South Africa | Birding and Wildlife Safari

Depart the United States for South Africa.

Today will be arrival day, with most participants arriving on evening flights. The temperature in South Africa ranges from high 80s to mid 50s in the summer months (December to March) with chances of afternoon thunderstorms. In the winter (June to September) you can expect low 60s to mid 30s with minimal chance of rain. Elevation is 5600 feet above sea level. You can find predominantly open 'Highveld Grassland' habitats.

After an early breakfast and orientation, we load up the vehicle for the drive through to our first night’s accommodation situated in a beautiful area of escarpment forest. We’ll spend much of the day travelling there with a birding stop along the way if time allows, perhaps visiting a small pan (seasonal, rain-filled body of water) where we’ll have a chance to search for species such as White-backed Duck, Yellow-billed Duck, Little Grebe, Great-crested Grebe, Purple Heron, and Common Moorhen. Afterwards we’ll drive through the small Highveld town of Dullstroom, before birding our way through to Mount Sheba via the beautiful Verloren Vallei Nature Reserve where we’ll search for some Highveld grassland species such as Wing-snapping Cisticola, Eastern Long-billed Lark, Yellow Bishop, Denham’s Bustard, and possibly Yellow-breasted Pipit, Southern Bald Ibis, and Blue Crane. From here we’ll finish the drive off with the aim of reaching Mount Sheba late in the afternoon with some time to relax before dinner.

Elevation 5300 feet/Afro-montane Forest and grassland habitats

We’ll be up early to explore the surrounding escarpment forest on foot, and although the number of species that occur in this habitat type is not very high, several will likely not be seen again anywhere else on the tour. Some of the specialties we’ll be looking for include Knysna Turaco, Grey Cuckooshrike, Southern Double-collared Sunbird, Yellow-streaked Greenbul, Narina Trogon, Cape Batis, Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher and White-starred Robin. Afterwards we’ll have a relaxed breakfast here, before packing up our gear and driving through to our next destination, situated on the edge of the Blyde River Canyon. Along the way we’ll do some general birding for species such as Red-throated Wryneck, Amethyst Sunbird, Neddicky and Streaky-headed Seedeater. We’ll aim to reach our accommodation in the early afternoon, allowing some time to relax during the hottest part of the day. Later we will stroll up to the viewpoint overlooking the canyon searching for Lazy Cisticola, Brimstone Canary, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and Green-backed Camaroptera along the way. We’ll enjoy watching the sun set over the magnificent Blyde River Canyon, before returning for dinner.

Elevation roughly 3840 feet/cliffs and gorges, forest and thickets habitats

We’ll start the day off with a birding walk to search for a few more species that we may have not seen yet including White-throated Robin Chat, Yellow-fronted Canary, Mocking Cliff Chat, Familiar Chat and Striped Pipit, before returning for a relaxed breakfast and some time to sort out our suitcases before we get going. Along the way to the Kruger Park we’ll search for species such as Cape Vulture, Cape Rock Thrush, Mocking Cliff Chat, Mountain Wagtail and, with luck, Taita Falcon, before arriving at the entrance gate to the Kruger National Park around mid-day. After grabbing a bite to eat we’ll spend most of the rest of the afternoon driving through to our camp, situated about 30 miles away, although a multitude of new species such as Magpie Shrike, Tawny Eagle, White-backed Vulture, Brown-headed Parrot and Green-winged Pytillia will be there to distract us. Mammals will also be well represented with Impala, Blue Wildebeest, Kudu and Southern Giraffe all likely to be seen on the way, whilst we may bump into some of the ‘big 5’ with African Elephant and African Buffalo in particular being likely possibilities.

Elevation varies from about 800 feet at Satara to 1920 feet at Pretoriuskop/Habitats: mainly savanna, with various sub-types such as basalt sweetveld, Sabie River thickets and Pretoriuskop sourveld.

Full day to explore the area around Satara camp, and we’ll initially focus our birding on the area to the north of camp where we hope to see Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark, Double-banded Sandgrouse, Namaqua Dove, Kori Bustard and Red-crested Korhaan. Species such as Gabar Goshawk, Sabota Lark, Burnt-necked Eremomela and African Pipit should also be seen. Afterwards we’ll return for a late breakfast in camp, followed by a short birding stroll before taking some time to relax during the hotter parts of the day. Later in the afternoon we’ll head out once more to try and add a few species to our list, and hopefully bump into some more of the large mammal species such as lion, with the Satara area offering excellent habitat for them.

