Sabaki River Estuary

The mouth of the Sabaki River offers a rich diversity of bird species, including many rarities and spectacular numbers of gulls and terns. They feed far out in the sea and return to roost on the Sandbanks. Sabaki is the name of the last segment of one of the longest rivers in Kenya, the Athi-Galana-Sabaki. The estuary drains its waters into the Indian Ocean. There are sand dunes and beaches in the Sabaki River Estuary, and seasonal and permanent wetlands are found on both sides of the dune. Mangroves forest grow along with parts of the river. Birding in Sabaki Estuary is done while walking. Birds are most diverse and numerous during the migration season starting the months of  August – April. Sabaki Estuary is the best place in Kenya to see Madagascar Pratincole, a threatened Afro-tropic Malagasy migrant that is infrequently seen (March-September). Wintering Palaearctic wader the Broad-billed Sandpiper is found in sloppy, not dry or flooded, mud, far out in the river mouth. Lesser Flamingos also frequent Sabaki Estuary, when it is less flooded and the waters are low in the river. The species count for Sabaki is significant and the area itself is beautiful, quiet and a wonderful place to wander and watch birds.

Notable Birds in Sabaki River Estuary: Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, African Palm Swift, Lesser Sand Plover, Greater Sand Plover, Sanderling, Terek Sandpiper, Crab Plover, Sooty Gull, Lesser Blacked-backed Gull, Saunder’s Tern, Caspian Tern, Common Tern, Lesser Crested Tern, African Woolly-necked Stork, Coastal Cisticola, Sombre Greenbul, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Scaly Babbler, Bearded Scrub Robin, Pallid Honeyguide, Eastern Black-headed Batis, Violet-breasted Sunbird, African Skimmer, Brown-breasted Barbet, Fire-fronted Bishop, Senegal Lapwing, Collared Palm Thrush,