The Barberton Bird Club was formed in September 2001 after a year-long bird survey
(Survey2000) had been conducted by two knowledgeable resident birders and ± 20 interested members of the community.
The Club is a satellite branch of BirdLife Lowveld, which is a full branch of BirdLife South Africa, the national bird club with international ties.
The Purple-crested Lourie (Touraco) which is a relatively common bird in the town was taken as the Club's logo.
Currently the BBC has about 55 active members. It holds an evening meeting once a month where either prominent birders or local experts give illustrated talks. A format is loosely followed whereby the talks are about birds and birding one month and another general subject the next.
In addition to this it holds an outing once a month either an all day outing on the Sunday or a weekend away camping. These outings are usually visits to interesting and well-known birding sites.
The Club has now taken on three projects.
1) The making and opening of a "Birding Trail" along Rimer's Creek.
2) Involvement in the bi-annual waterfowl count at Chrissiesmeer this being part of the National Co-ordinated Waterfowl Count (CWACing) organised by the Avian Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town.
3) Compiling a checklist of the birds occurring in the Mountainlands Nature Reserve, Barberton.