Today we'll start off with a short morning drive in the region to search for more species such as African Green Pigeon, African Harrier Hawk, Grey Tit Flycatcher, Southern Red billed Hornbill and Southern Ground Hornbill, and as always we'll be looking out for the big predators such as Lion, Leopard and Cheetah. We'll then head back to camp for breakfast and to pack up all our gear for the drive through to our next camp, Skukuza, where we'll spend another two nights. The drive there will take much of the rest of the day as we'll be spending our time birding and searching for other wildlife along the way, this 57 mile journey often producing some incredible viewing. We break up the journey around mid-day when we'll stop at Tshokwane picnic site for lunch and a chance to stretch the legs before we continue on to Skukuza, arriving in the late afternoon for some time to relax in camp before dinner.

Explore the area around Skukuza, with the same approach as at Satara where we’ll be out during the morning and afternoon and relaxing in camp during the warmer periods around mid-day when activity typically dies down a bit. We’ll start off exploring the Sabie River where we hope to encounter White-browed Scrub Robin, Eastern Bearded Scrub Robin, Orange-breasted Bushshrike, Ashy Flycatcher, Golden-breasted Bunting and White-fronted Bee-eater. On the river itself we may find White-crowned Lapwing, Three-banded Plover, Goliath Heron, and with a fair share of luck, African Finfoot. Return mid-morning for breakfast, after which we’ll bird in the camp where Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Crowned Hornbill, White-browed Robin Chat and Long-billed Crombec may all be seen. We’ll take an afternoon drive in the area, hoping to find some of the usual thicket species such as Blue Waxbill, Red-billed Firefinch, Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Natal Spurfowl and Brubru, before returning just before the camp gates close and in time for a lovely dinner, possibly even adding Greater Galago to the list in the process.

We’ll be up early as we drive to a nearby bird hide where we’ll not only hope to add some species to our list in the form of African Darter, Malachite Kingfisher, African Pied Kingfisher, Water Thick-knee and African Jacana, but also hopefully getting some excellent photographic opportunities as the Hippos often come fairly close to the front of the hide. We’ll spend some time here before perhaps birding around the Skukuza plant nursery for a short period of time, before returning for breakfast and making our way through to our last night in one of the "new generation" camps in Kruger at Berg-en-Dal Rest Camp which is situated on the bank of Matjulu Spruit and is surrounded by rocky hillsides. The drive there will see us likely arrive around early afternoon. Later we’ll head out on a drive for a few target species such as Greencap Eremomela, African Penduline-Tit, Brown-headed Parrot, Little Bee-eater, Yellow-throated Bush sparrow and Bushveld Pipit, before returning to camp for time to get ready for dinner.

After a short morning outing around camp, we’ll return for breakfast and then start to make our way through to Wakkerstroom where we’ll spend the last two nights of the tour. The drive there will not involve a great deal of birding, although on the way there we may stop in an area of grassland to try and track down White bellied Bustard, with this race, formerly known as Barrow's Korhaan, sometimes being treated as a distinct species. We should arrive in Wakkerstroom late in the afternoon with some time to relax and get settled in before dinner.

Elevation 5700 feet/Habitat: mainly high-altitude grassland.

Today we’ll have a morning outing with a packed breakfast to explore the area around Wakkerstroom, and in particular to track down a few of the more scarce inhabitants of the grassland areas to the north where we’ll search for Blue Korhaan, Secretarybird, Grey-winged Francolin, Red-capped Lark, Eastern Clapper Lark, Pink-billed Lark, Blue Crane, Grey Crowned Crane and Southern Bald Ibis. Undoubtedly the most important species though are Rudd’s Lark and Botha’s Lark, both globally threatened with populations of fewer than 5,000 each, and for both, possibly as low as 1,500. Another species we may be lucky enough to bump into is Yellow-breasted Pipit, although this species can be tough to track down during the winter months. We’ll return to town around lunch time, after which we’ll have some time to relax, before spending the afternoon birding the wetland alongside town to track down Cape Shoveler, Red-billed Teal, Hottentot Teal, Spur-winged Goose, African Snipe, African Marsh Harrier, Little Rush Warbler and Black-crowned Night-Heron.

On our final morning we'll have an early birding drive in the region to search for any outstanding species and to perhaps find one of the local Meerkat troops before heading back to the lodge for breakfast and departure for Johannesburg. All morning activities on this day will depend on departure flight times, as it's a four-hour drive from Wakkerstroom to the airport.

Overnight flight and arrival home.