Tanzania Birding and Wildlife Safari

Day 1. TANZANIA BIRDING TOUR: ARRIVAL AT ARUSHA AIRPORT, MEET YOUR BIRD GUIDE AND TRANSFER TO A GOOD HOTEL

DAY 2 TANZANIA BIRDING TOUR: TRAVEL TO SOUTH PARE MOUNTAINS WITH BIRDS STOP AT NYUMBA YA MUNGU

Early this morning after breakfast, we will drive to South Pare Mountains, first stop will be in Nyumba Ya Mungu Plains, its brush country and its where we try Pink-breasted Lark, Scaly Chatterer, Pringle´s Puffback, White-headed Mousebird, Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul, Pygmy Batis, African Bare-eyed Thrush, Red-fronted Warbler, Tsavo Purple-banded Sunbird, Black-necked Weaver, Southern Grosbeak Canary and Somali Bunting. 

After our successful stop here, we will head up the South Pare Mountains later today and look for the endemic South Pare White-eye, along with Hartlaub’s Turaco, Black-fronted Bushshrike, Singing Cisticola, Black-headed & Bar-throated Apalis, African Hill Babbler, Evergreen forest Warbler, Placid Greenbul, Usambara Double-Collared Sunbird, Green-winged Pytilia, and Tsavo Sunbird amongst others.

Overnight at Elephant Motel.

DAY 4 BIRDING TANZANIA: WEST USAMBARA MOUNTAINS – MAGAMBA FOREST

What an exciting day we have in store with a full day birding Tanzania in the West Usambara Mountains at Magamba Forest. Major targets for us include Usambara Double-Collared Sunbird, Usambara Akalat, Usambara Weaver, Montane Tiny Greenbul, Usambara Thrush, Red-capped Forest Warbler, Füllebon’s Black Boubou, , Spot-throat, Montane Tiny & Eastern Mountain Greenbul, Usambara Weaver and at dusk we will try for Usambara Nightjar.

There’s plenty of other birds of Tanzania, like;  Crowned Eagle, Mountain Buzzard, Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle, Olive & Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeons, Lemon Dove, Barred Long-tailed Cuckoo, Hartlaub’s Turaco, Bar-tailed Trogon, Green Barbet, Forest Batis, Grey Cuckooshrike, Black-fronted Bushshrike, White-chested Alethe.

Overnight at Muller’s Mountan Lodge

DAYS 5 – 7 BIRDS OF TANZANIA TOUR: MAGAMBA FOREST, EAST USAMBARAS AND AMANI 

We will have another morning Tanzania birding on our incredible 18 Days Tanzania Birding Eastern Arc Mountains adventure in the fabulous West Usambaras at Magamba Forest to mop up some of the trickier species we still need – like Eastern Golden Weaver in the lower areas. Then we will drive to Amani Nature Reserve in the East Usambara Mountains, swinging by an area to try for Coastal Cisticola and Zanzibar Red Bishop. After a bit of a climb our second main stop of the journey will put us in a good area for species such as Fischer’s Turaco, Mombasa Woodpecker, Green-headed Oriole, Pale Batis, Eastern Nicator, Green Tinkerbird, Fischer’s Greenbul, Black-headed Apalis, Lowland Tiny Greenbul,

Once we get at our camp site the birding could be fast and there promises to be many new species for us. Over these next couple of days we will search for Banded Green Sunbird, Amani Sunbird, Red-tailed Ant-Thrush, Shelley´s Greenbul, Green-headed Oriole, Usambara Eagle-Owl, Southern-banded Snake Eagle, Fischer´s Turaco, Green-backed Woodpecker, Usambara Hyliota, Tanzania Illadopsis, Southern Yellow White-eye, Moustached Tinkerbird, and Black-bellied Starling. We will also visit Kwamkoro Tea Plantations for 3 special birds: Kretschmer´s Longbill, Long-billed Forest Warbler, and Sharpe´s Akalat.

Our first night will be at Amani Nature Reserve HQ in basic lodge, followed by 2 nights camping.

DAYS 8 – 9 ARC MOUNTAINS BIRDNG TOUR: ULUGURU MOUNTAINS BIRDING TOUR

The first target of the day is the patchily distributed Böhms Bee-eater, before setting out on the long drive to Morogoro, (stopping for Brown-breasted Barbet around the town), the gateway to the spectacular Uluguru Mountains Birding (2600m), and our base near the village of Tegetero, but the last part of the drive is on a very bad road so progress will be slow. Once we have arrived we will meet our porters, site and start walking to the campsite, which is around a one and a half hour undulating walk but not too difficult. Once we are settled in to our campsite then the birding begin!

