Day: March 20, 2012

Bird watching

Trip Report: January 25 – February 8, 2012

Hello my fellow birders!

I’ve finally posted my trip report under Birding Trip Reports for January 25 – February 8, 2012. I will be updating it with photos shortly.

Here is an excerpt from the report! Click the link above to view the full report.

Trip Leader Joseph Aengwo

Participants: 5 Clients

Bird Species Recorded: 445

Animal Species: 34

For many bird people across the globe, the beginning of the year is a wonderful time. Yearly lists can start anew, and who knows what the next twelve months will bring? While rarities whet the appetite of any birder, the expected birds are much more frequently counted. And this was not any different for us when we started our 14 days birding trip that took us to birding hotspot found in eastern and coastal part of Kenya.

There were of course numerous avian highlights during our grand tour of that part of the country and of the nine or ten Kenyan endemics we encountered four, namely;

  1. Taita Thrush
  2. Taita Apalis
  3. Taita White-eye
  4. Clarke’s Weaver

We also saw rarities and restricted-range species such as:

  1. Sokoke Scops Owl
  2. Friedmann’s Lark
  3. Malindi and Sokoke Pipits
  4. Golden Palm and Taveta Golden Weavers

Of the other near-endemics and specials rarely recorded on other tours we also managed to record the following:

  1. Somali Ostrich
  2. Mountain Buzzard
  3. Shelley’s Francolin
  4. Vulturine Guineafowl
  5. Somali Courser
  6. Sooty Gull
  7. Black-faced Sandgrouse
  8. Fischer’s and Hartlaub’s Turacos
  9. African Barred Owlet
  10. Montane Nightjar
  11. White-headed Mousebird
  12. Eastern Green Tinkerbird
  13. Brown-breasted, White-eared, Red-and-yellow and D’Arnaud’s Barbets
  14. Pallid Honeyguide
  15. Mombasa and African Grey-headed Woodpeckers
  16. Fawn-coloured, Pink-breasted and Red-winged Larks
  17. Fischer’s Sparrow Lark
  18. Golden Pipit
  19. Pangani Longclaw
  20. Stripe-cheeked Fischer’s and Tiny Greenbuls
  21. Northern Brownbul, Dodson’s Bulbul, Scaly and Northern Pied Babblers
  22. East Coast Akalat
  23. Ashy Cisticolas
  24.   Quil-Plover
  25. Somali Long-billed and White-browed Crombecs
  26.   Red-throated Tit
  27. Little Yellow Flycatcher
  28. Forest Batis Long-tailed
  29. Taita  Fiscal
  30. Three-streaked Tchagra
  31. Black-fronted Bush-shrike and Rosy-patched Bush-shrikes,
  32. East Coast Boubou
  33. Hildebrandt’s,  Fischer’s and Magpie Starlings
  34. Plain-backed, Amani, Eastern Olive, Mouse-coloured, Hunter’s, Tsavo Purple-banded Sunbird,
  35.  Parrot-billed,
  36. Kenya Rufous Sparrow
  37. Zanzibar Red Bishop
  38. Jackson’s Widowbird
  39. Black-cheeked Waxbill
  40. African Silverbill
  41. Village Indigobird
  42. Steel-blue and Straw-tailed Whydahs
  43. African Citril and White-bellied  Canary