Namibia / South Africa / Lesotho Ramsar wetland
Orange River
26 bird species recorded; the most in September.
Martin Cígler · CC BY-SA 3.0
This month here
11 species in January.14 species in February.12 species in March.7 species in April.0 species in May.16 species in June.0 species in July.0 species in August.18 species in September.0 species in October.10 species in November.2 species in December.
The birds you are most likely to see in the month you choose, those that come for the season first. It opens on today's month.

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No records for this month.
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No records for this month.
No records for this month.
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No records for this month.
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- Resident all year
- Summer visitor comes to breed
- Winter visitor comes for the winter
- Passage migrant in spring and autumn
In numbers
26 species, counted.
Our own rating, from the records only: species (50 points), threatened species (20), migrants (20) and protected status — Ramsar, IBA, SPA, observatory (10).
- 26Speciesrecorded more than once
- 9Migrantssummer, winter or passage visitors
- 1ThreatenedVulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered (IUCN)
- 134Recordsopen records within 6 km
- 2,864 mAltitudeabove the sea
- 4Raptors
- 18Songbirds
- 4Other birds
From open records (eBird and others, through GBIF, licensed for any use). More birdwatchers mean more records: a quiet place may have more birds than it shows.
The checklist
All 26 species.
By group, with the year in twelve cells: the darker the cell, the more often the bird is recorded that month.
Raptors4 species
- Cape VultureGyps coprotheresVU
- Bearded VultureGypaetus barbatusNT
- Jackal BuzzardButeo rufofuscus
- Rock KestrelFalco rupicolus
Songbirds18 species
- White-necked RavenCorvus albicollis
- Orange-breasted RockjumperChaetops aurantiusNT
- Drakensberg SiskinCrithagra symonsi
- Red-winged StarlingOnychognathus morio
- Cape RobinCossypha caffra
- BokmakierieTelophorus zeylonus
- African StonechatSaxicola torquatus
- Malachite SunbirdNectarinia famosa
- Cape CanarySerinus canicollis
- Drakensberg PriniaPrinia hypoxantha
- Cape CrowCorvus capensis
- Dark-capped BulbulPycnonotus tricolor
- Cape BuntingEmberiza capensis
- Sentinel Rock-thrushMonticola exploratorNT
- African Scrub-warblerBradypterus barratti
- Familiar ChatOenanthe familiaris
- Rock MartinPtyonoprogne fuligula
- Greater Double-collared SunbirdCinnyris afer
Other birds4 species
- Speckled PigeonColumba guinea
- Alpine SwiftTachymarptis melba
- Ground WoodpeckerGeocolaptes olivaceusNT
- Grey-wing FrancolinScleroptila afra
Monthly presence relative to all bird records that month, so a busy month does not inflate every species.
When to go
The most species in September.
Species recorded in each month, with the usual temperature and rain.
- Jan20°/8°193 mm
- Feb19°/8°155 mm
- Mar18°/6°115 mm
- Apr15°/2°64 mm
- May12°/-1°16 mm
- Jun9°/-4°14 mm
- Jul9°/-4°12 mm
- Aug12°/-3°23 mm
- Sep16°/0°32 mm
- Oct19°/4°82 mm
- Nov19°/5°115 mm
- Dec20°/7°163 mm
- Bar: species recorded that month.
- Temperature: average maximum / minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
- Rain: monthly total.
The place
Orange River.
Major river of southern Africa
Orange River is a wetland of international importance (Ramsar) in Namibia, 2,864 m above the sea.
26 bird species have been recorded here more than once, in 134 open records.
The most recorded are the Cape Vulture, the Bearded Vulture and the White-necked Raven.
9 species come for the summer, 0 for the winter and 0 only pass through.
1 are threatened worldwide, including Cape Vulture.
The most species are recorded in September.

Get there and watch
- Chichi Bush Campcampsite · 2.3 km · 7 within 10 km
- Moshoeshoe I International Airport (MSU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 155 km in a straight lineCar hire at MSU airport (Maseru)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The place and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the bird hides, towers and trails that OpenStreetMap shows.

Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 2marked trails within 4 kmMnweni Marathon, Drakensberg Sentinel - Cathedral
- 2viewpoints within 5 km
- 7campsites within 10 kmChichi Bush Camp, Campsite 360 and 5 more
- 4places to stay within 10 km
- bird hides within 6 km
- observation towers within 6 km
- visitor centres within 6 km
- car parks within 3 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
Around Orange River.
The lakes, beaches, islands, rivers and mountains around this place, and its night sky, in the family's atlases.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The place, as people saw it.
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q181475) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Birds | 134 open bird records within 6 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only; mostly eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology) |
| See these records | gbif.org |
| Species | GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikidata (CC0); Wikimedia Commons |
| Altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Temperature and rain | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.






