With over 400 bird species recorded, Mapungubwe is a birder’s paradise. The park opened in 2007 and is still relatively unexplored with no definitive bird list compiled yet. The Limpopo treetop boardwalk offers a superb birding opportunity by allowing visitors a view into the canopy of a stretch of riverine forest. At the end of the boardwalk is a well-positioned bird shelter on the bank of the Limpopo River. Migratory birds are present from November to April.
Birding Specials Treats for Avid Birders
- African barred owlet
- African pygmy goose
- Allen’s gallinule
- Barred wren-warbler
- Black stork
- Black-backed puffback
- Black-faced waxbill
- Black-winged pratincole
- Broad-billed roller
- Burchell’s sandgrouse
- Caspian plover
- Cinnamon-breasted bunting
- Common cuckoo
- Crimson-breasted shrike
- Dusky lark
- Dwarf bittern
- Eastern paradise whydah
- Eurasian golden oriole
- Greater painted-snipe
- Grey-headed kingfisher
- Harlequin quail
- Kori bustard
- Lesser spotted eagle
- Meves’s starling
- Meyer’s parrot
- Monotonous lark
- Olive-tree warbler
- Pel’s fishing-owl
- Retz’s helmet-shrike
- Saddle-billed stork
- Senegal coucal
- Southern boubou
- Southern carmine bee-eater
- Southern ground hornbill
- Southern pied babbler
- Square-tailed nightjar
- Striped pipit
- Swallow-tailed bee-eater
- Thick-billed cuckoo
- Three-banded courser
- Tropical boubou
- Verreaux’s eagle
- White-crested helmet-shrike
- White-headed lapwing
Best Time for Bird Watching
Resident birds are joined by migratory birds in Mapungubwe from November to April. This is the best time for bird watching, although birding is generally good year-round. However, this is a hot time of the year and May to September is overall a nicer time to visit.