My household visited Kruger Nationwide Park on common twice a 12 months over the 11 years we lived in South Africa, and regardless of the longer drive than the southern areas of the park, the Punda Maria camp within the northernmost part of Kruger was one in every of our favorite areas. It has the sensation of being barely extra distant, which is confirmed by the smaller variety of guests and larger collection of particular birds. That is the ultimate of a number of posts I wrote on birding in and round a number of the camps of this nice nationwide park, with earlier ones being on Pretoriuskop, Berg-en-Dal, Skukuza, Satara, and Letaba.
The obvious and entertaining proof of Punda Maria being extra tropical than the remainder is given by the group of Crested Guineafowls that routinely forage within the camp, changing the Helmeted Guineafowls in different areas. These birds strike the right steadiness between being lovely and comical, with the white pearls on their plumage and the wobbly crest being their most beneficial belongings in these two respects. I usually spent ages watching the beautiful bluish and creamy tones of their finely ocellated physique and wing plumage which might be a lot extra intricate than on their helmeted cousins (therefore being awarded the featured picture).
The opposite birding spotlight of the camp – which is kind of one thing after having watched Mosque Swallow and breeding Bearded Woodpeckers from my tenting chair – are the Brown-necked Parrots that come to drink on the waterhole in entrance of the camp. These are often joined by Brown-headed Parrots, though the 2 don’t all the time appear to get alongside (see picture).
Smaller and extra widespread birds are after all additionally round, with Inexperienced-winged Pytilia being a selected favorite of mine. I did spend fairly some time watching them as a result of I hope an Orange-winged Pytilia would present up, because it did within the camp for fairly some time. Being unfortunate on this regard, I thankfully appreciated the fragile colors and finely barred underparts of this species, fairly in its personal proper.
The cafe and store was additionally a pleasant space to hang around – not notably due to their meals (though I might by no means resist a small snack within the type of an ice cream right here) however due to a breeding pair of Southern Black Tits in a tree gap right here. These birds had been busily bringing in meals for his or her offspring, apparently not bothered by this being the one place within the camp with probably the most human exercise (or maybe this stored predators at bay through the day?).
Sport drives round right here didn’t produce as many thrilling sport animals as different areas of the park, however the ensuing decrease vacationer numbers is precisely why we all the time loved this area of the park. In addition to, over our a number of visits to the world, we nonetheless noticed all the massive 5 right here, together with one in every of our greatest leopard sightings. Nonetheless, the birds are after all extra thrilling right here, with one of many highlights being Arnot’s Chat. We solely noticed this species as soon as right here, however I’m undecided whether or not it will possibly extra simply be discovered if particularly appeared for.
A extra widespread however nonetheless completely pleasant fowl to come back throughout is the Double-banded Sandgrouse. As these birds are often not very shy, their intricately-marked plumage can usually be admired at size. The Mahonie loop the place we noticed this species was very productive basically, with Better Painted-Snipes being in all probability our greatest fowl right here.
The northernmost space of Kruger presents notably thrilling birding. Though we’ve by no means visited the world throughout peak birding season (akin to early summer season when even Pennant-winged Nightjar could be discovered right here!), this was very noticeable. Notably the world round Pafuri and Crooks’ Nook is value exploring, as that is recognized for numerous subtropical riverine and woodland species.
