20 Days Birding

Arrive at Jomo Kenyatta airport transfer to Hotel

If time allows, a birding tour to Nairobi National Park or birdwatching around Nairobi National Museums

Karura Forest is an ideal birding option for lovers of urban forest birding 

Overnight Nairobi

Leave early morning for  Maasai Mara Game Reserve with a brief stopover at the viewpoint Great Rift Valley, which is one of the wonders of the world, stretching from Syria, down through Africa, to Mozambique. 

Maasai  Mara is ravishingly beautiful and offers long, undisturbed views and utterly dramatic panoramas. As for the birding, the Mara is also world-renowned, and we will have time in the western and eastern sections of the reserve, both of which support different habitats and therefore markedly different species.

After sumptuous breakfast, we head to the Reserve with pack picnic lunches for a whole day birding/mammal viewing.

Maasai Mara Game Reserve is famous for its huge black mane lions and the annual wildebeest migration. This is probably one of Kenya’s most visited reserves, with an astonishing mass of animals including the Big five and other arrays of plain game.

The Mara River cuts through the Mara and Serengeti ecosystems giving life to both reserves before finally pouring out into  Lake Victoria.
The most notable is the wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle instinct led the migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Mara in Kenya. This journey is coupled with various impediments which makes it even more outstanding

After breakfast, we will depart on a final morning game drive before making our way out
of this vast wilderness and drive to Lake Naivasha a freshwater lake, 130 kilometers square in size is located in the Great Rift Valley.  Lake Naivasha is an oasis of both the  water birds and terrestrial species

Do a morning boat ride in the main Lake. We shall look for bird species found in Lake Naivasha such as; Horus Swift, Grey-crested Helmet-Shrike, Hildebrandt’s Francolin, Spotted Eagle-Owl, Schalow’s Wheatear, Great-crested Grebe, White-fronted Bee-eater, Lyne’s Cisticola among many waterbirds on the boat ride.

Later in the afternoon the Kinangop plateau for the endemic Sharpe’s Longclaw, and other localized bird species such as; Jackson’s, Long-tailed and Red-collared Widowbirds, Levaillant’s, Aberdare, Wing Snapping, Winding and Hunter’s  Cisticolas, African Snipe,

The Kenya birding tour continues to Lake Baringo, check-in the hotel, refresh for a few minutes, then do an evening walk around the hotel looking for the area specialties

With the help of the local  guide, we shall search for area specialties such as; Northern White-faced & African Scops Owls, Greyish Eagle-owl, Slender-tailed Nightjar Three-banded Courser, Brown-tailed Rock Chat,  Bristle-crowned Starling,  Hemprich’s, Jackson’s Hornbills, Green-winged Pytilia, Red & Yellow Barbet, African Pigmy Kingfisher, Black-headed Plover, Black-throated Barbet, Northern Crombec,  Somali Tit, Little, Golden-backed, Northern Masked, Lesser Masked & Black-headed Weavers, Northern Red Bishop, Red-fronted Warbler, Lanner Falcon, Verreaux’s Eagle, Blue-naped Mousebird, Red-fronted Barbet, Pygmy Batis

Morning cliff walk later evening go for the nocturnal species

More than 400 bird species have been recorded in Lake Baringo, on a good day it’s possible to see over 200 species

Birdwatching in Lake  Baringo is done early morning and late afternoon when birds are active

An early morning boat ride to search for  White-back Night Heron, Northern Red Bishop, Lesser Moorhen, Goliath Heron, Northern Carmine Bee-eater, and Senegal Thick-knee, later depart to Kakamega Forest through Kerio valley. We shall have several stopovers along the scenic Kerio Valley in search of some localized bird species found in the area such as; the Gambaga Flycatcher, Chestnut-crowned Sparrow Weaver, Mocking Cliff Chat, Boran Cisticola, and White-crested Turaco,

Lunch will be also in an establishment, where birding is usually rewarding due to its location, at the top cliff, where during the bird migration, you may be lucky to see  hundreds of different raptors taking advantage of the thermals from the valley to soar high

