14 Days Birdwatching Safari In Kenya

After your early morning breakfast at the hotel, you will be met and briefed by our representative then shortly hit the road and drive to one of only three premium game parks in Kenya, Lake Nakuru National Park. It is known as bird lover’s hub because of the numerous birds that make home in this park. Lake Nakuru National Park is home to over 400 bird species including the flamingos that live on the lake and in the park’s savannah grasslands. The park is a rhino sanctuary and currently hosts over 100 Rhinos distributed between the white and black rhino species. To protect these rhinos, the park is fenced with a 188 km2 electric fence that prevents poachers from coming into the park. This sanctuary also hosts the rare Rothschild’s giraffes and this park is the only place you can find these giraffes. Birds we hope to see include huge congregation of both Greater and Lesser Flamingoes, Great White Pelican, African Hoopoe, Red-chested Cuckoo, Black-lored Babbler, Schalow’s Wheatear, Buff-bellied Warbler, Mocking Cliff-chat, White-backed Vulture, Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture, Ruppell’s long-tailed Starling, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Greater Honeyguide, Black-headed Oriole, Mottled Swifts, Horus swift, Nyanza Swift, Little rock Thrush and White-browed Robin chat.

Today we head southwest using the Mau-Narok Road to the famous Maasai Mara, Kenya’s richest wildlife reserve which at any time of year offers a wonderful wildlife spectacle. Maasai Mara is a vast scenic expanse of gently rolling African savannah plains measuring 1510 km2 in area and borders the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the south. Masaai Mara comprises a number of conservancies and group ranches bordering the main reserve and is home to some of the most diverse species of African wildlife and is also the site of the annual wildebeest migration, simply called the Great Migration. Large numbers of Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Rhinos, Giraffes, Zebras, Wildbeests and many more animals are found in this reserve in their natural habitat, unconfined and free to roam the vast wilderness stretching for miles on end. Some special birds we hope to see include the majestic Maasai Ostrich, Marabou Stork, Saddle-billed Stork, Southern Ground Hornbill, Secretary Bird, Grey Kestrel, Martial Eagle, Lappet-faced Vulture, White-headed Vulture, Red-necked Spurfowl, Hammerkop, Hildebrandt’s Starling, Pale Chanting Goshawk, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Stout Cisticola, Yellow-crowned Bishop, Woodland Kingfisher, Brown Parrot, Spot-flanked Barbet, Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike, White-browed Robin-chat, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Harlequin Quail and Magpie Shrike.

Today we drive down to the southern part of Kenya, the land of giants – the famous Amboseli National Park. Amboseli national park is a home to a large concentration of wildlife estimated to be 80 different species including African Elephant, African Buffalo, Impalas, Lion, Zebra, and Wildebeest among other African animals, among the animals the park is more famous for habiting a large population of elephants. Amboseli park is also a home to a number of birds estimated to be 400 species which include Steel-blue Whydah, Taveta Golden Weaver, Rufous Chatterer, Rufous-crowned Roller, Red-rumped Swallow, Fan-tailed Widowbird, Little Bee-eater, Lesser Swamp Warbler, White-browed Coucal, Gabon Nightjar, Pratincole, Heuglin’s Courser and Spotted Thick-knee.

Tsavo West National Park is located in southeastern Kenya and a little southeast of the sister Tsavo East National Park. The national park encompasses an area of 9,065 km2 making it smaller than its sister park. covering a huge variety of landscapes from swamps, natural springs and rocky peaks to extinct volcanic cones, rolling plains and sharp outcrops dusted with greenery. Tsavo West offers some of the most magnificent game viewing in the world and attractions include Elephant, Rhino, Hippos, Lions, Cheetah, Leopards, Buffalos, diverse plant and bird species include Long-crested Eagle, African Hawk Eagle, Pearl-spotted Owlet, White-necked Raven, Button Quail, African Golden Oriole, White-throated Robin, Tree Pipit, Thrush Nightingale, Red-backed and Red-tailed Shrike, Plain Nightjar, Yellow-bellied Eremomela, White-headed Buffalo-weaver, Red-billed Hornbill, Broad-billed Roller and Purple-banded Sunbird.

Tsavo East National Park is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya at 13,747 km2. Situated in a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert it opened in April 1948, and is located near the town of Voi in the Taita-Taveta County of the former Coast Province. Inside Tsavo East National Park, the Athi and Tsavo rivers converge to form the Galana River. Most of the park consists of semi-arid grasslands and savanna. It is considered one of the world’s biodiversity strongholds, and its popularity is mostly due to the vast amounts of diverse wildlife that can be seen, including the famous ’big five’ consisting of lion, black rhino, cape buffalo, elephant and leopard. The park is also home to a great variety of bird life such as the the Somali Ostrich, Orange-bellied Parrot, Hunter’s, Amethyst and Eastern Violet-backed Sunbirds, Golden-breasted Bunting, Somali Bee-eater, Golden Pipit, Paradise Whydah, Cut-throat Finch, Fawn-colored Lark, Northern White-crowned Shrike and Golden-breasted Starling.

After enjoying our breakfast in the morning, we pick up from where we had left, birding on our way to Watamu, Malindi. Watamu is a beautiful and peaceful village on the Kenya Coast, nestled between pristine beaches and lush tropical forest. Since it was first settled as a remote Swahili outpost at Gedi, this area has remained a haven of peace and tranquility and is still one of the coast’s most undeveloped and natural areas. We can decide to take a break in the afternoon and enjoy the coastal beaches or make a visit to Mida Creek and look for some cool shorebirds. At the creek we hope to see Mangrove Kingfisher, Crab Plover, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Curlew Sandpiper, Common, Spotted Redshanks, Bar-tailed Godwit, and Grey Plover among others.

Today we will have a chance to explore the Arabuko Sokoke Forest, which is the last large, protected fragment of East African Coastal Forest, and home to four endangered mammals and six threatened birds. The forest also provides sources of livelihood for neighboring communities and ecological services for the country. It contains three forest types, mixed forest, Brachystegia and Cynometra, each of which protects different communities of plants and animals. Some of the special birds we hope to see here include the endemic Clarke’s Weaver, near endemic Sokoke Scops-Owl, Sokoke Pipit, Amani Sunbird, Mombasa Woodpecker, Spotted Ground Thrush and the Fischer’s Greenbul among others.

As one of the largest coastal forests in East Africa after Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, this reserve is rich in flora and fauna and hosts the highest density of African elephant in Kenya. Other animal species found in the area are Sable antelope, Elephant Shrew, Bushy tailed Mongoose and other small mammals like Fruit Bats. The forest is an important bird area and is endowed with forest birdlife and grasslands birds as well. These includes Zanzibar Red bishop, Red-necked Spur fowl, Croaking Cisticola and the Brown-breasted Barbet among others.