The African crowned eagle is the bird that most inspires community birding guide Impendulo Innocent Mzindle whose own nest is in Lamonti village, inland from Margate.
Mzindle recently took flight to England to attend the British Bird Fair, as one of five representatives of Birdlife South Africa and the Southern KZN Birding Route.
The fair - one of the world's biggest and most popular bird fairs - attracts speakers of the calibre of Sir David Attenborough, and this year had over 20 000 visitors.
Explaining why they had sent Mzindle to the fair, Matthew Drew of the Southern KZN Birding Route said they had identified birding as a conservation tool and a means of developing a sustainable economy.
Those guides who showed entrepreneurial abilities, such as Mzindle, were given further training to enable them to run their own small businesses.
The fair had given him a chance to broaden his knowledge of the birding world. "We see him as being part of our management structure on the birding route, or owning his own small tourism operation using the route," said Drew.
Creating an awareness of birds and their habitats could help conserve both, he said.
Mzindle said his visit abroad had forced him to learn more about the Southern KZN Birding Route, so he could answer questions expertly. "I saw myself as an ambassador for South Africa," he said.
Explaining why the crowned eagle was his favourite bird, he said, "It's colours are not all that bright, but they are all over its body; the way it flies; it is one of the most powerful birds in our reserve areas; it is so strong it is able to catch mammals."
Although Mzindle has never seen the raptor swoop on its prey, he once came upon it feeding on a vervet monkey it had just caught and had been entranced.
The Manager of BirdLife South Africa's Avitourism Division, Duncan Pritchard, said such an international event helped birding guides learn what an inbound birding tourist wanted when travelling to South Africa.
The team also visited the Vogels Festival - the Dutch Bird Fair in The Netherlands, which attracted about 9 000 visitors - many of them independent and socially conscious birders.
Pritchard felt these were the kinds of twitchers who would be attracted to the self-drive birding routes that BirdLife South Africa is currently developing across the country.
Finally, if there is one bird Mzindle really wants to see, it is the grey-headed albatross with its 2m wingspan. "Albatrosses are endangered and people are working to save them," he said.