Our main target will be the mega-rare Uluguru Bushshrike, a species only found in the Uluguru Mountains. But it’s a tough species and will take a lot of searching. Other special species in these mountains include Livingstone’s Turaco, the endemic Loveridge’s Sunbird, Bertram’s Weaver, Sharpe’s Akalat, Fraser’s Eagle-Owl, Dark Batis, Uluguru & Shelley’s Greenbul, Orange Ground-Thrush, Spot-throat, White-winged & Chapin’s Apalis, Striped Pipit and more.

This area and over the next few days could give us some ‘so-called’ padders to bump up our list such as African Hawk-Eagle, Mottled & African Black Swifts, Cape Robin-Chat, White-eyed Slaty-Flycatcher, Angola Swallow, Trilling Cisticola, Mountain Wagtail, Mountain Thrush and Yellow Bishop to name just a few. 2 nights at campsite.

Day 10: TANZANIA ENDEMIC BIRDS EASTERN ARC AT TEGTERO, LATER ADD BUNDUKI (ULUGURU MOUNTAINS BIRDING) 

There’s still going to be new birds to find before we pack up the camp and start walking back to where we left our vehicles. Then we will drive to the village of Bunduki on the other side of the mountain and camp again for a night.

Day 12: Birdwatching Tour Tanzania Eastern Arc: BIRDING MIOMBO WOODLANDS Tanzania

We have a full morning’s birding before driving to the very nice Hondo Hondo Camp for the evening try for the Pel’s Fishing-Owl. Targets today include some great birds such as Speckle-throated Woodpecker, Collared Palm Thrush, Hofmann’s Sunbird, Pale Batis, Cinnamon-breasted Tit, Stierling’s Wren Warbler, Eastern Black-headed Batis, Yellow-bellied Hyliota, Livingstone’s Flycatcher, Long-tailed Fiscal, Miombo Starling and Magpie Mannikin. 

Night at Hondo Hondo Camp.

Day 13: TANZANIA BIRDING TOUR: BIRDING AT KILOMBERO VALLEY

This morning we will embark on Guided Birding Tanzania Eastern Arc and explore the flood plain of the Kilombero River to look for the recently described Kilombero Weaver. In this unique area there’s also the mega rare White-tailed Cisticola and Kilombero Cisticola, both of which have yet to be formerly described. And who knows what else is to be

discovered in this remote area.

Udzungwa Forest Tented Camp

Other open country and marsh dwellers present include Great White Pelican, Reed Cormorant, several species of heron & egret, Hamerkop, Spur-winged Goose, Black Crake, White-backed & White-headed Vultures, Brown Snake-Eagle, Bateleur, White-crowned & African Wattled Lapwings, Three-banded Plover, African Skimmer, Coppery-tailed Coucal, White-fronted & Little Bee-eaters, Lilac-breasted Roller, Grey-rumped Swallow, Arrow-marked Babbler, Marsh Tchagra, Siffling Cisticola, Red-winged Warbler, Zanzibar Red Bishop and Zebra Waxbill amongst others. We will then return to Hondo Hondo for some easy afternoon birding and will also try to find the stunning Pel’s Fishing-Owl and Lesser Seedcracker.

Day 14: TANZANIA BIRDING TOUR: TRAVEL FROM HONDO HONDO TO UKAGURU MOUNTAINS

Today is flexible depending on what species we wish to target. But it’s going to be a long drive today to reach our next campsite. 

Day 15: TANZANIA BIRDING TOUR: UKAGURU MOUNTAINS. 

Two very special birds bring us to the seldom-visited Ukaguru Mountains: Rubeho Akalat and Rubeho Warbler. The akalat is highly localised in the understory of primary and secondary montane forest in a narrow range along the Rubeho and Ukaguru (and possibly Uluguru) mountains escarpment between 1800 and 2200 meters. And the rare warbler is only found in the Ukaguru Mountains. Whilst here we could also find Chapin’s Apalis, Moreau´s Sunbird, Yellow-throated Greenbul, Dark Batis and Red-faced Crimsonwing. 

Night in Morogoro Hotel.

Day 16: TANZANIA BIRDING TOUR: TRAVEL TO BABATI TOWN HOPING FOR NOU FOREST BIRDNG THE NEXT DAY. Asmorein Hotel. 

DAY17: Montane Forest Birds Tanzania: WHOLE DAY BIRDNG AT NOU FOREST. 

Here, you will set out to look for the Mbulu white-eye, Mbulu robin-chat, bar-throated Apalis, Schalow’s Turaco, orange ground thrush, the beautiful Oriole Finch, Eastern double-collared sunbird, and many more.

Asmorein Hotel.

Day 18: 18 Day Tanzania Birding Safari: TRAVEL BACK TO ARUSHA FOR YOUR RETURN FLIGHT