BIRDING & BEYOND SAFARIS - TANZANIABIRDING .COM Is a specialized Bird Watching Safari Operator doing East African Safaris. We take you to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Operating Big game and Professional Bird Photographic Safaris for Individuals, Small groups and Families. Customized Unqiue Itineraries to cover Endemics and Specialities with Top local bird guides. Email: tours@tanzaniabirding.com

A Kenya Birding & Wildlife Safari - January 2009 We drove to Thika sewage works (more appealing than its sounds) and marshes, an exceptional location for waders as well as some wildfowl. After lunch at Chania falls we drove on to Wajee camp for forest birds and a true rarity, Hinde's babbler, which we saw well along with wood owl, Verraux's eagle owl and several forest species...A report from Natures Wonderland Safaris

Tsavo region and coastal Kenya 14-21 October 2011 We arrived at Sagala at 1pm and quickly got into our stride. There were several Pink Breasted Larks in the bushy areas alongside the road and a few Golden Breasted Starlings and White Browed Sparrow Weavers....Bob Biggs reports.

Kenya Coast and Tsavo - Bird-watching and beaches 20 September-11 October 2011

• This was always intended to be a relaxing holiday with a bit of bird and mammal watching thrown in. My partner Nikki and I have done high-intensity, dawn to dusk bird-watching tours and wanted something less strenuous this time....Alan Pomroy and Nikki Piper report.

6 Nights in Kenya 17 to 23 February 2011

• This trip gave me an opportunity to see birds in a region of Kenya that I had not visited on my previous three trips. Although I was only there for a relatively short time, I really enjoyed the birding and saw over 270 species...Bob Biggs reports.

Watamu, coastal Kenya 27th November-4th December 2009

• This short trip report details a week-long trip to Watamu on the Kenyan coast. Being close to the famous (and superlative) Arabuko-Sokoke forest, this area is quite well-covered in trip reports...Oscar Campbell reports.

Kenya [Coast, Tsavo East, Shimba Hills] 15 - 30 October 2007

• Lifers included a group of Lesser Flamingos, Sooty Gull, Pale Flycatcher, Dimorphic Egret  [dark morph] and Grosbeak Weaver. We looked for Madagascar Pratincole and a glimpse of a fast flying dark bird raised our hopes momentarily...Bob Biggs reports

Kenya April 9th-22nd 2006

• Having previously enjoyed an excellent birding trip to Kenya in 2004 we were keen to return but this time visiting some different areas and habitats. We were particularly interested in the Tsavo and the Malindi regions...Alf King reports

Western Kenya November 4-21, 2005

• We arose and birded the Mara for an hour in the wind and gave up.  Birds were not moving other than the bustards.   Breakfast and on to Lake Naivasha.  Along the way we found three banded courser and Hilldebrant’s starling.....Shane Woolbright reports.

Kenya [Coast and Tsavo] 19th Oct - 4 Nov 2005

• This was a family holiday  - my wife, Lorraine, and my son, Phil, and me. Phil was 11 in October so we decided he was old enough to go on safari. We arranged three nights in Tsavo National Park [two at Voi Lodge in Tsavo East and one at Ngulia Lodge in Tsavo West] before we left...Bob Biggs reports.

Kenya June 17-30 2005

• After lunch we spent about three hours wandering around the grounds and studying the visitors to the feeders; a very tame Brown Babbler provided my fourth lifer, 2 Mosque Swallows seemingly dwarfed their relatives....Steve Lister reports.

Kenya and Northern Tanzania 2-21 February 2005

• From 2 to 21 February 2005, we visited Kenya and northern Tanzania on a safari holiday, combined with trekking (Mt. Kenya) and snorkeling / relaxing at the coast. As during our previous trip, bird watching was not the only objective...Christoph Haag reports.

Kenya 8th -29th January 2005

• Having visited Kenya in 2002, we were fully aware of the potential for birding there. It is difficult to visualise the vast size of the country, and the enormous amount of driving which would be required to fully appreciate the varying habitats available to the birder. Kenya is a country of dramatic extremes and contrasts....Brian & Isabel Eady report.

Taita Hills: a short note September-November 2004

• This is a short note for independent travellers who want to visit the Taita Hills (southeast Kenya). This note should enable you to find this not-to-miss spot as it is holds 3 Red Data (endangered) endemics nowhere else found in the world...Eduard Sangster reports.

