Lake Naivasha Birding Tour

Kenya’s second-largest freshwater lake, Lake Naivasha is a birder’s dream! You have to see it, to believe it.

Lake Naivasha is home to a wide variety of year-round bird species and during migration, there is an exciting birding atmosphere. All this makes for a great birding experience in any season, whether you are looking for the African Fish Eagle, Grey-crested Helmetshrike, Lynes’s Cisticola, Horus Swift, Hildebrandt’s Spurfowl, Scaly-throated Honeyguide, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Green Woodhoopoe, Giant Kingfisher, and  Beautiful Sunbird, you’ll be sure to find  your target species in Lake Naivasha

With an abundance of wildlife and birdlife alike, and being just over an hour away from Nairobi, it’s no wonder why Lake Naivasha is well-liked. A Day birding tour of this lake is the dream of every ornithologist.

One of the many great things about birding tours in Kenya, you seldom travel far to see birds, they are everywhere, and exciting and accessible avians may be seen by traveling a short distance from the capital city Nairobi

The lake has three rivers that feed it with fresh water namely; Gilgil, Malewa, and Karati. The Malewa River contributes almost 90 percent of the water to Lake Naivasha. All three rivers originate from Aberdare National Park

Lake Naivasha is one of the most productive of the Great Rift Valley lakes and at a size of 139 kilometers square, Lake Naivasha is a vital life source for not only the huge amount of wildlife but for the many people that call this beautiful lake home. The best part about the lake though, is, the abundance of birds! The high productivity of the lake allows many bird species to thrive here, with over 300 species recorded. A belt of tall Yellow-backed Acacia woodland fringes the lake shore which provides foraging and feeding grounds for many resident and migrant birds

Birding in Lake Naivasha is done while walking on the shore to look for the many terrestrial bird species that call the acacia woodland home, also by doing a boat ride to see and record the water birds. Other interesting birding places within Lake Naivasha include;  Eburu Forest, Hell’s Gate National Park, Lake Oloiden, Crater Lake, and Kinangop Plateau for the endemic Sharpe’s Longclaw, and other area specialties such as the African Snipe, Jackson’s and Long-tailed Widowbirds, Levaillant’s Cisticola and Lesser Moorhen

Key Bird Species
Popular Bird Species to be seen on this Lake Naivasha Birding Tour: Great White Pelican, Saddle-billed Stork, Goliath Heron, Giant Kingfisher, Gull-billed Tern, Black-tailed Godwit, Grey-crested Helmetshrike, Lyne’s Cisticola, Horus Swift, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Scaly-throated Honeyguide, African Darter, and Giant Kingfisher