On Day 4 (October 11, 2025) of our Red Hill Birding “Best of South Africa” tour we packed our bags and left Cape Town and headed south-west toward Pringle Bay. We made an important stop as we headed out of town at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. I’ve usually had good luck at seeing birds in similar places but I had no idea how good the birding was going to be that morning!
Our greeting party as we walked past the ticket counter was this clutch of Egyptian Goose goslings following mom.
When we entered the grounds of Kirstenbosch we were presented with wonderful views of the same mountain range that included Table Mountain (which overlooks Cape Town).
The morning started out with partly-cloudy skies and lots of birds everywhere. Although I had photographed a Karoo Prinia before I had to take a few shots of this one as it fanned its tail out.
One of my favorite birds in South Africa was the Cape White-eye. I just loved these small birds as they foraged on leaves and flowers in several of birding spots we visited. I took many pictures of them along the way but this turned out to be my favorite shot.
This Bronze Manakin was introduced in South Africa (normally found much farther north in Africa) many years ago and is now considered “naturalized” by eBird.
As we wandered the grounds we came upon a small group of Swee Waxbill foraging on the lawn. Such pretty little birds, but I have such problems taking shots of birds in the grass – the camera just doesn’t know how to focus on them (always blame the equipment). I wanted lots of Great Bird Pics of them but this is the best I got.
As pretty as the Swee Waxbill was, it can’t compare to the Common Waxbill our local guide David found nearby. Simple, yet elegant, this is one of my favorite pics from the trip (you may remember this as one of my 2026 calendar shots).
As previously discussed, sunbirds inhabit the ecological niche hummingbirds inhabit in the Western Hemisphere. We found several species of sunbirds at Kirstenbosch Gardens, including this Southern Double-collared Sunbird feeding in the flowers.
A new species of sunbird spotted there was the Malachite Sunbird. I included an image of this one on my 2026 calendar, so here’s a different shot of the same male.
We were lucky enough to find a female Malachite Sunbird feeding nearby.
The bird of the day was the African Paradise-Flycatcher. Here’s a closeup showing its bright blue eye-ring.
What the closeup doesn’t show is its tail. Its looooong tail! This bird flew above us in a clump of trees and gave us some great shots with its tail curling down beneath it. What a bird!
We did have more ground to cover that day so we reluctantly withdrew from the gardens, but on the way out I spotted this Helmeted Guinafowl foraging in the flower bed. Although these were commonly seen in flocks in the fields we drove by in South Africa, this is the best look I had of one. A face only a mother could love…
We had other Lifers there such as Cape Robin-chat, Spotted Eagle-owl, and Rameron Pigeon so you can see why I loved Kirstenbosch Gardens so much. A beautiful location, filled with beautiful birds. We did have to push on though so we drove off in search of more South African Lifers – and a penguin colony, which I’ll cover in the next post.
CLICK HERE to see all the posts about our South Africa Bird Tour. Karen and I have had the opportunity to travel to many interesting places in search of birds. If you would like read about some of our other Bird Tours CLICK HERE.
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