Morning and afternoon walk in the forest  Kakamega Forest is a rain forest easternmost remnant of once continuous forest spreading from the Congo basin to East Africa and Central Africa, the forest has 380 tree species, 410 bird different species of which 194 species are forest-dependent, two globally threatened bird species are known to occur in Kakamega forest; Chapin’s Flycatcher and Turner’s Eremomela

Birdwatching in Kakamega forest is productive in the morning and late afternoon when the bird parties are actively feeding and singing

After Breakfast, then leave for Lake Nakuru National Park

Birding in Lake Nakuru National Park is regarded as “the greatest ornithological spectacle in the world due to the high flock of the finicky Lesser Flamingos which  feeds on the blue-green algae  abundant in the lake

The park is an excellent birdwatching destination in Kenya with more than 450  bird species record 

Lake Nakuru National Park is rich in wildlife which includes the Rothschild’s Giraffe, Cape Buffalo, Southern Rock Python, Defassa Waterbuck, Silver-backed Jackal, Eland, Hippopotamus, both Black and White Rhinocerous, Lion, Leopard, Spotted Hyena

Game drive/birding as we check out of the park/stopover along the way looking for special owls in Mweiga. Solio Ranch is located in the valley between the dramatic, snow-capped peak of Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Mountains.

Morning bird drive later proceeds to Shaba Game Reserve, located just north of the equator in the rain-shadow of Mt. Kenya three separate reserves, Shaba, Buffalo Springs, and Samburu protect a combined 40kilometers square of mountains, plains, savannah, and scrub desert. Set along the banks of the Ewaso Ng’iro River this stunning wilderness area is not as well-known as other reserves, which offers the perfect opportunity to enjoy the Kenyan wilderness away from the crowds

This remote reserve is probably most famous, among birders, for its populations of the rare and little known endemic Williams’s Lark.

Williams’s Lark appears to be strongly connected to the lava fields in this part of its tiny range and this will be one of the undoubted specials to find in Shaba

Birding here can also usually be extremely productive and we are likely to see many other beautiful species 

Shaba is known as one of the most scenically attractive reserves in Kenya, and together with neighboring reserves – Buffalo Springs and Samburu, they boast a unique collection of the game only found in this region, including Reticulated Giraffe, the attractive Grevy’s Zebra, Lesser Kudu, giraffe-necked Gerenuk, and Beisa Oryx

The three reserves are punctuated by the Ewaso Ng’iro River which provides superb riverine woodland habitat that truly stands out from the surrounding dry scrub

Early Morning birding looking for Kenya’s North of Equator specialties namely:

• Vulturine Guinea-fowl
• Somali Ostrich
• Somali Bee-eater
• Denham’s Bustard
• Stone Partridge
• William’s Lark, an endemic bird in Kenya
• Donald-Smith’s Sparrow Weaver
• Singing Bush Lark
• Pink breasted Lark
• Somali Crombec
• White-headed Mousebird

After morning breakfast, we shall spend the morning in search of any species we might still need

Check out of the Reserve and drive back to Nairobi

We shall continue with 20 Days Birding tour leaving early from Nairobi, heading to Tsavo west National Park, with a stopover along the way, the first one at Lukenya hills, some 30km from Nairobi.

Interesting Bird species expected are:

• Red-throated Tit( Endemic to Kenya and Tanzania)
• Brubru
• d’Arnaud’s Barbet
• Von der Decken’s Hornbill
• Abyssinian Scimitarbill
• African Hoopoe
• Lilac-breasted Roller

Also some sighting of Mammals that migrate from Nairobi National Park;

• Giraffes
• Impalas
• Gazelles
• Monkeys

Proceed with the safari towards Hunter’s Lodge where lunch will be served, a nice and amazing area to do birding before the lunch is ready.

Bird species likely to be seen:

• Giant Kingfisher
• Malachite Kingfisher
• Pied Kingfisher
• Striped Kingfisher
• Grey Heron
• Black-headed Heron
• Retz’s Helmet shrike
• African Grey Hornbill
• Crowned Hornbill
• African Golden Weaver
• Grey-headed Kingfisher
• Golden Palm Weaver
• Later heads to Tsavo West National Park

Have early breakfast; with packed lunch slowly do birding in the Park, area worthy visiting Mzima springs, where walking/birding on foot is allowed.

