3 Day Birding Trip around Nairobi

Expectation over 200 species

Detailed Itinerary

Nairobi National Park
Located only 7km off the cosmopolitan city has one of the greatest avifauna with a record of over 515 species in an area of 117km². Birds includes the newly-almost-described Nairobi Pipit, Common Ostrich, Great, Long-tailed Cormorant, Common, Madagascar Squacco, Black-headed, Grey Herons, African Spoonbill,White-faced Whistling, Knob-billed Duck, Red-billed Teal, Secretary bird, Black-shouldered Kite, Lappet-faced Vulture, Black-chested Snake-Eagle, Shelly's & Yellow-necked Spurfowl, Purple Swamphen, African Finfoot, Hartlaub's Bustard, Emerald Spotted Wood, Laughing Dove, Hartlaub's Turaco, White-bellied Go-away-bird, White-browed Coucal, African Palm Swift, Blue-napped Mousebird, Little & Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, Lesser, Greater Honeyguide, Eastern Honeybird, Nubian Woodpecker,

White-tailed, Singing Bush, Short-tailed, Rufous-naped Lark, Wire-tailed, Lesser-Striped Swallow, Rock Martin, Yellow-throated, Pangani, Rosy-breasted Longclaw, Pale, African Grey, Southern Black Flycatcher, Lesser Swamp Warbler, 9 species of cistocolas, Abyssinian white-eye, Red-throated Tit, Jackson's Widowbird, African Darter, Great Egret, Saddle-billed Stork, Martial Eagle, and Yellow-billed Oxpecker, among hundreds of other birds.

The park is full of big game such as the buffalo, Burchell's Zebra, hippo, Masai Giraffe, Coke's Hartebeest, Vervet and the Syke's Monkey, both Black and White Rhino.

Olorgesaille
This is a dry, arid, scrub country south of Nairobi (on the way to Lake Magadi) and makes an excellent whole day birding. All the way down the rift valley, stops along the way is a distinctive change in habitat and species. Recorded species includes the Crested Francolin, Cut Throat, Blue-capped Cordon-bleu, Northern Crombec, Banded Parisoma, Little Rock Thrush, White-bellied Canary, Singing Bush Lark, Lynes', Tiny and Ashy Cisticola, Crimson-rumped Waxbill, Grey Wren Warbler, Taita Fiscal, Von der Decken's Hornbill, Fischer's Sparrow-Lark, Grey-headed and African Silverbill, Grey-capped Social-Weaver, Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Spot-flanked, Black-throated Barbet, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Eastern Violet-backed, Beautiful, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Straw-tailed Wydah, Secretary Bird, Somali Golden-breasted Bunting, etc.

Gatamaiyu Forest
Today we spend the whole day in this forest that stretches through the Kieni forest (part of the central highland) and boast many montane species includes the Chestnut-throated, Grey, Black-collared, Black-throated Apalis, Montane Oriole, Narina & Bar-tailed Trogon, Black-fronted Bush-shrike, Yellow-rumped, Mustached Green Tinkerbird, Scarce Swift, White-browed Crombec, while Abbott's Starling and the Sharpe's Starling are rarely sighted.

While Manguo Ponds makes an excellent birding spot en-route to the forest and has a wide variety of waterfowls such as the Yellow-billed Duck, Little Grebe, Red-billed Teal, Red-knobbed Coot, while Maccoa Duck are regularly recorded, Grey, Black-headed Heron, African Spoonbill, White-faced Whistling Duck, Hottentot Teal, Northern Shoveler, Long-tailed Cormorant, also waders such as Black-winged Stilt, Blacksmith Plover, Ringed Plover, Three-banded Plover, Marsh, Wood Sandpiper, Common Greenshank