10 Days Bird Photography Tour

We start the Kenya photographic tour by picking up from a hotel in the morning and leaving for Maasai Mara Game Reserve which is a 5-hour drive/ 265 kilometers. You will drive through the Great Rift Valley escarpment and have a brief stopover for the beautiful scenery and some photos for memories. Arrive in time for lunch, have lunch, relax a bit, and get ready for the first game drive in search of the lions, elephants, leopards, cheetahs, buffaloes, and other plains game. Maasai Mara National Reserve offers the best photographic opportunity in the world,  birdlife is abundant, and a huge concentration of wildlife, and large predators including the black-maned lions.

After breakfast leave with a picnic lunch for a full-day photography drive across the rich, tree-studded grasslands and rolling hills. The famous Mara is renowned for its great herds of plains game, black-maned lions, leopards, and cheetahs but also contains numerous elephants and virtually every type of wildlife to be found in Kenya. It’s on this day that you drive up to Mara River where the great migration takes place and if very lucky you will be able to witness the migration. Photography is excellent in Maasai Mara and a dream destination for many wildlife photographers. Maasai Mara is famous for the exceptional wildebeest migration that happens every year from the months of July to October. Millions of Gnus and Zebras from Serengeti National Park move in search of lush pastures 

After breakfast depart for Lake Nakuru National Park, famed as the ornithological spectacle due to the high congregation of the lesser flamingos amounting to 1.5 million in a given time, Other interesting animals to photograph are lions, leopards, and both the black and white rhinos. The park has some designated areas, where clients are allowed to alight from the safari vehicle, this provides superb opportunities for bird and wildlife photography

After breakfast leave for Samburu National Reserve, with a stopover in Nyahururu town to visit Thomson’s fall, a scenic waterfall, 74 meters long on Ewaso N’giro River which originates from Aberdare Ranges. We will spend a few minutes photographing the falls, and later proceed to arrive in Samburu at lunch hour.

Early morning game drive following breakfast around Ewaso Nyiro River where animals usually congregate,  Samburu is a photographer’s paradise and has a fantastic diversity of wildlife only found in this area of Kenya. The Reserve is famed for a lioness that adopted a baby Oryx, plus animals found north of the Equator, such as the Reticulated Giraffe, Vulturine Guineafowl, Somali Ostrich, and Gerenuk. Additionally, the beautiful Ewaso Nyiro River and surrounding hills and mountains offer great photo opportunities to capture some stunning landscapes

After early Breakfast, game drive slowly heading to the gate for the exit as we look for missed species, then leave for Meru National Park, via a new road through Isiolo town near the Airport, check in at Ikweta Safari for lunch, in the afternoon do a short game drive. Meru National Park is among the least visited and therefore one of the least spoiled of Kenya’s national parks. The equator cuts across the park whose 1810 square kilometers landscape is mainly given over to bushland but with grasslands in the west. Thick forests grow along the park’s many rivers and streams. The Park is home to an extraordinary array of wildlife. You will likely see rhinos, lions, cheetahs, huge herds of elephants, buffaloes, reticulated giraffes, plus diverse species of birds

Spend the whole day in the park; Meru National Park is wild and beautiful. Meru National Park straddles the equator and is crossed by 14 rivers and oodles of mountain-fed streams, it is an especially beautiful area of Kenya. Meru National Park has diverse scenery from woodlands at 3,400 feet (1,036 meters) on the slopes of Nyambene Mountain Range, northeast of Mount Kenya, to wide open plains with meandering riverbanks dotted with doum palms. Stunning wildlife, and beautiful views over the plains, guarantee a memorable safari experience, Meru National Park is known for large herds of Elephants that travel in herds of up to 100 individuals. The park is home to more than 300 bird species to be found in varied habitats; expansive grasslands, winding riverine forests, and swamps: Birds of interest include; the shy African Finfoot, Pel’s Fishing Owl skulking in the dense trees along the river, Swallow-tailed Kite, endemic Hinde’s Babbler, Golden Pipit, Vanga Flycatcher, Eastern Black-headed Batis, Western Banded Snake Eagle, Orange-winged Pytilia, Black-bellied Starling, Broad-tailed Paradise Whydah, Jameson’s Firefinch and Chestnut-fronted Helmetshrike.

Drive to Ol-Pejeta Conservancy after breakfast, will stop at Imenti Forest, the drive will take one hour to two hours, Check in at Sweetwaters Tented Camp have a hot lunch, then later afternoon do an evening drive in search of the big five, such as lions, rhinos, leopards, cheetahs, buffalos and many more. Ol Pejeta is situated in the foothills of snow-capped Mount Kenya. The conservancy preserves more endangered wildlife than anywhere else in East Africa. Notable birds to look for in Imenti Forest; Kenya Crested Guineafowl, White-eared Barbet, Moustached Green Tinkerbird, Kenrick’s Starling, Purple-throated Cuckoo-shrike, Brown-backed Woodpecker, Black-headed Apalis and Scarce Swift

Spend the whole day exploring the Conservancy, Ol Pejeta is the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa, and home to three of the world’s last remaining northern white rhinos. It is the only place in Kenya to see chimpanzees, in a sanctuary established to rehabilitate animals rescued from the black market. It has some of the highest predator densities in Kenya. Ol Pejeta is characterized by sweeping views over rolling hills, with Mount Kenya serving as a dramatic backdrop. Different habitats in Ol Pejeta Conservancy support an assortment of a variety of mammals, making it exceptionally attractive to birding and big game enthusiasts, Wildlife is abundant throughout the year but the best months are from June to October. Given its equatorial position, daytime temperatures vary little year-round, it’s often hot during the day

After breakfast check out, have lunch en route, and head to the airport for your flight back home.  Arriving in the mid-afternoon, you will have the use of a day room at an airport hotel to freshen up and prepare for your international flight home