Madagascar November 2012 - January 2013 - Masoala National Park

Masoala is the place in The place in the world for several much sought after species in Madagascar, most note worthy : Bernier´s Vanga, Helmet Vanga, Scaly and Short-legged Ground Roller and Red-breasted Coua. The traditional way to reach this site and to stay here is very costly, but we took some measures to avoid spending to much: we took the plane from Sambava to Maroantsetra, which is the cheapest flight in the country (90 euro, instead of the 180 euro you pay for an one way flight from Tana), we travelled from Maroantsetra to Tamatave by taxi-brousse and we cooked our food ourselves on charcoal on the peninsula. The four nights we stayed here costed us still 300 euro without the plane ticket, so still rather costly.

As a guide we used Armand, which I can highly recommend, especially for finding Bernier´s Vanga. However we had to wait three days untill he was available. Other good and knowledgeable guides are Joseph and Nico, but both were not available during our stay. Our entire stay on the peninsula as well as the boat to get there was arranged by Olivier from Chez Arrol Ecolodge, whom I can also highly recommend for he is very flexible and highly familiar with the area. He can even arrange visits to the seldom visited and pristine Makira Forest! After a lot of organising (park entry permits, guide fees, boat, petrol, charcoal, food for four days, lodging in Chez Arrol etc.) we were finally able to start birding in Masoala.

During the four days a lot of good species including: Madagascar Wood Rail, White-throated Oxylabes, Short-legged Ground Roller, Velvet Asity, Helmet Vanga, Madagascar Pratincole, Bernier´s Vanga, White-browed Owl, Henst´s Goshawk, Madagascar Sparrowhawk, and Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher. Even though we saw so many good species, we were very unlucky with several other species. For instance four days of searching for Scaly Ground Roller, Brown Mesite and Crossley´s Babbler resulted in heard only records of the Mesite and the Babbler... However I am very still very content with the result.

Helmet Vanga (Euryceros prevostii), up to know my bird of the trip

Female Velvet Asity (Philepitta castanea)

Short-legged Ground Roller (Brachypteracias leptosomus)

Male Bernier´s Vanga (Oriolia bernieri)

Female Bernier´s Vanga (Oriolia bernieri)

White-browed Owl (Ninox superciliaris)

Madagascar Sparrowhawk (Accipiter madagascariensis)

Besides the awesome birds, we also enjoyed several good lemurs in the form of Red Ruffed Lemur, White-fronted Brown Lemur, Eastern Grey Bamboo Lemur, Scott´s Sportive Lemur (recently described species) and Moore´s Avahi (recently described species). Besides the lemurs we also observed Tanala Tuft-tailed Rat and Lowland Streaked Tenrec. Reptiles recorded included Furcifer pardelis, Phelsuma lineata and Amphiglossus melanurus.

Red Ruffed Lemur (Varecia rubra)

Scott´s Sportive Lemur (Lepilemur scottorum)

Moore´s Avahi (Avahi mooreorum)

Tanala Tuft-tailed Rat (Eliurus tanala)

After four days our time was up and unfortunately we had to leave this magical place. The boat ride back was however utterly horrible, for the sea was so rough that for four times  our boat almost capsized... So if the sea is rough, I would refuse to go... Once back in Maroantsetra we took the taxi-brousse to Tamatave. This is rather cheap, but one of the roughest roads I have ever travelled. You pay 80.000 Ariary for a seat in the bucket of an old beat-up Toyota Hilux and 100.000 Ariary for a seat in the cabin, but you have to reserve these a week in advance. The trip takes two days at best, but it took us nearly four days... Masoala is really an awesome destination, but to visit this place in certain luxury you pay a lot. There are some ways to get around this, but those are far from comfortable.