The future looks brighter today for two critically endangered flying creatures in South Africa, thanks to the establishment of a new grassland reserve in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains.

The future looks brighter today for two critically endangered flying creatures in South Africa, thanks to the establishment of a new grassland reserve in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains.

A small but vital patch of high-altitude grassland has been officially set aside as a protected area near the town of Impendle, west of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, to conserve the living space of a small insect-eating bird and an equally rare butterfly species.

This comes at a time when nearly half of all bird species in the world are in decline, with more than one in eight at risk of extinction.

The new iNkonjane Nature Reserve, covering just 180 hectares of land, is named after the isiZulu word for the Blue Swallow (inkonjanesibhakabhaka), immediately adjacent to the larger Impendle Nature Reserve (8,759ha).

The reserve has been established by the provincial conservation agency Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, to provide another desperately needed sanctuary area for these swallows.

Ezemvelo notes that the two reserves host four (13%) of the country's estimated 30 remaining breeding pairs of Blue Swallows, so the protection afforded by the new reserve "marks a meaningful step towards ensuring the survival of this graceful aerial insectivore".

The iNkonjane reserve...