Today is the first in a series of posts about our birding tour in South Africa. In this post I’ll share an overview of the trip and some of the pre-tour activities we enjoyed. In subsequent posts I’ll focus on the region and/or habitat we were birding in – where we stayed and what we saw there. If you’ve never been on an extended bird tour in or out of the U.S. CLICK HERE to learn how to prepare for and get the most enjoyment from your trip, with special suggestions for bird photographers.
I’ve always had a fascination with South Africa and Kruger National Park in particular. Kruger is often described as one of the best places in the world to see wildlife (it did not disappoint). The idea of actually going there came the first time I met Josh Engle in 2019 and I found out that he used to live in South Africa and guided there for six years. I knew then that I wanted to go on a trip there with him as the guide.
It is no coincidence that Josh is the founder of Red Hill Birding, a local birding company out of Chicago. Red Hill Birding does many birding tours in the U.S. and abroad (we went on a Red Hill Birding trip to Panama with Adam Sell a couple of years ago). I can’t say enough good things about Josh. He was: highly organized, quick to hear and spot birds, knowledgeable about the other animals we saw, helpful to each participant, patient with all my questions, and filled every moment with opportunities to see birds.
For the first 11 days of the trip we were joined by expert local guide David Nkosi. The last six days of the trip Edward Themba was our local guide. Both were expert birders and so very helpful. Both of them could be driving down the road talking with us and then hit the brakes because they heard (or saw) a bird they wanted us to see. As good as they were, both deferred to Josh when it came to identifying some birds.
There were four couples on this tour and we all got along great – eight is an excellent group size where everyone can see the birds pointed out. Here’s a shot of the group with Josh on the left, David fourth from the left and Edward on the right. Karen and I are just right of center (I have the goofy floppy hat).
The tour itself started on October 8, 2025 and ended on October 24th – a total of 17 days of birding. During our tour we stayed at 9 different lodges and I’ll highlight some of them in future posts but all of them were comfortable, clean and friendly.
Below is a map showing the relative size of South Africa compared to the United States. As you can see it is roughly one-fifth the size of the continental U.S.
It was impossible to cover the country in only 17 days so the tour concentrated on two of the most productive areas. We flew into Cape Town (15 hour flight) and birded the southern part of the country first. On Day 10 we flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg and birded our way up to Kruger National Park. After four days in Kruger we flew back to Johannesburg and took our flights home.
Below are three maps covering the trip. The last one is from the eBird Trip Report generated by Josh and shows all the areas he submitted a checklist from. As you can see we concentrated on only two regions of the country.
Karen and I decided to arrive in Cape Town three days before the start of the tour. This gave us time to overcome our jet lag and it provided an opportunity to explore the city. We often do this when going to new places and I would recommend it. Upon arrival we stayed in a hotel near the hopping wharf area of Cape Town. We had a comfortable walk down to the restaurants and shops right on the water. Here’s a picture of the wharf with Table Mountain the background taken from our restaurant during lunch.
Our first day there we took a Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour around Cape Town. The bus tour has many stops where you can get off and then get back on the bus. All along the way there is a narration about the sights and history of the city and South Africa. It’s a great way to get a feel for the city and we would recommend doing similar tours in cities you’ve never been to. We hopped off and walked down the beach where we saw our first Lifers of the tour. Here’s a Crowned Cormorant on the rocks as the waves rolled in:
There were many different species of cormorants in the country. Here’s a common Reed Cormorant with several African Oystercatchers behind it.
The Hadada Ibis was one of the most commonly seen birds; we saw at least one every day of the trip. Here was the first, grazing in a park near the beach.
Another commonly seen bird was the Cape Canary. Here is our Lifer foraging on vegetation on the beach.
As you may know South Africa is known for its excellent wines so we took an all-day wine tasting tour from Cape Town to the Stellenbosch and Paarl wine regions. Here are a couple of pics from the tour. The first was taken at the Fairview Winery. The second was a wine-chocolate pairing at La Bri Winery. Mmmmm…
On the day before the bird tour started we visited Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated 18 of his 28 years in prison. Here’s a shot of the cell he was in during that time and one outside of the prison he was finally released from.
The first three days of our Red Hill Birding tour we stayed at the Cinnamon Hill Guest House, a few miles outside of downtown Cape Town. I’ll take up the story from there in a future post. Before that my next post will include some facts and figures related to the trip. Take a guess at how many shots I took? About how many Lifers do you think I got? That and more coming up.
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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What a tremendous experience you lovebirds must have had!