Village Weaver Birding

Village weaver birding
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Mega birding tour in Tanzania

Mega Birding Tours Tanzania

22 Days Safaris

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Your Itinerary

Day 1 Engikaret lark plains and meru forest

Early morning drive to the famous lark plains for the endemic Beeslys lark,near endemic sentinel and athi short toed lark,other larks includes red capped,foxy and short tailed , other interesting species includes pygmy batis,grey wren warbler,bare eyed thrush, Hildebrandt’s starling which is endemic to east africa,on our way back we will stop at oldonyo sambu which will give us the near endemic lynes’s cisticolola,little rock thrush,the ever present Abyssinian scimitarbil and long billed pipit. We will drive back to town and head up to meru forest at napuru waterfalls for the most sought out after endemic,the Kilimanjaro white eye. the elusive oriole finch, Abyssinian crimson wing,hunters cisticola which is endemic to east african,brown woodland warbler which is endemic to NE Africa, Hartlaubs turaco also endemic to EA ,kenricks and wallers starlings,golden winged sunbird ,yelllow crowned canary and southern citrils.

Night in Arusha

Early morning drive to Mererani with stops at usa river for the east african endemic taveta weaver,grey olive greenbul and brown breasted barbet. At mererani we will bird for birds restricted to maasai-somali arid zones ,this birds are mainly endemic to NE africa. We will bird for scally chatterer,eastern violet backed , hunter’s,black bellied and Tsavo sunbirds,somali bunting,somali tit,golden breasted starling,black capped social weaver, northern brownbul, Donaldson smith nightjar, Fischer’s starling, Pringles puffback,white haeded mouse birds and more which are all endemic to NE Africa. At Shambarai we will bird for different species of terms,gulls,sandpipers and storks.
 
Night in Arusha
We will drive to nyumba ya mungu dam for more waterbirds and any special birds of the nearbly dry acacia scrub such as the near endemic southern grosbeak canary,kenya sparrow,the pale prinia and others .We will then drive to Johnsons villa for a hot lunch then at about 3pm we drive up the south pare mountains for the endemic south pare white eye and the paarensis race of bar-throated apalis. other birds we might see there is the endemic usambara double-collared sunbird,the near endemic stripe faced greenbuls,dark capped yellow warbler,african stonechats and more.
 
Night at Johnsons villa in SAME TOWN
Here we will drive in with picnic lunches and continue with our search for more birds which are restricted to somali-maasai arid zones. Birds here includes golden pipit,the most elegant of all the eastern yellow billed hornbill,vulturine guinea fowl,ashy ,rattling and winding cisticolas, red winged and paink breasted larks,hartlaubs,black bellied and buff crested bustards. The pangani long claw which is endemic to NE  is also very common.
 
Accomodaction;
Night in Johnson villa in Same town
 
We will drive to West usambara mountains for the endemics with stops on the way on the  first day then the second day we will do a full day birding there for the endemics such as usambara akalat, usambara weaver,usambara greenbul,usambara thrush, usambara double collared sunbird,the near endemic forest batis and the most elusive of them all,the spot throat which is a bird place in its own family together with the dapple throat. They are only found in the eastern arch mountain of Tanzania and N Mozambique. Rameron and eastern bronze naped pigeon,red faced crimson wung, evergreen forest and cinnamon bracken warblers,sharpes starling,red capped forest warblers,fullebons boubou,barred long tailed cuckoo,
 
Accommodaction;
Night at Muller’s mountain lodge
 

On this day we will drive to the east usambara mountains with birding stops on the way for birds such as eastern golden weaver,coastal cisticola, Zanzibar and southern red bishops before having a lunch break at the Zigi lowland forest for Endemic such as usambara hyliota, Tanzanian illadopsis, banded green sunbirds. others here includes little yellow flycatcher, lowlnd tiny greenbul,red tailed antthrush, Fischer’s greenbul,mombasa woodpecker,plain backed sunbird and others

We will search for the near endemics such as the uluguru violet backed and amani sunbird,east coast batis, long billed forest warbler, Fischer’s turaco. othersa are kretschmer’s longbill, Sharpe’s akalat,yellow streaked greenbul, dappled throat,half collared kingfisher,african broadbill,the endemic usambara eagle owl and more

Early morning drive from the hotel and take a short stop at zigi lowland forest for what we might have missed the previous days, another stop will be Masunguru dam 10 km east of Msata town for the first search of the endemic ruvu weaver which was once lost in literature circa 1916, the recent paper describes this bird as restricted from bagamoyo to selous (now Nyerere national park)in Tanzania though we have recent records in SUA botanical garden in Morogoro town. We will also search for the rare african pygmy goose and great crested grebe here.
 
Accommodaction;
Night in Dar es Salaam 

 in pugu hills for gorgeous bushshrike,mouse colored sunbird,east coast akalat,another chance for Tanzanian illadopsis and kretschmer’s longbill,kenya crested guinea fowl, ground scrapper thrush and plenty more

We will drive through kisarawe road unto mtemere stopping on the way for any special bird we will see. Later in the evening we will bird the village and the hotel ground
Here we will look for reichenow’s woodpecker,red necked falcon,bohms and mottled spine tails, plain bellied francolin,bohms,blue cheeked,swallow tailed and european beeeaters, different species of eagles and vultures,a nother chamce for ruvu and eastern golden weavers,village and lesser masked weavers,northern white crowned shrike,eastern black headed batis,grey go away bird,pale billed hornbill etc etc . our first chance to encounter with the wild dogs, roan antelopes and more. 

 We will exit at matambo gate.

Night in Morogoro town

We will hike here for endemics and near endemics,tough hikes with good birds such as the endemic uluguru bushshrike, uluguru greenbul and loveridge sunbird. The near endemics includes chapin’s and white winged apalis and dark batis.
Acc
Night in Morogoro town

Here we will look for the endemic winifreds warbler,another chance for the Endemic loveridge and uluguru greenbul, Livingstone’s turaco,white chested alethe,angolan swallow,the near endemic bertram’s weaver, endemic uluguru race of bar throated apalis and others.Night in Morogoro town

 
We will drive for 3 hours up the ukaguru mountains for the endemics such as rubeho akalat,rubeho warbler,moreau’s sunbird,Uhehe fiscal,near endemic black lored cisticola,others are variable indigobird,olive flanked robin chat,swynertons robin,southern yellow white eye etc.
 
Night in Morogoro 
Early morning drive to Mikumi Np and check in to our camp in time for lunch later bird kilosa road for the miombo specialities such as piping cisticola,western miombo sunbird, Stirling’s wren warbler,yellow bellied and southern hyliota,african spotted creeper,grey cuckooshrike,cabanis’s bunting and more. Night in camp bastian mikumi

Richard’s and black eared seed eater,purple crested turaco,pale billed hornbill,red necked(black bellied race)francolin, endemic Shelley’s sunbird, yellow throated petronia, Arnott’s chat, miombo blue eared starling, Livingstone’s flycatcher and lots more-Night in camp bastian mikumi

We will bird here for the endemic kilombero cisticola,white tailed cisticola and kilombero weaver. others are african white crowned lapwing, lesser seedcracker, different species of waxbills and reed warblers. We will deive back to Mangula village and do hikes in udzungwa mountains for the endemic white lined barbet and rufous winged sunbird. Night in either twiga hotel in mang’ula village or drive back to Mikumi. 
Day 22 Drive for drop off in dar or extension for 3 nights in Ruaha national park
 
Night at Johnsons villa in SAME TOWN