Drakensberg Rockjumper, Chaetops aurantius, family Chaetopidae, South Africa

Drakensberg Rockjumper or Orange-breasted Rockjumper (Chaetops aurantius),  Afriski, Butha-Buthe, Lesotho.

Rockjumper Birding Tours’ Private Tours Department has grown rapidly in the past few years. Many successful tours have been set-up, catering for any specific needs or just pure exclusivity.

A recent 4-day private tour of the Drakensberg region in South  Africa incorporated a day of hiking into the itinerary. The hike took us up the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains to view some 800-year-old ‘Bushman Rock Art’, as shown here. This was definitely a highlight, along with great bird sightings such as Drakensberg Rockjumper, Gurney’s Sugarbird, Karoo and Drakensberg Prinias, Bearded and Cape Vultures, Jackal Buzzard, Half-collared Kingfisher, Bokmakierie, Swee Waxbill, Cape Grassbird, Long-tailed Widowbird, South African Cliff-Swallow, Fairy Flycatcher, Layard’s Warbler, Levaillant’s and Pale-crowned Cisticolas and even the hard-to-find Fan-tailed Grassbird.