The Birdlife-SA Big Birding Day is due to take place on the 30th November. Big Birding Day is an annual national event organized by Birdlife South Africa which raises funds for bird conservation and is a fun way for watching and learning about birds. This year the event coincides with Wessa Lowveld's Bioblitz Challenge and all keen birders/ naturalists living or visiting the lowveld during this period are encouraged to take part in this opportunity.

The Southern Lowveld area has an exceptionally high diversity of birds and there would potentially be up to 300 possible species from the region that could be recorded on the day. These include a variety of raptors such as eagles, vultures, owls and accipiters, waterbirds, spurfowl, plovers, korhaans, kingfishers, turacos, shrikes, robin-chats, rollers, woodpeckers, flycatchers, starlings, hornbills, bee-eaters, mousebirds, tits, sunbirds, bulbuls, barbets, hoopoes, parrots, cuckoos, coucals, turacos, doves, drongos, orioles, oxpeckers, honeyguides, wagtails, swallows, swifts, nightjars, thrushes, babblers, warblers, cisticolas, larks , pipits, weavers, sparrows, whydahs, finches, canaries and buntings.

The varied habitats in southern Kruger (from the hilly south-west Malelane Mountain Bushveld, Mixed bushwillow woodlands, Open Savannahs, Pretoriouskop Sourveld and Sabie/Crocodile Thorn Thickets and Lebombo mountains) as well as the rivers and seasonal pans each contain their respective complement of bird species and are worth visiting. Many of the towns in the region such as White River, Nelspruit and Malelane also provide favourable habitat for garden birds and other species. During this time of the year the migrants are back and many species are actively breeding making for a productive time for birds and birdwatchers alike.

The rules for Big Birding Day are:

Record all the bird species seen or heard during a 24-hour period from midnight on Friday 29 November to midnight on Saturday 30 November 2019.

Teams can consist of a maximum of four members.

The maximum area that can be visited is an area within a radius of 50 km.

Only free-flying birds may be recorded (i.e. no caged birds).

The majority (for example 2 out of three or 3 out of four) of the team members have to agree on a call or sighting.

Teams are requested to limit the use of callback to attract birds to an absolute minimum.

To participate in Big Birding Day, you can register via this link: https://www.birdlife.org.za/support-us/events/birding-big-day-2019/

Participants are encouraged to also post their sightings on this i-naturalist project (Wessa Lowveld BioBlitz Challenge) after the event.

Posted on November 21, 2019 08:16 AM by loonatick