Tuning in to DAVID LÉTSOALO

BirdLife South Africa’s 2022 Conservation Hero, renowned bird guide David Letsoalo, talks birds, pizzas, perfect tunes and making friends in Manhattan’s Central Park.

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What got you started in birding? I was born in the area behind Moria, the Zionist Christian Church (ZCC) in Limpopo, but I grew up in Magoebaskloof and went to Appel Farm School and ZCC Secondary School. When I left school, I trained as a petrol and diesel mechanic, but work was hard to find and I didn’t like the big city, so I took a job as a pottery assistant in Magoebaskloof in 1996. My employer gave me the task of feeding the birds that came to her feeder. When I began asking questions about them, she gave me a gift, a Roberts bird book. At first I found birding a little boring on my own, so I started little bird clubs at local schools – the learners really enjoyed it.

I began reading bird magazines and joined a bird club in Tzaneen as well as the environmental club in Haenertsburg. They had a talk about Blue Swallows by Steven Evans, then manager of the Blue Swallows Working Group, and he was fascinated to see a young black guy among all these senior citizens! He invited me to join him on a visit to a grassland the next morning, but I couldn’t because I didn’t have transport to get there at 5am, so some club members very kindly came to pick me up. Between 1998 and 2002 Steven and I remained in contact and he realised that I was seeing special birds in the area, so he started sending birders to me because there were no guides there. He then put my name forward for bird guide training at Wakkerstroom. The rest, as they say, is history…