Tanzania October – November 2012 – Lower Slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro

We had some time left, so we ventured to Moshi to see the Kilimanjario and did a day hike outside the (crazy expensive) National Park. We did not plan to do any birding here, but the hike turned out to be rather productive and resulted in sightings of Crowned Eagle, Hartlaub´s Turaco, Cinnamon Chested Bee-eater, White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Sharpe´s and Violet-backed Starling. Of special interest for me (as an European birder) were three Willow Warblers which were most likely of the acredula subspecies. We also enjoyed several Chameleon species, which were unfortunately left unidentified, during this walk.

Flap-necked Chameleon (Chamaeleo dilipis) (picture taken by Anna van der Kaaden)

It was a very nice walk to end our fairly successful Tanzania trip on which we recorded more than 300 bird species and over 30 mammal species. I can recommend this country to anyone, for it offers an immense array of possibilities, from the standard safari or beach holiday, to diving with Whale Sharks. I highly recommend this country to birders and for mammal enthusiasts it is simply a must. For its most interesting part, the biodiversity hotspot, the Eastern Arc Mountains, are unique but unknown and therefore quiet and reasonable priced, especially when you compare them to the ridiculously overpriced Northern Circuit safaris. However, visit these mountains quickly as the forests in all places are being destroyed rapidly, despite being protected and therefore many species are in great danger. Maybe increased interest will help safeguard the future of the endemics that cling to these forests.

Destruction of the forest in the West Usambara´s

Tanzania October – November 2012 – West Usambara´s (Irente Biodiversity Reserve)

This site is not a particularly necessary site for birders and thus never visited by any birding crews, but it turned out to be a good place to spend two days to unwind, for we did not had the money to do the Magamba Sawmill road again. The food at Irente Farm (The place to stay or camp out here, info@irentebiodiversity.org) is exceptionally good and completely homemade. We ate the best bread and cheese of entire Africa here. The birding turned out to be pretty productive as well as I managed to see close to 100 species within just two days, including: Wahlberg´s Eagle, Little Sparrowhawk, African Wood Owl, Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike, Black-fronted Bush-shrike, Eurasian Golden Oriole, African Golden Weaver, Green-backed Twinspot and Cabanis´ Bunting. The farm is also a surprisingly good place for Honeyguides and Honeybirds, for the owner tends to bait them with his own homemade bee wax. We observed Lesser Honeyguide here very well and saw another unidentified small Honeybird briefly.

Juvenile Green-backed Twinspot (Mandingoa nitidula)

African Wood Owl (Strix woodfordii)

There is also a viewpoint in the vicinity called Irente View Point, which offers a spectacular view of the savannah (or Masai Plain as they call it here), and which is also a good site for Brown Snake Eagle, Lanner Falcon and White-naped Raven. Besides several unidentified large bats (see pictures. Comments are most welcome), we recorded a Small-eared Galago here. There is also an old record of Serval near the farm, so keep your eyes open in early mornings! Other animals of interest include Usambara Soft-horned and Usambara Double-horned Chameleon.

Unidentified frugivorous bat

Usambara Two-horned Chameleon (Kinyongia multituberculata) (picture taken by Anna van der Kaaden)

Tanzania October – November 2012 – West Usambara´s (Magamba Sawmill Road)

East and West Usumbara´s are separated by a big valley and apparently have been so for a long, long time, for they both host a completely different set of endemic bird species. Therefore we ventured to Lushoto in the West Usambara´s. After being spoiled by such a good guide in Amani, we tried to find a decent one in Lushoto. Not an easy task in this backpacker town, for we were often pushed to try a guide of one of the hundred small tourist offices. In the end we found one at the Friends of the Usambara Mountains organization: Said. He was a young Rasta with not too much knowledge, but extremely eager to learn and probably he will be a very good guide in the future (he already made use of www.xeno-canto.org to learn the birdsounds).

Said making an effort to learn the key species

Together with him and another guide, who wanted to see some birds apparently, we ventured to the famous Magamba Sawmill road, where all West-Usambara specialties can be seen. To get here we hired motorbikes to get to Gologolo and walked back until we could take a dalla-dalla back to Lushoto. We failed to find all the endemics as we missed Usambara Weaver, which seems to be very scarce as we continuously checked every lichen-covered branch (the favoured feeding site of this species). However, we found some interesting endemics by ourselves like Usambara Akalat, Spot-throat, African Tailorbird, Usambara Double-collared Sunbird and Fülleborn´s Black Boubou.

