Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013, Montagne d'Ambre National Park

After our visit to the Madagascar Pochard Lakes, we headed further north to see another seldom-seen species. From Antsohihy we took an overnight taxi-brousse to Diego Suarez. From Tana this town can also be reached by a very long and tiring taxi-brousse, but  most birders opt for the more expensive option: plane (about 180 euros for a one-way ticket). From Diego you can easily travel by taxi-brousse to Joffreville (one hour). This town is the gateway town to the national park. Every accomodation is inside this town and the national park office can be reached after a four km walk from the town.

Usually a day is enough to see the endangered and range-restricted Amber Mountain Rock Thrush. We however spend two for we had some spare time due to flight schedules. On the first day we enjoyed good views of two males and a female of the rock thrush. Other good birds observed included: Madagascar Crested Ibis, Sooty Falcon, Pitta-like Ground, Dark Newtonia and Rainforest Scops Owl. This national park is also very good for range-restricted lemurs like Crowned and Sanford´s Brown Lemur, of which we enjoyed good views. The real non-avian highlight however was the Brookesia minima found by our guide. Other good reptiles included an Elephant Chameleon and a Madagascar Ground Boa.

Amber Mountain Rock Thrush (Male) (Monticola erythronotus)

Male Crowned Lemur (Eulemur coronatus)

Brookesia minima (picture made by Anna van der Kaaden)

The next day we went into the park again and visited some other sites inside park. We did not find any rock thrushes again, but enjoyed other goodies including Pitta-like Ground Roller, Madagascar Blue Vanga and Madagascar Starling. We also saw both Eulemur species again. We also enjoyed stunning views of a Uroplatus fimbriatus. In the evening we a night walk along the trail leading from the village to the national park office. During this walk we observed two rarely seen species: Ankarana Sportive Lemur and Northern Rufous Lemur. Chameleons observed included Furcifer oustelatii and Furcifer pardelis. Five Rainforest Scops Owls were also heard.

Female Sanford´s Brown Lemur (Eulemur sanfordi) 

Uroplatus fimbriatus

Montagne d´Ambre national park is a nice, well maintained park, but very far away from the standard birding circuit, however the endemic rock thrush makes the detour well worth it.