Birdlife of Kenya

With a staggering bird count of around 1 100 species (about 12% of the world's total), Kenya represents one of Africa's, if not the world's best birding destinations - a 2-week trip should easily yield around 600 species. Of Kenya's bird list, some 230 are migrants (170 Palaearctic, 60 intra-African) and boasts around 10 endemics and depending which source you use, between 40 and 75 near-endemics.

Straddling the Equator, Kenya geography is dominated by the Great Rift Valley that runs through the centre of the country. This portion of the 6 000km rupture in the Earth's crust has created in Kenya numerous large grassy or wooded valleys, fresh or soda water lakes and the mountainous region of the Central Highlands, home to some good areas of montane forest and Afro-alpine moorland.

The Rift Valley separates another 2 geographical zones: the hot and humid coastal plains, with patches of coastal and mangrove forest and the hilly, fertile Lake Victoria basin. There are remnants of the once extensive rainforest in the west, in stark contrast to the semi-arid acacia scrub and woodland of the dry north.

Kenya is home to, or at least has portions of 5 Endemic Bird Areas and has 60 IBAs covering 5.7 million hectares. Of particular importance are Kenya's forest birds which number around 230 species.

There are six clear zones of bird life in the country, each supporting a markedly different range of avifauna.

These are: the tropical highlands, the East African coast, Lake Victoria, the Guinea-Congo Forest, the Sudan and Guinea savanna, and the Somali-Masai (in which Kenya contains 90 of the 130 species).

Kenya's birdlife is spectacular, and the list is far too long to mention here. Buy a bird book and some binoculars and get out there on your Kenya safari.

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