The modern Visitors’ Centre (1 on site map overleaf), located near the main entrance, is well worth exploring. Here one can enjoy a meal, browse the well-stocked tourist shop, consult the information kiosk, or search the excellent bookshop — offering arguably Cape Town’s best selection of natural history titles. The Visitors’ Centre is also home to a world-class glasshouse (the Conservatory), which contains a variety of succulent plants from South Africa’s arid areas. Ranging from a huge baobab to tiny stone-plants, this fascinating display is highly recommended for those with even the most casual botanical interest. A pair of Spotted Eagle Owls nests annually in the camphor trees just behind the Visitors’ Centre, and the staff usually know their precise whereabouts.

Castle Buttress stands sentinel above the gardens, flanked by Skeleton Gorge and Nursery Ravine. These are two of the numerous gorges that cut through the steep and moist eastern face of Table Mountain, providing welcome refuge from the often baking summer heat of the surrounding fynbos. In the ravines, two metres of annual rainfall maintains pockets of pristine afromontane forest, through which acidic, fast-flowing streams course over moss-swathed boulders and decaying trunks festooned with ferns. Clinging, well-concealed, to the shaggy moss of these streams is the very rare Table Mountain Ghost Frog (Heleophryne rosei), which is globally restricted to just a handful of gorges on these eastern slopes. Despite the idyllic setting, however, birders may find the Peninsula’s forests disappointingly quiet relative to the diversity that abounds farther east — although there are rewards for those who are patient.

The most accessible forest is along the Braille Trail (2 on map opposite) an easy walk that loops gently through the trees. It begins on a broad gravel path opposite the Fragrance Garden, which is just a short stroll across the lower lawns from the main entrance and Visitors’ Centre. It is best to start here as early as possible, as human activity increases steadily during the morning. Knysna Warbler (p.32*) sometimes lurks along the streams and thickets here, but the Constantia Greenbelts (p.18) and Skeleton Gorge (p.19) are more reliable places to search for it. Cinnamon Dove is a true forest species that is often found shuffling through the leaf litter in the dappled shade of the understorey. For the best chance of seeing it, make an early start up the gravel track mentioned above (2), concentrating your search at the sharp corner after about 300 m (3). Other forest birds found here and along the Braille Trail also extend down into the formal gardens. These include Rameron Pigeon, Sombre Bulbul, Olive Thrush (p.13), Cape Batis, Paradise and Dusky Flycatchers, and Forest Canary — the latter a relatively recent arrival on the Peninsula (see page on recent arrivals on the Peninsula). The whole of Kirstenbosch is also a fine area for raptors: early mornings and evenings are when forest hawks, such as Red-breasted and Black Sparrowhawks and African Goshawk, are most likely to be seen (see box, p.18).

Next, visit the small, tranquil forest patch, known as the Dell, which surrounds Colonel Bird’s Bath, a clear spring welling up in the middle of the gardens (4). The huge trees overlooking the spring invariably hold perched Rameron Pigeons. From the Dell, one can ascend through the jumble of the Cycad Garden into the upper part of Kirstenbosch (5), where protea and erica plants abound. Their flowerheads are adorned with Cape Sugarbirds and Orange-breasted Sunbirds respectively, whose approachability will be much appreciated by photographers. Fynbos vegetation is globally renowned for its remarkable diversity of bird-pollinated plant species, and Kirstenbosch is a perfect place to observe this mutualism in action.

Make your way downhill from the protea section, along the right hand edge of the Dell, following one of the myriad paths that eventually lead to the lower gardens. Common and conspicuous birds of the cultivated gardens are Cape Francolin, Helmeted Guineafowl, Cape Robin, Karoo Prinia, Southern Boubou and Lesser Double-collared Sunbird. Species found here that are characteristic of more wooded environments in the Cape are Red-chested Cuckoo (calling September— November), Black Saw-wing Swallow (summer), Speckled Mousebird and Bully Canary. Passing the Aloe Garden (6), look carefully at Kirstenbosch’s unusual Fiscal Shrikes, which show a patchy white eyebrow, characteristic of the northern Cape subspecies. Before leaving, it is worth visiting the small marsh (7) that lies below the old parking area. Here, the noisy Grassbird, Levaillant’s Cisticola and Common Waxbill vie with the ceaseless chorus of Cape Chirping Frogs (Arthroleptella lightfooti) and Clicking Stream Frogs (Strongylopus grayii).

The forests high above Kirstenbosch are the haunt of the localized and reclusive Knysna Warbler (p.32*), a southern Cape endemic which lurks in the forest understorey, giving a beautiful song but obstinately resisting attempts at a clear view. Birders who enjoy hiking and decide to venture up to the top of Skeleton Gorge in search of Knysna Warbler might consider a round trip, returning behind Castle Buttress and down Nursery Ravine. This moderately strenuous half-day walk along orchid-lined streams quickly elevates one from the hustle and bustle of the city suburbs below and into the calm sanctum of Table Mountain’s southern reaches. Although Knysna Warbler occurs along the length of the Skeleton stream, it is perhaps most easily seen in the bracken-dominated section at the head of the gorge, where the path climbs out of the rocky riverbed. On the mountain top, a pair of Black Eagles regularly hunts, Black Swifts nest in the cliffs at the top of Nursery Ravine, and Cape Siskin (p.33*) and Ground Woodpecker (p.105*) occur on the rocky crags of the buttress proper. The unrivalled elusiveness of the Striped Flufftail will become immediately apparent to anyone following up the bizarre cackles and hoots that emanate from the denser fynbos.