Usambara Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyrus usambaricus)

Besides the endemics we saw several other good species including: Mountain Buzzard, Hartlaub´s  Turaco, Klaas´s Cuckoo, Bar-tailed Trogon, Scaly-throated Honeyguide, Black-headed Mountain Greenbul (ssp. usambarae which might be its own species and then a new West-Usambara endemic), White-starred Robin, Black-fronted Bush-shrike, Sharpe´s and Kenrick´s Starling. Mammals observed included Angola Pied Colobus and Blue (or Sykes or White-throated) Monkey.

Hartlaub´s Turaco (Tauraco hartlaubi) delivering a splash of colour into the forest 

White-starred Robin (Pogonocichla stellata)

 really liked the walk and the birding is good, especially in the morning near the old sawmill, for the forest is, surprisingly enough, the best in this stretch. However, I think seeing all the endemics without tape is near to impossible. As stated above, Said might be a very decent guide in the future and a great addition to the regions ¨normal¨ guides.

Tanzania October – November 2012 – Amani Nature Reserve

The Eastern Arc Mountains consist of several smaller, ancient mountain ranges, of which the Udzungwa´s, the Uluguru´s, the Usambara´s and Pares are the largest. These mountains are more than 200 million years old and actually host the second-highest biodiversity of the entire continent. Surprisingly they are sparsely visited by birders. After we visited the Udzungwa´s (see previous entry) we planned to visit the Uluguru´s but due to food poisoning we were unable to. Our next destination was Amani Nature Reserve in the East Usambara´s. This site is a must for birders if they want to see the critically endangered and highly localized Long-billed Tailorbird, as well as the endangered Banded Green Sunbird, Amani Sunbird and Usambara Eagle Owl.

If you visit this site under your own steam, you have to take the Muheza – Amani bus and then just ask to be dropped off at the track leading to the hotel of your choice. We can recommend the Emau Forest Hill Camp. It is rather expensive, but camping out can cut the price. This place is an excellent birding site, with many endemics foraging in its garden. At the camp we met a very nice Swedish birder, who was kind enough to share his guide, Martin (martinjoho2008@gmail.com), who was extremely knowledgeable and definitely the best we had in entire Tanzania.

We arrived in the late afternoon at the camp after a one hour walk from the main road. This walk proved good for Trumpeter and Silvery-cheeked Hornbill, Eastern Olive Sunbird and Cabanis´ Bunting. Even in the last minutes of daylight we managed to see Shelley´s Greenbul, Yellow White-eye, Red-winged Starling and Moustached Green Tinkerbird within the garden of the camp. The next day we headed out into a remote part of the forest reserve by motorbike and here we enjoyed tons of great birds such as: Southern Banded Snake Eagle, Fischer´s Turaco (East-African endemic), Little, Shelley´s, Stripe-faced and Yellow-streaked Greenbul, Sharpe´s Akalat, Usambara Thrush (Tanzania endemic), Orange Ground Thrush, Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler, Banded Green Sunbird (Tanzania Endemic) and Amani Sunbird (East-Africa endemic). The most noteworthy sighting of today however had to be the discovery of a new territory (#68) of Long-billed Tailorbirds. Besides the species above some other species were solely heard like Eastern Nicator, White-chested Alethe, Evergreen Forest Warbler and Black-fronted Bush-shrike. We also observed Angola Pied Colobus in this stretch of forest.

Long-billed Tailorbird (Artisornis moreaui)

Green-headed Oriole (Oriolus chlorocephalus)

The afternoon was spent in the garden of the camp which was rather productive and we enjoyed great views of Crowned, Wahlberg´s, Long-crested and Lesser Spotted Eagle, Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird (Tanzania endemic), Kenrick´s Starling (Tanzania endemic), Banded Green Sunbird (Tanzania endemic), Black Cuckooshrike and East-coast Boubou (East-Africa endemic).

Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird (Anthreptes neglectes)

Kenrick´s Starling (Poeoptera kenricki)

Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus)

In the evening we tried to find the elusive Usambara Eagle Owl, but only found a pair of African Wood Owls, which sounded, in my humble opinion, rather similar to the Eagle Owl. Frustratingly, the owl called around 5:00 in the morning, but we were asleep, for we searched all night for it… Unfortunately we had to leave this magical place after two nights, for otherwise we would run out of money. I recommend a four day stay to fully enjoy this awesome site.

Tanzania October – November 2012 – Udzungwa Mountains National Park

The Udzungwa Mountains National Park betzeen Mikumi, Ifakara and Iringa offers a remarkable set of endemics. The most noteworthy is the Udzungwa Forest Partridge, which is more related to any Asian partridge than to any African species. The national park houses also several stunning mammals, including Leopards, Bush Pigs, Aardvarks and Elephants. It is also the only place in the world to see the rare Iringa Red Colobus and Sanje Mangabey.

