coastal kenya

Coastal Kenya Birding Tour

Description

This Birding Tour to the Coastal Region lets you experience birding in a very wide scope capturing amazing endemic species.

Key species to look out for in this tour include: Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler , Saddle-billed Stork, Jameson’s Firefinch, Mouse-coloured Penduline Tit, Acacia Tit, Harlequin Quail, Two-banded Courser, Scaly Chatterer, Southern Banded Snake-Eagle, Lizard Buzzard, Taita Thrush, Cardinal Quelea, Four-coloured Bush-Shrike, White-bellied Canary, Taveta Golden Weaver, Golden Palm Weaver, White-headed Mousebird, Clarke’s Weaver, Taita White-eye, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Eastern Nicator, Tiny Greenbul, Fischer’s Greenbul, Zanzibar Greenbul, Stripe-cheeked Greenbul, Crested Guineafowl, East Coast Akalat, Red-capped Robin-Chat, Fischer’s Turaco, Trumpeter Hornbill, Blue-capped Cordon-Bleu, Somali Bunting, Taita Aplais, Tiny Cisticola, Pale Prinia, Evergreen Forest Warbler, Narina Trogon ,Little Yellow Flycatcher, Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher, Thick-billed Cuckoo, African Wood Owl, Green Barbet, White-eared Barbet, Green Tinkerbird, Bohm’s Spinetail, Forest Batis, Red-tailed Ant-Thrush, Pygmy Batis, Pale Batis, Eastern Olive Sunbird just to mention a few.

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival to Nairobi

Depending on your time of arrival, you will tour Nairobi city and its environments enroute to your pre-booked hotel for dinner and overnight and rest for the next day safari.

Day 2: Amboseli National Park

From Nairobi you will arrive in Amboseli by midday. After lunch you will have the chance of some birding in the grounds of the camp, escorted by your guide. Later in the afternoon you will have an escorted walk to visit a Maasai village to get an insight into the Maasai culture and the daily lives of the people. You will then join the other guests from camp on a drive into the Selenkay conservancy and a sundowner at a scenic spot overlooking Kilimanjaro, returning to camp for dinner and overnight.

Day 3: Amboseli National Park

A full day’s birding in 4×4 safari vehicle escorted by a guide, visiting Amboseli National Park with a picnic lunch, returning later in the afternoon to camp with the opportunity for an evening drive in the conservancy. Dinner and overnight at your camp.

Day 4: Tsavo West National Park

Depending on the time of your visit Tsavo West National Park may be the site for the enigmatic Friedmann’s Lark, Red-naped Bush Shrike, Scaly Chatter which would be some of the star birds of this Kenya Birding Tour. Other birds may include Singing Bush Lark, Bare-eyed Thrush, Rufous Chatterer, Black-headed Plover, Quail-Plover, Somali Courser, African Scops Owl, Pringle’s Puffback, Olive-tree, Basra Reed Warbler, Violet Wood-hoopoe, Southern Black, Spot-flanked, Red & Yellow, D’Arnaud’s, Black-throated, White-headed Barbet, Greater, Scaly-throated, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Vulturine Guineafowl, Northern Brownbul, Desert, Zitting, Ashy, Rattling, Tiny Cisticola, Tsavo Sunbird, Hunter’s Sunbird, Jameson’s Firefinch, Green-winged Pytilia & Fire-fronted Bishop.
Overnight at your lodge.

Day 5: Taita Hills

On this day you will be driven to Taita Hills Forests and spend the best part of the day birding up the hills. If lucky enough these hills and patches of bits of forest, rising abruptly to 2200m are home to 3 Kenyan endemic “The Taita Three” namely the Taita Apalis, Taita Thrush and Taita White-eye. It’s the only site on our Kenya Birding Tour that gives us a chance to see 3 Kenya endemic birds. Also look for are Striped-cheeked Greenbul, Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler and Striped Pipit. Hopefully after locating them, we will drive back making several stops for other birds.
Dinner and overnight stay at your lodge.

