Kenya Birding Trip with Village weaver birding tours
16–29 Jul 2024
(14 days)
Tour Leader: Issac Kilusu and Driver John
Day 1: JKIA Airport and Nairobi Np
We Met Anders at the Airport who flew to Nairobi earlier today from Amsterdam and we waited for Richard who was arriving to Nairobi at around 10:45 from New york, USA, we were to pick Lila from wildebeest eco camp but she informed us that she was 4 hours away from Nairobi. Lila came to the country 10 days before the tour to do some of her field work. We had to drive to the park without lila and she was to join us later. We started birding at the airport and we had superb starling,black headed heron,african pied wagtail,african palm swift,house sparrow ,pied crow and yellow billed kite. We drove to the park and just at the gate we had abyssinian thrush, baglafetch weaver,dark capped bulbul and collared sunbird. We went down towards the ivory burning site and we registered white-bellied tit, Hildebrandt’s starling,wattled starling, tropical boubou,cardinal woodpecker and scarlet chested sunbird. We had lunch at the ivory burning site and we added Spotted palm thrush,blue-naped and speckled mousebird,Ayres hawk eagle and rüppell’s robin chat.
We went further down to Nagolomon dam and there was african fish eagle,malachite kingfisher,common sandpiper,sacred ibises ,spurwinged and blacksmith lapwings. We turned back and went down to Hyaena dam where we had Brimstone canary,winding cisticola,common waxbills, reichenow’s seedeater,dusky turtle dove,hamerkop,yellow throated longclaw , Sentinel lark and white backed vultures.
We had a call from Lila that she was at the main gate and we went to pick her up and we drove straight to Kingfisher picnic site where we saw spectacled weaver, Hildebrandt’s starling,african citril and many others. By 6.00pm we started driving towards the Langata gate and added white bellied go away bird,brown crowned canary and red faced cisticola. We exited the gate and drove to Hotel troy for overnight . We had 104 species for the day
Day 2: Aberdare NP and North kinangop grasslands
We left nairobi by 5:30am and drove for 3hours to Matubio gate in Aberdares Np,Before the park at Ndunyu njeru town we recorded hunters cisticola,golden winged sunbird,yellow billed duck and streaky seedeater. We went up the dirty road up to matubio gate and we had Jackson’s spurfowl,kikuyu white eye,moorland chat, cinnamon bracken warbler,tacazze sunbird and others. We drove upto Chania falls and turned back to the gate and had lunch before we drove all the way to Murungaru town and we picked our local guide,Kimani. We went to the Sharpe’s longclaw Nature reserve wher we ticked speke’s weaver,red-throated wryneck,levaillant’s cisticola and the most wanted Sharpe’s longclaw and Long tailed widowbird. At the ponds we had red knobbed coot,great white egret and squacco heron. We drove back to Nairobi at around 5pm and arrived in Hotel troy at 730pm.We had a total of 128 birds as for this day
Day 3: Drive to Amboseli Np
Before we left Hotel troy we birded the hotel ground for red faced crombec,white headed barbet and african green pigeon.We left the hotel by 8pm and we drove to Emali where we had a stop for coffee and recorded northern grey headed sparrow, Fischer’s starling,kenya sparrow and others.
We later drove toward Amboseli via Iremito gate,on the way on that acacia scrub we had pink breasted lark,rosy-patch bushrike,taita fiscal,black necked weaver,golden breasted bunting,ashy cisticola,grey wren warbler and buff crested bustard. We drove through Iremito gate and we recorded afew birds before we exited via Kimana gate unto to Kimana gate for lunch. At the camp ground we had parrot-billed sparrow, crimson rumped waxbill, hybrid lovebird,pearl spotted owlet and rattling cisticola. After lunch we drove back to the park and we had rufous chatterer,crowned lapwing,white-bellied bustard and others. We drove back to camp we had a very delicious meal and retired to bed.We had a total of 200 species as for this day.
Day 4: Full day in Amboseli Np
After an early breakfast we drove to the park for a full day birding,at Longinye swamp we had african jacana,long toed lapwing,white faced whistling ducks,whiskered and white winged tern,lesser and greater flamingo,cape teal and common squacco heron. We later drove to Oltukai lodge for coffee and at the camp ground we had Taveta weaver,verreaux’s eagle owl,grey headed kingfisher,buff bellied warbler and beautiful sunbird.
We drove towards the Observation hill and we added yellow crowned bishop,kittlitz plovers,fan tailed widowbird,chestnut bellied sand grouse ,grey crowned cranes,great white pelicans and african marsh harrier. We had lunch at the observation hill and drove toward the wire loop where we added kori bustard and pangani longclaw to our list making it a total of 233 bird recorded so far. We came back to camp and had dinner and went early to bed.
Day 5: Oloitoktok forest to Tsavo west Np
We left camp by 7 sharp and drove towards Oloitoktok forest where on the way we registered three banded plover,somali tit,long tailed paradise and straw tailed whydah and others,we arrived at the forest edge and we heard kilimanjaro white eyes calling and after scanning we got avery good view of one,we continued birding and we saw glipses of stripe-faced greenbul,Up the big strangler fig there is a known site for bar-throated apalis so we went for it,we go 3 birds calling in no time. And luckly there was a bird party in the same spot, rüppell’s robin chat,white starred robin,african hill babbler,placid and sombre greenbuls,cinnamon bracken warbler,orange breasted bush shrike and southern citril.
