Birding in Belvidere Estate is endlessly rewarding.  With a recorded total of over 270 species and the habitat varying between the well-treed gardens, bird hide and the water’s edge, opportunities for the birdwatcher are endless.

While walking through the estate, the enthusiastic birder is guaranteed to see the iconic and colourful Knysna turaco and with luck a Chorister robin or the secretive Knysna warbler.  Cape sunbirds and a variety of other sunbirds take advantage of the well-established gardens, while the call of the African fish eagle by day and the fiery-necked nightjar hint at so much more to be found.

The endangered African black oyster catcher has found a safe haven in the surrounding salt marshes, along with other waterbirds such as reed and Cape cormorants, grey herons, brown-hooded kingfisher, little egrets, African spoonbills and African sacred ibis.

A large number of migrant waders, including whimbrels, greenshanks, grey and ringed plovers and curlew sandpipers arrive from the northern hemisphere in September – October to spend the summer in the rich feeding grounds of the Knysna estuary.