Day 6: Shimba Hills National Reserve

On day 5 your birding tour will take you to Shimba Hills National Reserve, it’s the only site in Kenya for the Green-headed Oriole and Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird also we may see Fischer’s Turaco, Green, Brown-breasted, Black-breasted & White-eared Barbets.
Lunch at the lodge and afternoon birding in the Reserve.
Overnight at your lodge.

Day 7: Arabuko Sokoke Forest

Your Kenya Coastal Birding Tour takes into the famous Arabuko Sokoke Forest, which is the largest remnant of the East African Coastal Forest. We hope to see the rarely seen Kenyan endemic Clarke’s Weaver among the rich diversity of other bird species. These may include near endemic Amani Sunbird, Sokoke Pipit & Malindi Pipit, East Coast Akalat, Scaly Babbler, Mombasa Woodpecker. Other birds may include Little Yellow Flycatcher, a localized Collared Palm Thrush, Four-coloured Bushshrike, Fischer’s Turaco, Mangrove Kingfisher,
Scaly-throated & Pallid Honeyguides, Eastern Green Tinkerbird & Green Barbet, Mombasa & Green-backed Woodpecker amongst many others. This is also the home to near endemic Golden-rumped Elephant Shrew.

Depending on the tide we will either visit Mida Creek or the forest fringed by mangrove forest, the creek has a large area that fills with the saline water during high tides. Watching and identifying wading birds here is superb, fun and hard. They may include the “the special one” Crab-Plover, Greater & Lesser Sand plovers, Black-tailed Godwit, Sanderling, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Curlew & Terek Sandpipers, Whimbrel & Eurasian Curlew, Oystercatcher, Dimorphic Egret, Yellow-billed & Wooly-necked Storks, Mangrove Kingfisher. Dinner and overnight at your lodge. Dinner and overnight at your lodge.

Day 8: Sabaki River Mouth & Mida Creek

Birding tour visit to Sabaki River Estuary, an area characterized by sandbanks, mudflats, mud banks, sand dunes, fresh pools and marshes. The site is important for both intra-African and Palearctic migrants for roosting, resting and feeding ground for gulls and terns.
A good site for Madagascar Pratincole, African Skimmer. Also, Dimorphic & Little Egrets, Great & Lesser Flamingos, Water Thick-knee, Ruddy Turnstone, Heuglin’s, Sooty and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Gull-billed, Caspian, Greater-crested, Lesser-crested & Common Terns, also the Southern Carmine Bee-eater, Ethiopian Swallow, Zanzibar Red Bishop also nearby Malindi Pipit. After lunch you will embark on a boat trip to discover Milda Creek. Your guide may show you the rock pools where brightly colored Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumbers and Cow Fish may be seen. You will then sail to the Marine Park beach thereafter you will be transferred to your hotel for dinner and overnight stay.

Day 9: Mombasa to Nairobi

Our Kenya Birding Tours gets complemented with a canoe ride through the mangrove swamps where you can view a magnificent array of birds and animals.

Later transfer to Nairobi for dinner and finally be dropped at the airport on time for your international outbound flight.

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Safari Inclusions

• Transport with exclusive use of the safari van as from the 1st day to departure day as per itinerary.
• Pick up and drop off on arrival and departure at the airport.
• 8 nights accommodation in lodges as per the itinerary with all three meals a day
• Services of a knowledgeable bird guide
• Parks, reserve, and conservation areas entry fee
• Emergency evacuation
• Drinking water available from the van cool box

Safari Exclusions

• Medical and travel insurance including luggage.
• Beverages
• Items of personal nature such as telephone, laundry, gifts among others
• Visa, airport tax
• Tipping of Safari driver guide, lodge porters, waiters, etc
• Other extras such as balloon Safari, Masai Village visit

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