Exploring Pigeon Valley: The Mangrove Kingfisher

This is the 56th in an ongoing series that highlights the riches of Pigeon Valley, the urban nature reserve in the heart of Glenwood. The focus of this article will be on the Mangrove Kingfisher.

As I walked out this week, I passed a car that had pulled up at a neighbour’s. ‘What will you be photographing?’ the driver asked. ‘Birds, I hope!’ ‘I hope you see something good,’ she said.

Thank you! I went up to an open area that provides some of the best birding, and there was a brilliant white chest facing me and a line of intense red – a Mangrove Kingfisher! This is an endangered bird whose habitat, mangroves, has been severely restricted through what we strangely call ‘development’.

ALSO READ: Exploring Pigeon Valley: The Natal Spurfowl

Of course, Pigeon Valley is not a mangrove swamp, but twice a year these birds move to or from their breeding grounds and, in the process, they visit patches of forest on the way. One even spent some time, a few years back, in central Durban, and Richard Boon, the botanist, had one in his garden for a few days.

This bird would be moving probably north from breeding grounds on the Eastern Cape coast to mangroves along the KwaZulu-Natal coast. It is vulnerable to flying into buildings and of course to further destruction of its habitat. Maybe there are only about 200 in South Africa, concentrated in areas such as St Lucia estuary, Richards Bay and Mtunzini. Yet, possibly, they come fairly often to Pigeon Valley, usually March/April and September/October. They do not call and may well be missed, though one day a couple of years back I and a friendly neighbour simultaneously saw one perched quietly on a branch.

Crispin Hemson chairs the Friends of Pigeon Valley, a group that undertakes clearing of alien plants, keeps records of bird and mammal sightings and alerts management to any problems.

The Friends have a monthly walk at 7.30am on the second Saturday of each month. Email: friendsofpigeonvalley1@gmail.com.

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