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.