1
Day Birding Safari
Option
one:
Nairobi National Park
Option Two: Olorgesaille (near Lake
Magadi)
Option Three: Gatamaiyu Forest &
Manguo Ponds
Detailed
Itinerary
Nairobi
National Park
Located
between two ecological zones (dry forest to the north and the grasslands to the
south). The Park, only 7km off the cosmopolitan city has one of the greatest avifauna
with a record of 517 species in an area of 117kmē. It offers a good birding introduction
to the bird families to expect during the safari. With a good assemblage of the
birds of prey, pipits, cisticolas, including waterbirds. Specialties includes
the Long-tailed Fiscal, Red-throated Tit, Jackson's Widowbird, among many more.
We hope to see the Bateleur, Ostrich, White-bellied Busturd, Red-billed Oxpecker,
Rufous-naped Lark, Yellow- throated Longclaw, Lilac-breasted Roller among many
others.
The
park is full of big game such as the Buffalo, Burchell's Zebra, Hippo, Giraffe,
Coke's Hartebeest, Vervet and the Syke's Monkey, both the Black and the White
Rhino.
Olorgesaille
This
is a dry, arid, scrub country about 75 km south of Nairobi (on the way to Lake
Magadi) and makes an excellent whole day birding. All the way down the rift valley,
stops along the way is a distinctive change in habitat and species. Recorded species
includes the Cut Throat, Blue-capped Cordon-bleu, Northern Crombec, Banded Parisoma,
White Bellied Canary, Crimson-rumped Waxbill, Grey Wren Warbler, Taita Fiscal,
Von der Decken's Hornbill, Fischer's Sparrow-Lark, Grey-headed Silverbill, Grey-capped
Social-Weaver, Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Straw-tailed Wydah, Tiny Cisticola etc.
Gatamaiyu Forest
& Manguo Ponds
The forest located about 50-km n.w. of Nairobi stretches through the Kieni forest
(part of the central highland) and boost many montane species includes the Chestnut-throated,
Grey, Black-collared, Black-throated Apalis, Montane Oriole, Narina & Bar-tailed
Trogon, Black-fronted Bush-shrike, Yellow-rumped, Mustached Green Tinkerbird,
Scarce Swift, White-browed Crombec, while Abbott's Starling and the Sharpe's Starling
have been recorded, among others.
While Manguo Ponds makes an excellent birding spot en-route to the forest. It
boost a wide variety of waterfowls such as the Yellow-billed Ducks, Little Grebe,
Red-billed Teal, Red-knobbed Coot, while Maccoa Ducks are regularly recorded,
Grey, Black-headed Heron, African Spoonbill, White-faced Whistling Duck, Hottentot
Teal, while sometimes waders occur in large numbers such as the Greenshanks, Sandpipers,
Plovers, etc