Kenya North Coast Oct 18th-31st 2004

• After a very successful birding/family holiday to The Gambia last year I knew I had to come up with something a bit special for this years trip. We were smitten by Africa last year so having done the West coast I thought it would be ideal to do the East coast. Kenya stood out as being outstanding for birds and the Indian Ocean beaches certainly appealed to the rest of the family so it was decided that Kenya it would be, with a short Safari thrown in for good measure....Steven Baines reports

Mwea National reserve, Kenya 1st Dec 2003 - 16 Dec 2003

• Many people travel to new birding locations such as Kenya, only to spend lots of time in vehicles, having new bird species pointed out to them by guides of varying skills. Deciding that this was not for me I enrolled with Earthwatch, a charity committed to conservation work throughout the globe....Robert Butlin reports.

Kenya November-December 2003

• Lake Victoria was our first big destination in western Kenya. We hired a boat at Dunga beach and were birding over the lake itself and along the shores. There is a small islet about 1km from the shore and on this islet there were about 30 African Skimmers, many Gull-billed Terns, a Caspian Tern...Gonçalo Elias reports.

Kenya and NE Tanzania July 14th – August 5th, 2003

• Birding by 6.30, breakfast at 7, Martin Jolo arrived at 8 and took us straight to one of the rarest birds of Africa: Long-billed Tailorbird, in roadside scrub near the IUCN Guesthouse...Remco Hofland reports.

Central Kenya and Northern Tanzania 28 June - 13 July 2003

• We decided early on to concentrate on the central part of Kenya and the large game parks of North West Tanzania.  This meant that we missed key sites in both the east and the west, but we felt that each of these areas were rich enough in birds to merit separate trips at some time in the future...Gruff Dodd reports

Birding  Kenya  5 december 2001 - 19 january 2002

• I was in Amboseli National Park for almost 2 weeks with Stephen Wamiti an IBA Research fellow at the National Museums of Kenya, conducting bird surveys to assess elephant impacts. The elephant impacts in Amboseli are very evident when comparing the dense Fever tree Acacia xanthophloea woodlands in the elephant exclosure around Ol Tukai and Amboseli Lodge with the stark grasslands nearby. These 2 habitats support vastly different bird communities...Duan Biggs reports

Kenya with Beautiful Just Birding Nov/Dec 2001

• Although I had visited before, I had never been to Kenya at this time of year so was looking forward to seeing what was around.  In the event it turned out to be a fantastic time for this really great birding venue.  Our total species count for the 18-day trip was 633 birds, 49 mammals and several reptiles that were positively identified.  Another great advantage of visiting Kenya at this time is that it is not a popular time for mammal-watchers and other holiday-makers in Kenya...John McAllister reports.

Trip Report: Kenya and Zanzibar 7-27 October 1999

• Nearly three hundred species of birds and over thirty species of mammals made this a memorable trip through Kenya's great game parks for David Kelly. Three days in Zanzibar added to the list....

A backpacker birding report on: Kenya 1996

• Kenya is one of the best birding countries in the world with a list of about 1200 species. As a destination for a (short) birding holiday Kenya is maybe the best country in the world. The main reason for this is that birding is delightfully easy (a lot of open habitat and incredible high species density for open habitat) and as a bonus one can easily see a lot of mammal species...Michiel de Boer reports (big - 256K)
  

A Field Guide to the Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania Zimmerman, et al: Buy from Amazon.com orAmazon.co.uk "The only field guide to use in Kenya. I used this book on a recent trip to East Africa and it was invaluable. No other field guide to this region is comparable. The authors have cut down the hardback handbook to make an excellent field guide, especially for those LBJs such as larks and cisticolas. For any birder or general naturalist visiting Kenya or the adjacent countries this book is invaluable."

Collins Illustrated Checklist: Birds of Eastern Africa Ber Van Perlo: Buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk I took this book with me for a two week family holiday in Kenya where I visited Tsavo game parks, coastal regions and also went on a bush walk near Mombasa. As a beginner to African birds I found the illustrations and brief descriptions very helpful and in some cases it was superior to the larger reference books that I had studied before I went.

Pocket Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of East Africa   Stephen Spawls et al: Buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk Covers 278 species in detail with information on a further 316. This is the best true field guide to East africas reptiles and amphibians with good photography and concise text thoughout. Recommended to all wildlife enthusiasts.

Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa Terry Stevenson, John Fanshawe: Buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk This field guide to a spectacular region for birding covers all the resident, migrant and vagrant birds of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, describing a remarkable 1388 species. The plates show 3400 images illustrating all the plumages and major races likely to be encountered. Set opposite the plates are concise descriptive accounts describing identification, status, range, habits and voice, and range maps for each species.

Recommended travel books for Kenya:

The Lonely Planet Guide to East Africa Buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk Now in its fourth edition, this guide to East Africa - covering Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zaire - provides extensive political and cultural background on the region, as well as practical travel advice. It also contains a section on the Swahili language