The birdlife here is very varied, with Africa's largest bird, the ostrich, doing particularly well. I've never seen more free-roaming ostrich than here, during May, when Deception Valley seemed to be dotted by large flocks of them.

Weighing 14–19kg, kori bustard are the world's heaviest flying birds and are also common, stepping around the plains in search of insects and small reptile and mammals.

Closely related to the kori are the smaller korhaans; here the white-winged black korhaan (or white-quilled korhaan) is one of the area's most obvious birds. The conspicuous black-and-white males have a harsh, raucous call and can be seen flying up and then falling back to the ground in endless display flights. Related red-crested korhaans are a little less obvious, and less common, though equally spectacular when displaying.

Doves are well represented with Cape turtle, laughing doves and, especially, Namaqua doves all being very common. All the species of sandgrouse found in southern Africa – double-banded, Burchell's, yellow-throated and Namaqua – live here. Watch in the mornings as flocks of Namaqua sandgrouse fly to waterholes. They drink and also wade into the water, where each male has specially adapted feathers on his breast, which act like a sponge to soak up water. He then flies up to 80km back to his nest, where the chicks drink from the feathers.

The central Kalahari's most common raptor is the pale-chanting goshawk: a light grey bird, with pink legs and black ends to its wings and tail. It's usually seen hunting from a conspicuous perch, perhaps a fence post beside a track or the top of a small thorn bush, or occasionally hopping about the ground foraging. If disturbed it'll usually fly off low, swooping to land on a similar perch – even if that's another fence post from which it'll shortly be disturbed again.

Black-shouldered kites and rock kestrels, both of which often hunt by hovering in flight, are common here. Bateleurs, black-breasted and brown snake eagles, martial and tawny eagles, and lanner falcons are also around, with the latter making something of a speciality of hunting birds as they come to drink at waterholes.