports back about magnificent snow-capped scenery with specials such as Karoo Eremomela and Protea Canary. Read more, click here.

31/6/10: Last two places: Cape Town Pelagics trip 4 on July. Join leader Barrrie Rose while you support seabird conservation. Exceptional last minute discount: R795. Click here to book.

22/6/10: Last two places: Cape Birds & Flowers tour in August. Join Callan Cohen and see birds, spring flowers and mammals. Have a sneak preview - click here for the slideshow.

22/6/10: Cuckoo Finch research: Birding Africa co-founder Dr Claire Spottiswoode and Dr Martin Stevens discover how hosts can tell their own eggs from those of brood parasites! Read on here.

22/6/10: Archer's Lark's only site is invaded by Parthenium weed, finds the Somaliland Birding Africa expedition team survey.

4/6/10: Pelagics Trip Report from the Cape Town Pelagics on 29 May 2010 led by guide Dalton Gibbs.

4/6/2010: Trip report, Cape Town: Guide Otto Schmidt went out to see 100 species on 21 April. 'Top drawer' service, wrote Jay. 'Efficient service and excellent guide' said Nigel & Chris.

4/6/2010: Somaliland birding photographs: Callan sent us his second batch straight from the field!

3/6/2010: Birders spotted another rare Cape leopard! For the second time in May, now thanks to watching Verreaux's Eagles!

1/6/2010: Trip Report, Western Cape: Cape Eagle Owl, Protea Seedeater and more. Dalton, Michael and Otto report about 197 lifers - click here.

27/5/10: A new bird hide opened at Rooisand Nature Reserve - Marje Hemp attended the inauguration and reports about alien timber, Osprey and the Biodiversity Festival: click here.

25/5/10: Cape leopard, mobbed by Pied Crows, seen with Birding Africa! Our guide and the Cape Leopard Trust report back: click here.

24/5/10: Grey-headed Albatross and Black-bellied Storm Petrel, unusual sightings on 15 May with Cape Town Pelagics.

20/5/2010: Callan Cohen is exploring Somaliland with Michael Mills and others. They report back and share some pictures.

22/4/2010: New Tour: Malawi Birding Tour, 13 days in November 2010 with tour leader Michael Mills.

28/3/2010: New Tour: Ghana: Yellow-headed Picathartes and forest birding in December 2010.

27/3/2010: Madagascar: Good news for birding and lemur-watching; Rosewood logging and export is now prohibited.

17/3/2010: Golden Nightjar found and photographed on a Birding Africa trip to Cameroon.

5/3/2010: Trip report: summer birding in February: the Cape Peninsula and Hottentot's Holland with guide Otto Schmidt.

4/3/2010: African Openbills on our Cape Town birding trips. 2010 brought the first ever record of these storks in Cape Town!

25/2/2010: Madagascar: top birds and experiences from our latest tours, as voted by tour participants.

22/2/2010: New Namibia-Okavango photographs by Utz Klingenböck on a Birding Africa tour in October 2009.

19/2/2010: Birdfair 2009 raised £263,000 for BirdLife International’s project ‘Preventing Extinctions: Saving the World’s Critically Endangered Birds’. Birdfair 2010 will raise funds for ‘Saving southern Ethiopia’s endemic birds’. Join our tour to Ethiopia and Somaliland in June 2010.

17/2/10: Read Peter Ryan's and Callan Cohen's article about Rwanda Birding and get ready for our African Bird Club Conservation Fund Tour to Rwanda.

15/2/10: Booted Eagle, Sooty Blue butterfly and Marbled Leaf-Toed Gecko seen at the Birding Africa office garden today.

11/2/10: Madagascar's Ebony and endangered lemurs are being poached at an alarming rate. Read Wikipedia about the illegal logging and see how the internet and tourism can help.

3/2/10: Our first 2010 trip report! Eastern South Africa Endemics, led by Michael Mills.

3/2/10: See Picathartes on video, filmed by Martin Kennewell on the Birding Africa tour to Cameroon.

2/2/10: Grey-backed Storm Petrel, the 2nd record for southern Africa! See the pictures taken on our 27 December Cape Town Pelagic trip.

2/2/10: Uganda Birds & Primates: Callan and Deirdre have just returned from leading three tours - here are some photographs.

