15 Days Kenya Tanzania Birding Safari

Today after our morning breakfast we will transfer you to Amboseli National Park arriving in the afternoon. Amboseli National Park is home to a wide variety of birds and mammal species and is also one of the best places in the world from which to observe the spectacular Mt. Kilimanjaro, which towers more than 19,000 feet above the plains.

Birds that can be seen within the reserve include common Ostrich, Bateleur, Martial Eagle, White-backed and Lappet-faced Vultures, Spur-winged and Egyptian Geese, Red-billed and Hottentot Teals, Long-tailed Cormorant, Red-knobbed Coot, Yellow-billed and Saddle-billed Storks, Great and Intermediate Egrets, Grey, Black-headed, Goliath and Squacco Herons, Black Crake, African Jacana, Grey Crowned-crane, African spoonbill, African Fish-eagle, Lanner Hartlaub’s Bustard, Water Thick-knee, Collared Pratincole, Two-banded Courser.

Long toed Lapwing, Three-banded, Kitlitz’s, Blacksmith and Spur-wingled Plovers, Greater Painted-snipe, Chestnut-bellied and Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, White-browed Coucal, Slender-tailed Nightjar, Lilac-breasted Roller, Grey-headed, Malachite and Pied King-fishers, African Hoopoe, Red-capped Lark, Fischer’s Sparrow-lark, Pangani and Rosy-throated longclaws, Zitting and Winding Cisticolas, Speke’s Weaver, Taveta Golden-weaver, Fan-tailed Widowbird and the diminutive Red-billed Firefinch. Dinner and overnight at AA Amboseli Lodge

Today with game drive en-route we will depart Amboseli and head to Arusha via Namanga border where we meet our transport and drive to Arusha for overnight at Arusha Kibo Palace Hotel. Here we are booked on bed and Breakfast for this night.

En-route and with time allowing us we will visit the plains of Angyata Osugat in order to search Beesley’s Lark, the ‘Lark Plains’, a rather strange open area situated between Arusha and the border town of Namanga which is home to one of Africa’s rarest birds, Beesley’s Lark. This isolated form of Spike-heeled Lark is critically endangered with a world population of probably no more than 100 individuals.

These plains, in the rain shadow of Mt Meru and Mt Kilimanjaro, are perfect habitat for larks and as well as Beesley’s, we’ll look for Pink-breasted, Athi Short-toed, Short-tailed, and Foxy Larks. The open landscape can be good for raptors sometimes with migrant Montagu’s Harriers, Lesser Kestrels and Amur Falcons joining the resident Greater and Common (Rock) Kestrels. In this distinctly dry habitat we can also find savannah species typical of the larger protected areas to the west such as Eastern Chanting Goshawk, African Pygmy Falcon, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Double-banded Courser, Crowned Lapwing, Abyssinian Scimitarbill, Red-fronted, Red-and-Yellow, and Spot-flanked Barbets, Ashy and Tiny Cisticolas, Purple Grenadier, Eastern Paradise and Straw-tailed Whydahs and Somali Golden-breasted Bunting while mammals we might not have seen before could include Golden Jackal and Gerenuk, and with great luck, Lesser Kudu.

After breakfast drive we’ll drive into Arusha National Park where we’ll encounter our first African large mammals as we find ourselves amongst Masai Giraffe, African Buffalo, Common Zebra, Common Waterbuck, Bushbuck, Warthog, Black and White Colobus, Blue Monkey, and Olive Baboon.

Hiding in the dappled shade of this magnificent evergreen hill forest we may also find a tiny woodland antelope, the secretive Suni, along with the bay-colored Harvey’s Red Duiker. If we are very lucky we may also catch sight of a Leopard or Serval.

There will be much to see during the day. Our first stop will be in the lush forest that cloaks the edge of the ancient volcanic crater. Here we’ll be looking for the massive African Crowned Eagle, as well as Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle, Mountain Buzzard, African Green Pigeon, Hartlaub’s Turaco, Bar-tailed Trogon, White-fronted and Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters, Moustached Green Tinkerbird, African Palm, Horus, Alpine, Mottled, Little, and Nyanza Swifts, Black Saw-wing, Olive Mountain (Placid), Stripe-cheeked and Mountain Greenbul, Waller’s, Kenrick’s and, if we are very fortunate, Abbott’s Starlings, and Eastern Double-collared Sunbird. Night in Momella Lodge.