We birded for two days in the East Udzungwa´s, which is unfortunately not the place to see any of the endemcs. For those you have to visit the West Udzungwa´s from the town of Udekwa, which is virtually impossible to visit using public transport and very costly to arrange at the national park office (we had to pay around 600 euros for everything if we wanted to arrange it at the office). Therefore we opted for two days hiking in the East Udzungwa´s, which proved to be enough for both endemic monkey species.

We camped at Mang´ula B, which was near the national park office, which is the starting point for most of the trails. The first hike was a bit strenuous as the terrain was rather steep and the temperatures rather high. We still noted some nice species like: Crowned Eagle (a sub-adult which gave brief, but absolutely stunning views), (Kenya) Crested Guineafowl, Trumpeter Hornbill, Red-capped Robin-chat, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Southern Black, Ashy and White-tailed Crested Flycatcher, Yellowbill and White-naped Raven. We also had fantastic views of a troop of Sanje Mangabeys foraging around us. An additional guide can be hired at the office to locate these special primates, but we didn´t and were apparently very lucky to find them by ourselves. Besides these primates, we also noted Iringa Red Colobus, Blue (or Sykes) Monkey, Angola Pied Colobus, Harvey´s Duiker, Tanganika Mountain Squirrel and Eastern Tree Hyrax.

Sanje Mangabey (Sercocebus sanjei) winking at the camera

Sanje Mangabey (Sercocebus sanjei) with an infant

Iringa Red Colobus (Procolobus gordonorum) looking away...

Sykes Monkey (Cercopithecus mitis)

Angola Pied Colobus (Colobus angolensis)

The next day we did a long day hike of 14 kilometer, which was very exhausting as the terrain was even steeper than yesterday and temperatures equally high. During this hike we managed to note African Goshawk, African Hawk-eagle, Crowned Eagle, African Hobby, Livingstone´s Turaco, Green Woodhoopoe, Green Barbet, Trumpeter Hornbill and Green-headed Oriole amongst other species. We also saw the Sanje Mangabey again. Apparently we were even more lucky than yesterday… We also noted Iringa Red Colobus, Blue (or Sykes) Monkey, Angola Pied Colobus and Yellow Baboon, resulting in five primate species seen during a single hike! We also heard a Buffalo moving through the forest, making our scout rather nervous. I also made a sound recording of a Galago, which might be a South-African Galago. Comments are most welcome. I will upload this sound recording here as soon as possible.

African Hawk Eagle (juvenile) (Aquila spilogaster)

Yellow Baboon (Papio cynocephalus)

Scout

I really recommend this site to anyone, birder and non-birder, as the scenery is breathtaking and the wildlife good, however challenging to find. For the birders I recommend visiting the West Udzungwa´s to try for the local endemics. However, I later heard that the highly elusive Dapple-throat and Swynnerton´s Robin should be possible in the East Udzungwa´s, so they might be worth exploring for these species.

Tanzania October – November 2012 – Kilombero Floodplain

The Kilombero floodplain is located a couple of kilometers south of Ifakara. For the birder it is must as it holds three endemics: Kilombero Weaver, Kilombero Cisticola and White-tailed Cisticola, of which the latter two still await formal description despite the fact that they have been discovered more than 20 years ago. The town of Ifakara can be reached from Mikumi by bus (4 hours) and offers basic accommodation. The floodplains can be reached by bajaj or taxi. Here you can hire a pirogue or a motorized boat. We opted for the former and paid 40.000 TSH for two hours, which is probably a fair deal. Our boatman, Anthony, knew some of the birds, but more importantly the river.

The two hours proved enough time to find all tree endemics. Many Kilombero Weavers (unfortunately all out of plumage) were observed along with the similar Southern Brown-throated Weaver. Care is needed to separate both species when out of plumage, but the lighter under-tail coverts give the Kilombero Weavers away. During the boat ride ze also enjoyed good views of a single Kilombero Cisticola and a single White-tailed Cisticola.

White-tailed Cisticola (Cisticola pipiens)

Kilombero Weaver (Ploceus burnieri)

Kilombero Weaver (Ploceus burnieri)

The floodplains offered many other good species including the following: African Openbill, African Wattled Lapwing, White-crowned Lapwing, Collared Pratincole, Marsh Owl, Giant Kingfisher, White-fronted Bee-eater, Tropical Boubou and Zebra Waxbill.