2/2/10: Soccer & Birding: combine the FIFA World Cup with Cape endemics and Karoo specials. Please e-mail info@birdingafrica.com or phone +27 21 531 9148

2/2/10: Check out our updated 2010 and 2011 tour calendar.

22/12/09: Help find Frodo, Cape Town's juvenile Black Eagle. He left Noordhoek Peak and carries yellow wingtags "Y006". Please contact Lucia Rodrigues.

29/11/09: Callan and Deirdre have just returned from their Madagascar tour - here are some birds they photographed.

28/10/09:

Click here to see the image galleries!

On 24 October 2009, South African birders and photographers photographed South Africa's amazing bird diversity to raise awareness about climate change! Oganised by: Birding Africa, PlusPlusMinus, Birdlife South Africa and 350.org.
Click here to see the list of 365 submitted species.
Click here to meet the team.

24/10/09: Would you like to positively contribute to the environment while birding?
Have a look at these greening projects that can help you offset your carbon footprint.

21/10/09: New Cape Town Pelagics trip reports from 17 October 2009. Highlights: Flesh-footed Shearwater and 6 Indian 6 Yellow-nosed Albatross.

19/10/09: New Trip Report from the Diversitas conference day trip to Rooiels, Stoney Point and Harold Porter Botanical Gardens on 17 October.

14/10/09: New Trip Report from the Hottentot's Holland Day Trip on 13 October 2009.
Highlights: Cape Rock-jumper, Cape Siskin and Ground Woodpecker.

14/10/09: New Cape Town Pelagics trip reports from August, Septemer and October 2009.
Highlights: Antarctic Fulmar, Little Shearwater, Southern and Northern Royal Albatross

Get out with your cameras on 24 October, show South Africa's amazing bird diversity and raise awareness about climate change! Submit your pictures and help create an amazing mosaic of 350 bird species in South Africa through the
350-24-24 Bird Photo Challenge!

Join us, Birding Africa, PlusPlusMinus, Birdlife South Africa and 350.org on 24 October. Register on http://350.birdingafrica.com!


27/09/09: Dalton Gibbs reports back from Gough Island!

26/09/09: New Cape Town Pelagics trip report from trips of 12 and 19 September 2009.

30/08/09: British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water proved very successful, with sunny weather and over 20,000 visitors. Callan's "Birding Namibia and the Okavango" was the most highly-attended lecture on the Saturday, with over 240 people. Congratulations to the winners of the Birding Africa competition and the African Bird Club raffle (which we sponsored)!

25/08/09: New Cape Town Pelagics trip report from trip of August 15 2009.

19/08/09: Rwanda: African Bird Club Conservation Tour in 2010 or 2011!

12/08/09: New Cape Town Pelagics trip reports from August and July 2009. Highlights: Little Shearwater and more!

07/08/09: Birding Africa: find out why we are a Birder Friendly Tour Operator registered with Birdlife Travel!

07/08/09: The sub-adult Black Sarrowhawk visits our garden again! Read on about Raptor Research in the Western Cape.

27/07/09: Cape Town's Verreauxs' Eagle Chick has grown! And its sibling never had a chance to hatch. See the pictures of the chick, its nest and the breeding pair. Find out more about the Western Cape Raptor Research Programme.

27/07/09: To follow modern nomenclature and systematics, we've adopted the IOC World Bird List, Version 2.1.

13/07/09: The 8th African Bird ID Challenge has launched! Win a 50% discount on a Cape Town Pelagics trip, a copy of Southern African Birdfinder, or African Bird Club membership for 1 year.

06/07/09: Cape White-eye research in our garden.

02/07/09: Cape Town's Verreauxs' Eagle Chick has hatched! See the pictures of the chick, its nest and the breeding pair and find out more about the Western Cape Raptor Research Programme.

02/07/09: Campbell Fleming, a Cape Town scholar, avid birder and photographer, joined Birding Africa last month as an intern. Click here, to see what he got up to.

02/07/09: New pelagic trip reports from the Cape Town Pelagics trips in June 2009. Highlights: Slenderbilled Prion and Leach's Storm Petrel

30/06/09: Our latest Cape Fynbos and Karoo trip reports feature Hottentot Buttonquail, Cinnamon-breasted Warbler and other fynbos and Karoo endemics...

26/06/09: Tungsten mining threatens RAMSAR site, South Africa's Verlorenvlei. Read the Media Release.

