Pigeon Valley

Pigeon Valley is a Natural Heritage Park and formally declared municipal nature reserve in Durban, South Africa. It is an unusual example of an urban reserve with very high levels of biodiversity. It was established to provide protection for the Natal elm (Celtis mildbraedii) and other forest giants of the coastal climax forest.[1] Another rare tree that occurs here is Natal forest loquat (Oxyanthus pyriformis), which is endemic to the Durban area and to oNgoye Forest. Pigeon Valley is about 11 ha in extent, and is situated on the Berea, overlooking Durban Bay. Its unusual north-south orientation may contribute to the biodiversity, with the south-facing slope covered in canopy forest, while the north-facing slope has thorny thickets. An adjoining reservoir, previously part of the reserve, provides a patch of coastal grassland.

For the Pigeon Valley in Turkey, see Uçhisar.

Hikers in Pigeon Valley

Animals

Red duiker at Pigeon Valley

Male buff-spotted flufftail in Pigeon Valley, January 2014

The park is home to red duiker and blue duiker. Other mammals include Large-spotted Genet, a troop of banded mongooses as well as slender and water mongooses. Blue vervet monkeys are constantly present. From early July 2019, a side-striped jackal has been seen in neighbouring roads and is apparently living in the reserve. This may be the southernmost sighting of this species.

Various species of forest birds are found here including; red-capped robin-chat, green twinspot, Cape white-eye, southern boubou, spotted ground thrush, purple-crested turaco and African paradise flycatcher. The black sparrowhawk breeds here annually. Another bird that is seldom seen but that is generally present is buff-spotted flufftail.[2] Unusual sightings of note in recent years include European nightjar, Knysna warbler, lemon dove, mountain wagtail, black-throated wattle-eye, common scimitarbill, palm-nut vulture and Knysna turaco. The current bird list for Pigeon Valley includes 162[3] species.

The spotted ground thrush is of particular note, as Pigeon Valley is one of the places where this endangered bird can be most reliably found in winter. It arrives typically in late March or early April, and is present until August or September; in 2015 it was present until 5 October. Summer migrants include, occasionally, black cuckoo, red-chested cuckoo and red-backed shrike.

