St Lucia Birding Update- February '25

Palm-nut vulture flying over the Lake St Lucia estuary mouth

It was a wet February with over 350mm of rain falling during the course of the month. As a result the bush is lush and green and wetlands have topped up nicely after almost drying out by the end of January. 

The wetlands surrounding St Lucia nice and full again after the good rains

The Wetlands have continued to produce some great birds with regular sightings of Saddle-billed stork, African pygmy-goose, White-backed duck and the odd Lesser moorhen and Lesser jacana.

Saddle-billed stork

With the plentiful rainfall in St Lucia and catchment areas, the umfolozi river has been in flood for most of the month washing up plenty debris on the beach. This has continued to attract beach scavengers such as Yellow-billed stork and Palm-nut vulture which scavenge on the remains of washed up freshwater fish pulled into the ocean by the flooding river.

Yellow-billed stork at the Lake St Lucia estuary mouth

The tern roost has grown in numbers and has been holding good numbers of Lesser crested tern (over 20 at times) along with large numbers of Little, Greater crested & Common tern as well as smaller numbers of Caspian and Sandwich tern.

Tern roost at the Lake St Lucia estuary mouth. Lesser crested terns with orangey-yellow bill.

The 3 African skimmer have remained throughout the month, providing birders with fantastic sightings. Interestingly an African skimmer was also seen at Cape Vidal- possibly one of the 3 that ventured up the coast.

African skimmer (front) with Caspian tern

Other birds regular at the mouth and surrounding beaches have included Common-ringed, White-fronted & Kittlitz's plover, Sanderling, Curlew & Common sandpiper, Little stint, Ruddy turnstone, Eurasian whimbrel, African oystercatcher, Wooly-necked stork, Kelp & Grey-hooded gull, Sand martin, Southern brown-throated weaver, Brimstone canary, Western osprey, Rufous-winged cisticola.

Southern brown-throated weaver

Birding has been more challenging in the forest due to the lush growth and resulting gloomy conditions. Breeding has also started to taper off with birds much less vocal. Nevertheless, we have enjoyed fantastic forest birding during the course of the month with regular Buff-spotted flufftail sightings, Green malkoha, Black-throated wattle-eye, Red-backed mannikin, Livingstone's turaco, Narina trogon, Blue-mantled crested flycatcher, Woodwards batis and Grey waxbill. Interestingly we observed 2 seperate abandoned Dark-backed weaver nests being used by Grey waxbill for their nesting. 

Green malkoha in St Lucia

Raptor-viewing has been great on the Eastern shores of Isimangaliso with regular sightings of Southern-banded snake-eagle, Brown snake-eagle, Black-chested snake-eagle, Common buzzard, African cuckoo-hawk, African marsh harrier, African crowned eagle, Western osprey, Long-crested eagle, African harrier hawk and African fish-eagle.

Southern-banded snake-eagle

Nocturnal birding has produced sightings of African wood-owl, Swamp nightjar, Fiery-necked nightjar and White-backed night-heron