22/06/09: Claire Spottiswoode, one of Birding Africa's founders, was part of the exploratory team at Mount Mabu. The mountain is part of the newly discovered largest rainforest in Southern Africa.

11/06/09: A colour-ringed Black Sparrowhawk visits the Birding Africa office garden. Read why it's a 10 months old male!

31/05/09: Michel Watelet wins the African Bird Club ID Challenge 7. Test your African birding skills... and WIN a Birding Africa Cape Town day trip or a copy of the Birdfinder!

30/05/09: A tragedy unfolded at Kommetjie south of Cape Town as 44 beached and exhausted False Killer Whales were shot during an attempt by hundreds of volunteers to coax further members of the group out to sea. Click here for pictures and more details.

21 May 09: 129 oiled penguins from Namibia were transported 3000 km to Cape Town and rehabilitated by our guide Tertius Gous and SANCCOB. After several weeks of constant and professional care by Tertius and volunteers, over 80 penguins have rehabilitated were released near Cape Town today! All are tagged and some have radio-transmittors. We hope they will make it back to Namibia!

3 May 09: The latest Cameroon Birding Tour Report is now online. Top birds were: Red-headed Picathartes, Brown-chested Lapwing, Quail Plover, Crossley’s Ground-Thrush, Grey-headed Broadbill, Green-breasted Bush-Shrike, White-crested Turaco, Swallow-tailed Kite, Ursula’s Sunbird, Little Oliveback and Arabian Bustard.

30 April 09: The British Foreign Commonwealth Office has relaxed its warning against travel to Madagascar. Tourist visas are now free for stays up to 1 month in 2009. We plan to go ahead with our tours, with the 31 October to 15 November tour being our flagship tour.

30 April 09: Have a look at Wim de Groot's Namibia pictures, taken on a Birding Africa Namibia & Okavango trip.

19 April 09: Extinction warning for the Sidamo Lark was issued this week after surveys by Claire Spottiswoode and colleagues, which Birding Africa helped sponsor. Read more on BBC News and The New Scientist websites.

14 April 09: Destination map

14 April 09: Tour pages: Ethiopia, Mali, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and São Tomé and Príncipe.

7 April 09: Tour pages: Gabon, Cameroon, Tanzania, Botswana and Namibia.

7 April 09: Trip Reports: Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Eastern and Western South Africa.

5 April 09: follow Kersten and Callan on Kersten's Namibia tour blog until April 17!

17 March 09: We are deeply saddened by the passing, after a short illness, of Dr. Steven Piper, one of our favourite guides. We'ld like to extend our deepest condolensces to Steven's family. Steven was a larger than life character with a passion for birding. He had so much energy and devoted a great deal of his time to ringing and teaching, and leading expeditions up to Lesotho. We wish his family comfort and strength.

17 March 09: We are very concerned with the illegal change of government in Madagascar. On the advice of our friends and associates in Madagascar, we're placing our trips on standby and will almost certainly postpone them until next year's wildlife season. Please contact us to express interest in these trips, but note that they are most likely to run between October and December 2010. We continue to monitor the situation to be able to make a decision as best as possible on whether the trips will run.

11 March 09: Raptor Watch with The Friends at Newlands Forest on 14 March 2009, Cape Town!

8 March 09: Trip Reports: Madagascar 18 day and 21 day bird & lemur tours.

7 March 09: Wildlife at the Birding Africa office: pictures and species lists!

7 March 09: Contact us: new contact details!

3 March 09: Angola tour page: pictures, prices, tour details and trip reports.

3 March 09: Madagascar tour page: pictures, prices, tour details and trip reports.

1 March 09: 2009 and 2010 Tour Calendar

1 April 08: Subscribe to our newsletter.

1 Oct 08: Come and visit us at the British Birdwatching Fair from 21 to 23 August 2009. We hope to once again meet you at the British Birdwatching Fair in 2009. It'll be another bustling event, so don't hesitate to set-up an appointment so we're sure to not miss you for once that we come to the UK! Please email Callan on callan@birdingafrica.com. Our stand has traditionally been in Marquee 3, stand 28/29. See www.birdfair.org.uk for more details.

We have also visited the Dutch Birding Fair in Lelystad. See www.vogelfestivaal.nl for more details.