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Who
we are:
The Website
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we are
About the Cape Birding Route Website
This
site is maintained by three South African birders: two ornithology
research students, Callan Cohen and
Claire Spottiswoode, and an experienced ornithologist,
Dr Peter Ryan. We run Birding
Africa, a consulting and specialist guiding company, and are
endeavouring to encourage ecotourism and international birding
interest in Africa, and more specifically our home region
around Cape Town.
Birding
and ornithology are both hobbies and a career to us, and we
hope that these pages will impart to both locals and prospective
visitors some of our enthusiasm for this extraordinarily biodiverse
region and its landscapes, fauna and flora. Below is a summary
of our activities; please see the
the Birding Africa website > Our Tour Leaders for
more details.
About
the Book - Essential Birding: Western South Africa
Essential
Birding was born out of frequent requests by both local and
visiting birders for assistance: what are the best areas to
visit, where are the best sites for the endemic birds, and
how can we see them during a short visit to the region? We
have done our best to answer these questions.
The region covered by this book combines the Western and Northern
Cape provinces of South Africa, loosely referred to as the
Cape. Our purpose is to provide the best sites for the region’s
characteristic birds and to link these together into practical
routes suitable for a short visit to the region. Each route
forms a chapter (see map on contents page), beginning with
a regional map and introduction, and followed by site accounts
accompanied by individual maps. At the beginning of each chapter
is a short list of its most sought-after species (‘Top
Birds’), and the chapter is completed by a more detailed
discussion of ‘Select Specials’. In the latter,
we have aimed to give the reader a feel for the best places
to visit and techniques to employ in searching for these species
(asterisked* page numbers alongside bird names in the text
refer to these ‘Select Specials’ pages). The annotated
bird list at the end of the book lists all the species that
have been recorded in the region, together with their alternative
and scientific names, references to text citations, and status
along each of this book’s nine routes. Read international
and local book reviews.
Copyright and
Acknowledgements
Callan Cohen & Claire Spottiswoode
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Callan
Cohen and Claire Spottiswoode were born and educated
in Cape Town and became dedicated birders at a very
young age.
They
are deeply interested in evolutionary biology and are
currently research students at the Percy FitzPatrick
Institute of Ornithology at the University of Cape Town,
respectively specialising on the systematics and biogeography
of the Bustard family, and behavioural ecology of an
endemic starling. They each graduated with distinction
in Zoology, Botany and Applied Maths from the University
of Cape Town, and are contributors to several books
(including The Atlas of Southern African Birds,
The Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa and
Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa 7th edition
in prep.) and popular and scientific journals.
Callan and Claire are also highly
experienced African birders, and countries that they
have birded extensively include South Africa, Tanzania,
Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Morocco, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana,
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Madagascar
and the Comoro Islands, and have made brief forays into
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. One
of Callan, Claire and Peter's highlights was their involvement
in the rediscovery of the Namuli Apalis Apalis lynesi
in northern Mozambique, not seen since its discovery
in 1932.
In
particular, they have an intimate knowledge of Southern
Africa and were successively the youngest people to
see the landmark 800 species in this region (Callan
at age 21 and Claire at 18). They currently hold the
record for not only the most bird species seen in western
South Africa in 24 hours (over 220), but have also seen
over 40% of Southern Africa's endemics and near-endemics
in one day based near Cape Town. However, they're also
dedicated natural historians and have a passion for
all things natural, notably mammals, frogs, reptiles,
and the plants of the Cape Floral Kingdom and Karoo
semi-desert.
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Callan
Cohen
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Claire
Spottiswoode
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In their five years of operation as Birding Africa, the specialist
bird guiding company they founded in 1997, they've personally
guided over 300 birders, as well as working for prestigious
UK, USA and Scandinavian bird tour companies, such as Sunbird,
Zegrahms Eco Expeditions and the Danish Ornithological Society.
Callan is certified as a Specialist Ornithological and Natural
History Guide with SATOUR (South African Tourism), and is vice-chairman
of the Cape Bird Club, Africa's largest bird club.
Peter
Ryan
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Peter
is a lecturer at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of
African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, and has
also taught ornithology at the University of California.
He joined Birding Africa in early 2001, bringing
his huge experience of leading numerous African birding
tours since 1982.
A
keen birder, Peter has birded on all seven continents
is a long-standing member of the South African Rarities
Committee. He's also co-editor of the current revision
of Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa, and is
presently also working on a field guide to the birds
of the Afrotropics, as well as having published widely
in books and popular and scientific journals.
His research interests include the
evolutionary ecology of birds, notably the endemic buntings
at Tristan da Cunha and African larks and warblers.
Peter is one of the Southern Oceans' most experienced
seabirders, having made numerous visits to Gough Island,
Tristan da Cunha, the Prince Edward Islands and Antarctica,
and regularly guiding on Cape
Town pelagics. He currently also works on reducing
seabird mortality on longlines.
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Peter
Ryan
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