After breakfast, drive to Tarangire where we stay for the next two nights. Tarangire National Park has a mixture of habitats, which we can explore during our time here: there is the dry, open acacia woodland beloved by rollers, bee-eaters and shrikes, where Secretary birds stalk through the long grass and between the spiky shrubs looking for a small lizard or snake.

The common birds here include Black-shouldered Kite, White-backed Vulture, Bateleur, Tawny Eagle, Helmeted Guineafowl, Blacksmith Plover, Laughing Dove, Speckled Mouse-bird, Lilac breasted Roller, Common Bulbul, Common Fiscal, Grey-headed Sparrow and Red-billed Quelea. Giant baobabs stand as though planted upside down, and the grassy areas often hold secretive pairs of Heuglin’s Coursers. Spot flanked, D’Arnaud’s and White-headed Barbets all occur here, together with Brown and Orange bellied Parrots. All meals will be at Tarangire Osupuko Lodge on full board

The vast Ngorongoro Crater is just one of those places that has to be seen – words alone cannot do it justice. We’ll drive down into the huge sunken caldera, descending into what was once, many eons ago, the fiery heart of a huge volcano. The bird life in the crater varies according to the seasons but during our visit we should see Grey Crowned Crane, Shelley’s Francolin, Abdim’s and Black Storks, Lappet-faced Vulture, Black-bellied and Kori Bustards, Fischer’s Lovebird, Hunter’s and Pectoral-patch Cisticolas, Northern Anteater Chat among many others. Overnight stay at Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge, on the rim of the crater.

After breakfast, we’ll travel northwards into the famous Serengeti National Park and then stay for two nights at the Serengeti Osinon Lodge. As soon as we enter the Serengeti we find ourselves in the Africa of everyone’s imagination – a wide open landscape land of long grass punctuated by ‘koppies’, tall rocky outcrops, scattered acacia trees, and mammals and birds everywhere.

As we make our way towards the central part of the Serengeti, there will be plenty to look at. Out on the plains we’ll be looking for Kori and Buff-crested Bustard, Coqui Francolin, the endemic Grey-breasted Spurfowl, Brown Parrot, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Freckled Nightjar, Plain-backed Pipit, Sooty Chat, the endemic Tanzanian (Ruaha) Hornbill, Grey-crested Helmet-shrike, Rosy-patched Shrike, Long-tailed Cisticola, Buff-bellied Penduline and Red-throated Tits, and Steel-blue Whydah to mention a few.

Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Osinon Lodge.

This morning we’ll spend the day at the southern end of Serengeti “N’dutu Area”, just on the edge of the Serengeti National Park. The birds are rewarding and range from bulky Kori Bustards to tiny Red-throated Tits. We will be looking for migrating raptors, wheat-ears and shrikes amongst the resident Martial Eagles, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, White-tailed Lark, Yellow-throated Longclaw and Magpie Shrike to name but a few. Overnight at Serengeti Osinon lodge

After breakfast we leave Serengeti, and travel to Lake Manyara Hotel, overlooking Lake Manyara National Park, where we stay for two nights. Here we can look for Cut-throat Finch and Green-winged Pytilia amongst a host of other birds and small mammals that come to bathe and refresh themselves. We shall also visit the lake itself looking for Silvery-cheeked Hornbills and Syke’s Monkey, both Lesser and Greater Flamingos, White and Pink-backed Pelicans, and perhaps finding the famous tree climbing lions. The lakeside is often teeming with water birds and we can spend some time here identifying the many storks, herons, egrets, waders and ducks. Ovenights for 2 nights at Lake Manyara Wildlife Lodge.

After breakfast, depart back to Arusha where we arrive before lunch on own arrangements and after lunch we are scheduled to drive to Kilimanjaro International Airport to catch our international flight back home.