Bird list

Bird list for Pigeon Valley

Number	Family	Species	Status	Notes
1	Apalis	Bar-throated	Breeding resident
2	Apalis	Yellow-breasted	Breeding resident
3	Barbet	Black-collared	Breeding resident	Recent decline in numbers
4	Barbet	White-eared	Breeding resident	Increasing in number
5	Barbet	Crested	Occasional visitor
6	Batis	Cape	Breeding resident
7	Batis	Chinspot	Breeding resident
8	Bee-eater	Little	Occasional visitor
9	Boubou	Southern	Breeding resident
10	Brownbul	Terrestrial	Breeding resident
11	Bulbul	Dark-capped	Breeding resident
12	Bunting	Golden-breasted	Occasional visitor	April 1992, 30 March 2013
13	Bush-Shrike	Gorgeous	Rare visitor	2007
14	Bush-Shrike	Grey-headed	Occasional visitor	2012; 2014; 2019
15	Bush-Shrike	Olive	Occasional visitor
16	Bush-Shrike	Orange-breasted	Occasional visitor	Last seen 2011
18	Camaroptera	Green-backed	Breeding resident
19	Canary	Brimstone	Regular visitor
20	Canary	Yellow-fronted	Regularly present
21	Cisticola	Zitting	Rare visitor	Pair present 2015
22	Coucal	Burchell's	Occasional visitor
23	Crested-Flycatcher	Blue-mantled	Rare visitor	Female present 2014-6
24	Crow	Pied	Occasional visitor
25	Cuckoo	Black	Occasional summer visitor
26	Cuckoo	Diderik	Regular summer visitor
27	Cuckoo	Emerald	Occasional summer visitor
28	Cuckoo	Common	Rare visitor	1979; November 2018
29	Cuckoo	Jacobin	Rare visitor	October 2016
30	Cuckoo	Klaas's	Breeding resident	Breeding 2014
31	Cuckoo	Red-chested	Occasional summer visitor	2015, 2017
32	Cuckooshrike	Black	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter
33	Cuckooshrike	Grey	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter
34	Dove	Red-eyed	Breeding resident
35	Dove	Laughing	Breeding resident
36	Dove	Rock	Occasional visitor
37	Dove	Tambourine	Breeding resident
38	Dove	Lemon	Rare visitor	2012, 2018
39	Drongo	Fork-tailed	Breeding resident
40	Drongo	Square-tailed	Breeding resident
41	Duck	White-faced	Infrequent visitor	November 2017
42	Eagle	African crowned	Occasional visitor
43	Eagle-Owl	Spotted	Occasional visitor
44	Falcon	Lanner	Occasional visitor
45	Firefinch	African	Breeding resident
46	Firefinch	Red-billed	Breeding resident	First sighting January 2015; now established
47	Fiscal	Common	Not seen in recent years
48	Flufftail	Buff-spotted	Breeding resident	Seen regularly
49	Flycatcher	Ashy	Breeding resident
50	Flycatcher	Dusky	Breeding resident
51	Flycatcher	Fiscal	Regular winter visitor
52	Flycatcher	Spotted	Uncommon summer visitor	Present late 2014
53	Flycatcher	Southern Black	Breeding resident
54	Goshawk	African	Breeding resident
55	Greenbul	Sombre	Breeding resident
56	Greenbul	Yellow-bellied	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter and spring
57	Ground-Thrush	Spotted	Regular migrant	April to September; November 2014; January 2016
58	Hamerkop		Occasional visitor
59	Harrierhawk	African	Regular visitor
60	Hawk	African cuckoo	Rare visitor	Present June 2014
61	Heron	Black-headed	Occasional visitor
62	Hobby	Eurasian	Rare visitor	March 2015
63	Honeybird	Brown-backed	Occasional visitor
64	Honey-Buzzard	European	Rare visitor	First sighting January 2015
65	Honeyguide	Greater	Rare visitor	Not seen in recent years
66	Honeyguide	Lesser	Usually present
67	Honeyguide	Scaly-throated	Occasional visitor
68	Hoopoe	African	Occasional visitor
69	Hornbill	Crowned	Rare visitor	2015
70	Hornbill	Trumpeter	Rare visitor	2011
71	Ibis	Hadeda	Breeding resident
72	Indigobird	Village	Uncertain as yet	First sighted June 2019
73	Kingfisher	Brown-hooded	Breeding resident
74	Kingfisher	Mangrove	Rare visitor	2011, March 2016, 8 October 2017
75	Kite	Yellow-billed	Breeding migrant
76	Malkoha	Green	Infrequent visitor	2010, 2017-8
77	Mannikin	Bronze	Breeding resident
78	Mannikin	Red-backed	Breeding resident
79	Martin	Rock	Occasional visitor
80	Mousebird	Speckled	Breeding resident
81	Myna	Common	Frequent visitor
82	Nightjar	European	Rare visitor	2013; 18 December 2014
83	Nightjar	Fiery-necked	Occasional visitor
84	Oriole	Black-headed	Breeding resident
85	Owl	Barn	Record from 1979
86	Palm swift	African	Regularly present
87	Paradise flycatcher	African	Breeding resident
88	Parakeet	Rose-ringed	Regular visitor
89	Pigeon	Green	Record from 1979
90	Prinia	Tawny-flanked	Breeding resident
91	Puffback	Black-backed	Breeding resident
92	Pygmy kingfisher	African	Occasional visitor
93	Quelea	Red-billed	Rare visitor	December 2017
94	Robin	White-starred	Rare visitor	Not seen in recent years
95	Robin-chat	Red-capped	Breeding resident
96	Robin-chat	Cape	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter
97	Robin-chat	Chorister	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter
98	Saw-wing	Black	Regular visitor
99	Scimitarbill	Common	Rare visitor	11 November 2016
100	Scops owl	Southern white-faced	Rare vagrant	July 2018
101	Scrub-robin	White-browed	Breeding resident
102	Seedeater	Streaky-headed	Breeding resident
103	Shrike	Fiscal	Occasional visitor
104	Shrike	Red-backed	Infrequent summer visitor	Present Nov 2015
105	Sparrow	Southern grey-headed	Occasional visitor
106	Sparrow	House	Occasional visitor
107	Sparrowhawk	Little	Occasional visitor
108	Sparrowhawk	Black	Breeding resident
109	Spurfowl	Natal	Breeding resident
110	Starling	Black-bellied	Breeding resident
111	Starling	Violet-backed	Occasional summer visitor
112	Starling	Red-winged	Regularly present
113	Starling	Glossy	Breeding resident
114	Stonechat	African	Rare visitor	Not seen in recent years
115	Stork	Woolly-necked	Occasional visitor
116	Sunbird	Grey	Breeding resident
117	Sunbird	Amethyst	Breeding resident
118	Sunbird	Olive	Breeding resident
119	Sunbird	Purple-banded	Regular visitor	Winter
120	Sunbird	Collared	Breeding resident
121	Sunbird	White-bellied	Breeding resident
122	Swallow	Barn	Regular visitor	Summer
123	Swallow	Lesser-striped	Regular visitor
124	Swallow	White-throated	Occasional visitor
125	Swift	Black	Rare visitor
126	Swift	White-rumped	Occasional visitor
127	Swift	Little	Regularly present
128	Swift	Palm	Regularly present
129	Swift	Alpine	Rare visitor	Not seen in recent years
130	Tchagra	Southern	Rare visitor	2017, 2018
131	Thrush	Kurrichane	Breeding resident
132	Thrush	Olive	Winter visitor	Present March 2014, 2018
133	Tinkerbird	Red-fronted	Occasional visitor	October 2017
134	Tinkerbird	Yellow-rumped	Breeding resident
135	Tit	Southern black	Breeding resident
136	Trogon	Narina	Occasional visitor
137	Turaco	Knysna	Rare visitor	September 1991; 1 October 2017
138	Turaco	Purple-crested	Breeding resident
139	Twinspot	Green	Regular visitor	Breeding record 2014
140	Vulture	Palm-nut	Rare visitor	22 October 2017
141	Wagtail	Cape	Occasional visitor
142	Wagtail	Mountain	Rare visitor	Seen once in 1990s, again in 2013
143	Warbler	Barratt's	Infrequent winter visitor	June 2014, 2017
144	Warbler	Garden	Rare visitor	Present winter 2015
145	Warbler	Knysna	Rare visitor	20 August 2017, 2018
146	Warbler	Marsh	Summer visitor	Several 2017-9
147	Warbler	Willow	Rare summer visitor	December 2014
148	Wattle-eye	Black-throated	Rare visitor	2013; present in 2015
149	Waxbill	Common	Regular visitor
150	Waxbill	Grey	Breeding resident
151	Weaver	Yellow	Rare visitor	Winter 2015
152	Weaver	Dark-backed	Breeding resident
153	Weaver	Village	Breeding resident
154	Weaver	Spectacled	Regularly present
155	Weaver	Thick-billed	Breeding resident
156	White-eye	Cape	Breeding resident
157	Wood-hoopoe	Green	Regular visitor
158	Woodland-Warbler	Yellow-throated	Rare visitor, winter	13 August 2016
159	Woodpecker	Golden-tailed	Breeding resident
160	Woodpecker	Cardinal	Breeding resident
161	Woodpecker	Olive	Rare visitor	2009, 2017, 2018
162	Whydah	Pin-tailed	Irregular visitor	2015, 2017

