African Spoonbill in Flight

An African spoonbill (Platalea alba) in flight over the Durban Botanical Gardens.

They are commonly seen around the lake there as are:

• Pink-backed pelican (Pelecanus rufescens)
• African sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus)
• Hadeda ibis (Bostrychia hagedash)
• Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus)
• African masked weaver (Ploceus velatus)
• Common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)
• Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta)
• Grey heron (Ardea cinerea) 
• Reed cormorant (Microcarbo africanus)

The last three are commonly seen at the lake, while the previous ones are probably always there as they breed in the gardens. Kingfishers can be seen at the lake diving for prey, but I only saw them occasionally.

There a lot of other birds to be seen in the Garden in general and I can highly recommend it as a place to visit. 

Thick-billed weavers (Amblyospiza albifrons) used to be common as they bred in the reeds on the sides of the lake but the Garden cleared the reeds a few years ago and I haven't seen them there since. There also used to be a lot more Sacred Ibis but they pruned the trees they favored for nest building.