We went close to the border and we added brown parisoma and hartlaub’s turaco,time was not on our side and we had to drive on to the tsavos.We took a stop at Goldfinch curio where we had a very nice lunch and drove for another 2 hours to Tsavo inn hotel. We checked in and quickly went to the park via mtito andei gate and we added birds such as von der decken’s, northern redbilled and african grey hornbill,tsavo and hunter’s sunbirds,golden breasted starling and buff crested bustard. We added a total of 30 new birds to our list which we had a total of 263 birds
Day 6:Full day is Tsavo west Np
We started at 700am at mtito andei gate birding through the main road to Mzima springs where we took a bird walk after lunch then we drove back and headed to Ngulia lodge arriving late in the evening. We added 27 new birdd to our list making a total of 290. Some of the notable birds include yellow billed horbill,three streaked tchagra,red winged lark,black bellied sunbird ,golden pipit,cutthroat finch and giant kingfisher
Day 7-Tsavo west to Lake jipe
We started birding in ngulia lodge at 6:30 and added rüppell’s starling,amethyst sunbird and Hildebrandt’s spurfowl to our list,we drove slowly towards kilaguni then followed the road towards severin safari lodge unto Northern Maktau gate exit . We birded for red fronted prinia,red naped bushshrike and mountain wagtail. We entered the park again via Maktau southern gate and dorove for 48 km to lake jipe,we added grey headed gull, pied avocet and african harrier hawk to our list before driving back to Maktau again and drove towards mwatate and we took the turn off to Wundanyi to Taita Rocks Hotel.
Day 8:Taita hills to Tsavo East Np
We started by 730am and we had pale white eye at the hotel ground,we went up Ngangao forest and we saw Taita apalis,Taita white-eyes ,Striped pipit and we did miss the Taita thrush. We also heard yellow throated woodland warbler, evergreen forest warbler and east coast boubou but we never saw them . We drove to Voi town for lunch and unto Voi entry gate to Tsavo East Np, we checked in at Voi safari lodge then later at 400pm went for a short game drive where we added woolly necked stork, chestnut headed sparrowlark and somali ostrich to our list before returning to the lodge for a very tasty meal and made plans for the next morning having recorded 323 birds so far
Day 9: Full day in Tsavo East Np
We started our birding at 630am at the lodge ground heading out towards Ashnil aruba lodge , we recorded afew good birdd to our list such as somali courser,hundreds of cut throat finches,a flock of golden breasted starling and red billed quelea without forgetting 8 species of raptors in that general area,we went back for lunch then later we went on the North west side of voi safari lodge for an evening birding
Day 10: Drive from Tsavo East Np to Watamu
We drove from the lodge heading towards lugard’s fall where we stopped for birding,we continued towards the sala’s gate where we had somali courser again,golden palm weavers ,pale prinia,somali beeeater and singing bush larks
Day 11 and 12 :Full days in Arabuko sokoke forest
The quest for birds in Arabuko for the two days went well despite missing the Clarke’s weaver . We had african pitta which was a vagrant to this forest and mascarene martin at arabuko swamp, another vagrant from Madagascar. We had very good views of the elusive spotted ground thrush,magrove kingfisher, gorgeous bushrike,sokoke pipit,sokoke scops owl,amani sunbird,green barbet,red tailed anthrush,forest and pale batis,forest weaver,bluemantled crested flycatcher,plain backed sunbird, Fischer’s greenbuls, Fischer’s turaco and many more
Day 13:Sabaki river estuary and Mida creek
A drive to Sabaki river estuary produced two most wanted birds,the sooty gull and crap plovers ,others such as curlew and terek sandpiper,little stint,sanderling,greater and tibetan sand plover, greater,lesser,rosette and gull billed terns were also present.we went back for lunch and set out at 4pm for mida creek where we added common greenshank,white fronted plover,coastal cisticola , turnstone, Eurasian curlew,dimorphic egret and Eurasian oyster catcher
Day 14:Mida creek and Karura forest in Nairobi
Early morning drive to mida creek again,we found low tide with lots of waders but no new birds recorded,we went to the nearby forest scrub and we had pale flycatcher,bearded scrub robin,black crowned tchagra and a mottled spinetail flew by .We headed to Malindi airport by 1030am and flew back yo nairobi and transfered to Karura forest for an evening birding session
Mammals:Warthog,Black backed jackal,spotted hyaena,cape buffalo,kongoni hartebeest, impala,common duiker,red duiker,vervet monkey,bushbuck,olive baboon,african elephant,Lions,cheetah,zebras,eastern white bearded gnu,maasai girrafe,grant and Thompson’s gazelle,Ochre bush squirrel,mt kilimanjaro black and white colobus,Bohor reedbuck,common hippo,lesser and greater kudu,Leopard,Eland,unstriped ground squirrel,kirks dikdik,Rock hyrax,fringed eared orix,yellow baboon, Sykes monkey,Zebra,Bandeded and dwarf moongose,Rufous rumped elephant shrew