Tsavo West National Park  is also famous for the annual  bird ringing at the Ngulia Safari Lodge with thousands of European and Asian Palearctic migrants on their way south, which happens in the months of November and December

Bird Checklist;

• Taita Falcon
• Black-bellied Sunbird
• Red-billed Buffalo Weaver
• Speckle-fronted Weaver
• Chestnut Sparrow
• Wattled Starling
• White-naped Raven
• White-crested Helmet Shrike
• Rosy patched Bush-Shrike
• Slate-coloured Boubou
• Taita Fiscal
• Beautiful Sunbird
• Hunter’s Sunbird
• Scaly Chatterer
• Rufous Chatterer
• Verreaux’s Eagle Owl
• Friedmann’s Lark
• Bare-eyed Thrush
• Fire-fronted Bishop
• Northern Brownbul
• Straw-tailed Whydah

If times allows we shall drive to Lake Jipe for the Taveta Golden Weaver, Hartlaub’s Bustard, and leopards that hang their prey on acacia trees along the road 

The Taita Hills cover an area of 1000 kilometers square and they form the northernmost part of the Eastern Arc Mountains. They are isolated from other mountainous areas to the southeast (Shimba Hills), south (Pare and the Usambara Mountains), southwest (Mount Kilimanjaro), west (Ngulia and Chyulu Hills), and northwest (Kenyan Highlands) by the vast plains of Tsavo National Park

• Taita Thrush
• Taita Apalis
• Taita White Eye
• Stripe Cheeked Greenbul
• Placid Greenbul
• Narina Trogon
• Silvery cheeked Hornbill
• Mustached Green Tinkerbird
• Pale Flycatcher
• Yellowbill
• Striped Pipit
• Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher
• Evergreen forest Warbler
• Golden-tailed Woodpecker

Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve is a 420 kilometers square coastal forest in Kenya. It is the largest and most intact coastal forest in East Africa, with 20percent of Kenya’s bird species, 30 percent butterfly species and at least 24 rare and endemic bird, mammal and butterfly species

Mammals:

• The forest has 40 recorded mammal species including;
• African Elephant
• African Buffalo
• African Civet
• Caracal
• Syke’s Monkeys
• Yellow Baboons
• Lesser Galago (or bushbaby).

Some of Kenya’s rarest mammals are found here, including the

• Golden-rumped Elephant-shrew
• Sokoke bushy-tailed Mongoose
• Ader’s Duiker.

Birds species

There are over 270 species of birds recorded in the forest including several rare and endemic species in Arabuko Sokoke Forest

The Clarke’s Weaver is only found in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and another area 30 km2 further north of Arabuko-Sokoke in the whole world.

Other globally threatened bird species found in Arabuko Sokoke forest includes:

• Amani Sunbird
• East Coast Akalat
• Sokoke Scops Owl
• Sokoke Pipit
• Spotted Ground Thrush

Other birds restricted to Kenyan coastal forests are found the most easily in Arabuko-Sokoke, making it a great place to visit

Morning /Afternoon Bird walks

Morning/afternoon Bird walks

Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve is the largest stretch of coastal dry forest, the ecosystem comprises of three forest types, mixed forest, Brachystegia Woodland and Cynometra, each containing different rare species of Birds, Mammals, Butterflies, and Plants. There are 270 birds, 261 butterflies, 79 amphibians, 52 mammals and 600 plants species. The Clarke’s Weaver an endemic bird breeds in the forest,  other unique and rare bird Sokoke Scops Owl, Sokoke Pipit, East coast Akalat, Amani Sunbird and Spotted Ground Thrush, Three mammals which are endemic species: – Ader’s duiker, Sokoke Bush- tailed Mongoose, and Golden rumped elephant shrew

End of the 20 day Kenya birding tour, morning breakfast, later check out, travel to Mombasa International Airport for a flight back