African Openbill (Anastomus lamelligerus)

Senegal Thick-knee (Burhinus senegalensis)

African Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus senegallus)

Black-headed Heron (Ardea melanocephala)

Collared Pratincole (Glareola pratincola)

Giant Kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima)

It is also possible to see Nile Crocodiles and Hippo´s on the river, but we only saw a dead crocodile and a load of Nile Monitors. After our pirogue ride we walked back to the town and Anna managed to see another White-tailed Cisticola. During our walk, we noted the immense destruction that the locals are causing to these marshlands as we counted nine simultaneous fires from a single spot. Therefore I advise birders to go here quickly, as the future does not look bright for these three country-endemics.  Besides, more visitors to this remote site might increase awareness…

This is a common sight in the floodplain... (picture taken by Anna van der Kaaden)

Tanzania October - November 2012 - Mikumi National Park

Tanzania is famous for its big mammals and safaris, however it also offers an amazing set of endemics to the birders besides the East-African avifauna that can be seen on the standard Northern Circuit (Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro crater and Tarangire). We did not want to miss a real Tanzanian safari so we opted for a combination of Safari and the Eastern Arc Mountains, which hosts the most endemics in Tanzania and is actually the second most biodiverse region of entire Africa.

Our choice for the Safari was Mikumi National Park, which is due to its lack of fame reasonably priced, but still offers some decent mammalwatching. We were lucky enough to find some people who wanted to share a 4WD with us so we paid 50 Dollar for the vehicle and 20 Dollar each for the National Park.

Our safari was a big succes, for we saw 15 species of mammals including Lions, African Elephants, Common Zebra's (I don't know which subspecies, probably boehmii or crawshanki or something in between), Hippopotamus, Masai Giraffe, African Buffalo, Bridled Gnu, Eland, and Impala. Less spectacular , but still really cool, species included Bohor Reedbuck, Bushbuck, Yellow Baboon, Slender Mongoose, Black-backed Jackal and Common Warthog. Also two Nile Crocodiles were noted.

Yellow Baboon (Papio cynocephalus)

Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetus taurinus)

Black-backed Jackal (Canis mesomelas)

Masai Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi)

Young Impala (Aepyceros melampus)

Bohor Reedbuck (Redunca redunca)

African Elephant (Loxodonta africana)

Common Zebra (Equus quagga)

African Lion (Panthera leo)

Besides the spectacular mammals, this park also offers some really good birdwatching. The Hippo-pools proved good for several waterbirds such as Hamerkop, Yellow-billed and Saddle-billed Stork, African Spoonbill, African Fish-Eagle, Water Think-knee, Blacksmith Lapwing, Three-banded Plover, Marsh Sandpiper and Little Stint. The park is also really good for raptors as eleven species were recorded including: Hooded, Palmnut, African White-backed and Lappet-faced Vultures, Booted and Steppe Eagles, Black-chested Snake Eagles. Bateleurs were ever present and a pair of Grey Kestrels was a bit of a surprise.

Tawny Eagle (Aquila rapax)

Bateleur (Terathopius ecaudatus)

Crappy record shot of a Lappet-faced Vulture (Torgos tracheliotus)

Grey Kestrel (Falco ardosiaceus)

The plains proved also good for several species as Southern Ground-hornbill, Black-bellied Bustard, Helmeted Guineafowl, Red-necked Spurfowl, Temminck's Courser and Yellow-throated Longclaw were all much enjoyed. The scrubs held a whole different set of birds and species like Little Bee-eater, Northern Pied Babbler (Tanzanian near-endemic), Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Black-crowned Tshagra, Long-tailed Fiscal, Southern Blue-eared Starling, African Firefinch and Fan-tailed Widowbird.

Temminck's Courser (Cursorius temminckii)

Black-bellied Bustard (Lissotis melanogaster)

Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris)

Scarlet-chested Sunbird (Chalcomitra senegalensis)

I can recommend Mikumi National Park to anyone who is looking for a safari in Tanzania as it is reasonably priced but still has a lot of wildlife and it is easy to reach from Dar es Salaam. Even the busride is very worth doing as the the bus passes through the National Park and African Elephants, Masai Giraffes, African Bufallos, Common Zebra's and Impala's can all be seen from the bus.

Mikumi town itself is quite uninteresting, however we managed to see two very interesting birdspecies here: a Walhberg's Eagle flew over our tent both days we stayed there and one night we observed a displaying Pennant-winged Nightjar, which was as incredible to see as all the big mammals we saw that day!

Migrating juvenile Bee-eater (Merops apiaster)