Bird Watching in Tanzania

Tanzania is another East African country blessed with a particularly rich and varied birdlife - in fact, it would be fair to say that with a bird count of well over 1 000 and with a sophisticated tourism industry and reasonable infrastructure, Tanzania offers one of the best bird watching experiences in the world.

Mount Kilimanjaro

The birdlife is extremely rich on the lower slopes (rainforest and the moorland region) of Africa's highest mountain.

Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Magadi (including Lake Natron)

Apart from the many birds to be seen in the crater area, there are the thousands of flamingoes to see at Lake Magadi, a soda lake. Lake Natron lies further north and is another flamingo "hot spot". The best time for flamingo viewing is January and February.

Serengeti National Park

The sweeping grasslands make viewing the many birds in the area a delight.

Wembere Swamps

Watch out for big breeding colonies of large wading birds like herons, ibis and storks.

Lake Rukwa

This area is situated on a seasonally flooded plain which sees large numbers of various bird species in the wet season.

Uwanda National Park

Over 400 bird species have been recorded here.

Rubondo Island

Close to 400 species can be seen here, including fish eagle, storks, cormorants, martial eagle, goliath heron, sacred ibis and kingfishers.The island serves as a breeding ground and stopover for Intra-African and Palaearctic migrants.

Ruaha National Park

Over 400 bird species reside here such as Dickinson's kestrel, violet-crested turaco, pale-billed hornbill, racket-tailed roller and Eleonora's falcon.

Eurasian migrant birds flock to Ruaha twice a year - October to November and March to April on the their outward journeys to feed with resident kingfishers, plovers, hornbills, green wood hoopoes, bee-eaters, sunbirds and egrets.

Katavi National Park

More than 400 bird species occur here and the park is home to large flocks of pelican; as well as the go-away-bird, pale-billed hornbill and Tanzania masked weaver.

Mkomazi Game Reserve

Over 400 recorded species occur here; doves, hornbills, weavers and guinea-fowl are all present in large numbers - as well as such striking species as the martial eagle and violet wood-hoopoe.

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