Zululand Birding Route is the first BirdLife South Africa avitourism project, it has been running for more than a decade focused on conserving our birds and their habitats by developing and promoting birding tourism (avitourism) in the Northern Kwazulu-Natal region; which is helping conserve birds in Zululand by giving them direct financial value and is able to carry out this role of socio economic development and conservation work in Zululand through generous sponsorship from many bodies.

To date the Zululand birding route has trained and mentored over 35 community bird guides for the route resulting in ten fulltime tourism/nature related jobs and eighteen SMME; marketed the area exhibiting in trade shows nationally and internationally, finalist for the Smithsonian Institute sustainable tourism awards in 2003 and made considerable progress developing birding infrastructure in the Northern Kwazulu-Natal region.

With more than 600 species recorded, the Zululand Birding Route is southern Africa’s birding diversity hotspot! A network of 16 self-drive routes offers a range of great birding localities that will thrill the most seasoned birder. For convenience these are grouped into four regions – North East Zululand (Elephant Coast), North West Zululand , Southern Zululand and North Coast Route (Zulu Root).

World-famous birding venues provide forest, grassland, wetland, bushveld, mountains, estuarine, coastline and open ocean habitats, making this southern Africa's most diverse area for birding. 63 southern African endemic or near-endemic species are present, making this region a must on any birders' wish list.

Birding Routes

This route is sub-divided into four more distinct routes. Please click on a link below to find out more:

	Elephant Coast Click on the button for more information about resources on the route.
	North-West Zululand Home to about 500 species, North West Zululand provides the visitor with a wide variety of birds. From the low altitude, subtropical thickets in the east to the high altitude temperate grasslands in the west, this region covers many habitats and their accompanying birds.
	South Zululand Southern Zululand, a premier forest birding route, is home to a great diversity of bird species. Starting on the warm coast of Zululand between Mtunzini, "place of shade," and Richards Bay, the route moves inland through estuarine swamp forest up to coastal scarp forest in the foothills of Eshowe.
	North Coast Birding on the North Coast is spectacular. So far about 460 species of birds have been identified. Expectations are that with the development of the birding route, the final tally will exceed the 500 mark.