Butterflies

The reserve is excellent for its butterflies, and the total listing is now 92 species. In September 2018 the first pupae of the short-barred sapphire were found on a Celtis mildbraedii tree. The host plant is the Oncocalyx quinquenervius mistletoe, which grows profusely on the tree. Subsequently a red-line sapphire was found at the same spot. The first forest queen was found in 2019.

Plants

A Natal elm, showing its extensive buttressing, Pigeon Valley, May 2013

There are over 110 species of trees occurring in Pigeon Valley, almost all of which are locally indigenous.[4] Pigeon Valley is also notable for large stands of buckweed (Isoglossa woodii), which grow in more open areas under the forest canopy and in forest glades. In recent years there have been a few discoveries of plants not previously identified.

Pigeon Valley is unique in having large numbers of the rare Natal elm, and of Natal forest loquat. A Cryptocarya specimen found adjacent to the main track has so far not been definitively identified; it may be a species seldom found in the area or alternatively a hybrid.

A spotted ground thrush in this urban reserve, where it is a winter visitor

Public access

The reserve is open from 07:30 to 16:00 daily throughout the year. The entrance is in Princess Alice Avenue, Glenwood, opposite Rhodes Avenue.

Community

An active grouping, Friends of Pigeon Valley, undertakes clearing of invasive alien plants, ensuring that the park is unusually free of alien species. It also liaises with the municipal managers of the reserve to address relevant issues. The Friends operate a monthly walk open to the public on the second Saturday of each month, at 07h30. There is a Facebook page, Friends of Pigeon Valley, at https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfPigeonValley/.

See also

• Forests of KwaZulu-Natal

References

1. Bodenstein, J. (2009)
2. Birds in Reserves, ADU
3. http://birp.adu.org.za/site_summary.php?site=29523059
4. Hemson, C. (2014)

Bibliography

• Pooley, T. and Player, I. (1995). KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife Destinations. ISBN 1-86812-487-8.