BeKZN STAKE-OUT |DURBAN BOTANICAL GARDENS

16 October 2025

It was a good idea to move this outing away from the chaos of December. The birds were more relaxed and numerous. A Common Moorhen was active with four chicks.

Common Moorhen and chicks – Margaret Cooke

There were plenty of birds breeding which brought us to a very interesting fact (after looking it up on a birding app). Black-headed Herons develop a red eye during the onset of breeding which then reverts back to the yellow eye once it is actually breeding.

Black headed heron with red eye indicating sexual maturity and breeding readiness – Margaret Cooke

Black headed Heron with yellow eye once breeding – Margaret Cooke

Other birds breeding were Sacred Ibis and Pink-backed Pelicans.

It was interesting to watch an interaction between a Grey Heron and an African Spoonbill who both wanted to be in the same spot – must have had some tasty baby fish there…

Confrontation. African Spoonbill and Grey Heron – Margaret Cooke

There were plenty of other birds around such as breeding Village Weaver, Southern Red Bishop and Pied Kingfisher which were actively fishing.

A Palm-nut Vulture came and sat in a tree near us giving great views.

Although we had heard about Black-crowned Night Heron that were breeding by the pond it took us most of the morning to actually locate them right in front of our eyes – we’d been looking in the trees where all the other herons were breeding.