Birding

Canaries are part of a diverse group of granivores or seed-eating birds.

The Cape canary: synonymous with song

13 May 2013 | Vernon Head

The delight of canaries is loudest when you listen.

Tiny and shy, flufftails are enigmas to even the most avid of birdwatchers.

Flufftails: shy enigmas that are facing extinction

30 April 2013 | Vernon Head

Tiny and shy, flufftails are enigmas to even the most avid of birdwatchers. Sadly through the loss and reduction of their wetland habitat, they could be facing extinction.

A grey heron. Elegant, thin and long like a stream.

Birdwatching by the river

22 April 2013 | Vernon Head

From handsome water-thick knees gathered on sand spits to snake-eating grey herons, South African streams have some of the most diverse wildlife. There's nothing as relaxing as birdwatching by the river in the southern tip of Africa.

A male blackbird starts the breeding season with a simple tune and ends it with a symphony of innovated song.

Birdsong – nature’s music

12 April 2013 | Don Pinnock

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Because it’s been with us since the beginning of time, bird music always seems somehow right except, perhaps, when it comes from a hadeda. But that could be our fault.

New addictions at Tanzania’s Rubondo Island National Park

11 April 2013 | Anton Crone

Rubondo Island National Park is one of Tanzania's lesser known national parks, but that doesn't make it any less incredible. It's the largest Island national park in Africa, a lush, undisturbed forest filled with creatures great and small.

A Cape shoveler stretching athletically into flight – a master of its environment.

Meet the aquatic athletes of the avian world

26 February 2013 | Vernon Head

On land, they waddle widely, balanced atop splayed toes like wrestlers, but once they hit water, they paddle and dip and dive like Chad le Clos. Meet the aquatic athletes of the avian world: ducks.

The Cape sugarbird is synonymous with the protea; it’s almost part of the plant.

Discovering fynbos and feathers in The Cape Floral Kingdom

30 January 2013 | Vernon Head

Fynbos foliage flows tightly like water, hugging the shape of the land and folding with the earth. Look between shiny leaves and straw-like tufts, and you’ll discover an interesting set of little birds.

Discovering Zululand: Dlinza Forest in Eshowe

24 January 2013 | Stuart Parker

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I’ve decided to set a New Year's resolution: I am going to dedicate my available weekends to discovering my new back garden – the Zululand and KZN North Coast areas – and I am dubbing it Discovering Zululand.

Larking about

4 January 2013 | Vernon Head

From farmlands and desert sands to wild, grassy plains, a group of brown birds live subtly. Larks are little moving bits of earth, pebbles with feathers, leaves with beaks and tiny tumbling twigs with wings.

Bird-watching in Soweto

28 November 2012 | Chantal Stanfield

Bird-watching? In Soweto? Another twist in the tale of my Soweto Weekend courtesy of Fair Trade Tourism, Getaway and SoWeToo.