Better Birding

Join us tomorrow night at 19h30 (GMT +2) for a discussion with Callan Cohen on Honey Buzzard hybridization and identification.

Join us tomorrow night - Wednesday 9 September (GMT + 2) for the next installment of our Pelagic Birds and Birding webinar series.

Mike and Dom are going to focus on the Shearwaters and Storm Petrels in part 3. Again, we have permission to use Faansie Peacock's fantastic seabird artwork from the new Sasol 5 field guide (we hope you all have a copy) and will supplement those with some fantastic photos to ensure that we highlight all the subtle and salient features to separate some of the trickiest IDs on the open ocean.

You can watch the live stream here on our page or email us at [email protected] for the Zoom link.

Hi Birders,

We are going to run Part 2 of our Pelagic Birding webinar series on Wednesday 15 July at 19h30.

Mike and Dom are going to focus on the Petrels in part 2, and there will be no shortage of amazing artwork from the new Sasol 5 field guide, supplemented by some dazzling photos from this attractive group of birds, which will be a treat.

Hold onto your hats, we’re back and we’re going Pelagic Birding!

South Africa is arguably one of the leading pelagic birding destinations in the world and trips like Birdlife South Africa’s Flock and all the regular pelagic trips that leave from Cape Town and Durban have certainly put pelagic birding on the map. There’s nothing quite like watching thousands of albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, and storm-petrels behind a trawler as they haul up their nets…bucket list stuff!

Every birder should try and get on a pelagic at least once, but identifying seabirds is not always straightforward so we’ve compiled a series of webinars on Pelagic Birding, starting next Wednesday, 17th June 2020 at 19:30 (GMT+2). The topic will run over a series of separate webinars, the dates of which will be announced in due course.

We are very pleased to be joined by our good birding friend, Dr. Dominic Rollinson (of Snowy Egret fame!), who is one of Southern Africa's most experienced and knowledgeable pelagic birders. Dom completed his Ph.D. on the impact of long-line fishing on pelagic bird species and has spent many months on long-line boats gathering data and observing seabirds. Dom is also one of the co-authors of the much-anticipated Sasol 5 and has been instrumental in this revision.

In the first of our series on pelagic birding, we'll talk a little bit about Dom's involvement in the new Sasol and what to expect, the dos and don'ts of birding at sea and then we'll focus our ID attention on the 16 albatross species that have been recorded in Southern African waters.

There is no need to register again for these webinars, but if you know of anyone that might enjoy them please feel free to refer them to this registration link: https://forms.gle/yfEEBoCWMRr26fnU8

We will share the webinar Zoom and Facebook login details next week.

Join us on Wednesday 22 April at 19h30 (GMT +2) for part II of Tips & Tricks for Bird Photographers. If you haven't registered before, please sign-up here to attend this and future webinars: https://forms.gle/QpERxR4P3AC79Lte8

Bird photography - tips and tricks for amateurs [Part 1]
Since the advent of digital photography 20 years ago, it has become a more important and integrated part of birding. Whether you're just snapping a habitat shot with your cellphone or pointing your 600mm lens at any bird that moves, you may find something of use in our two-part series of webinars (15 April and 22 April) that will dig into what we've learned as birding photographers over the last 20 years.

We've invited our friend, Michael Mason, to join us and, despite his modesty, he is one of the best amateur photographers we know. His photos are amazing. We'll probably need to debate whether he's more birder or photographer, but he takes more photos than anyone we know and his dedication to the pursuit is bordering on fanatical. For example, we know that Michael has spent an entire day pointing his camera at a Southern Masked Weaver nest! Michael will share some of his own tips as well as some of his wonderful images and the stories that go along with them.

We will share the webinar Zoom and Facebook links the day before the webinar.

If you know anyone who would like to register for our Better Birding webinars so they receive these emails, please send them this link: https://forms.gle/QpERxR4P3AC79Lte8

Our next webinar is on Accipiter identification. We are very lucky to have the "Chuck Norris" of raptor identification, Niel Cillié, present on this webinar and he's going to help us sharpen up on identifying Accipiters - Sparrowhawks and Goshawks. You can register for this and other webinars here: https://forms.gle/QpERxR4P3AC79Lte8

Here's the recording of our latest webinar on Rare Waders. We were very lucky to have Trevor Hardaker share his immense wader knowledge and field experience with us. We focused on the occurrence and identification of rare wader species that have been recorded in Southern African.

Better Birding Webinar Rare Waders Birding webinar on rare shorebirds of Southern Africa hosted by Dave Winter and Michael Buckham with special guest Trevor Hardaker. The focus of the webinar ...

Join us on Wednesday 11 March for this webinar on rare waders. Register for the webinar here: https://forms.gle/ujrbmuGVQRNuNz2u5

Register for the webinar here: https://forms.gle/ujrbmuGVQRNuNz2u5