14 DAY KENYA birdING safari

Arrive at JKI Airport to be met and transferred to Nairobi National Park birding whole day. Picnic lunch served in the park, Only 10km from the cosmopolitan city is one for the greatest avifauna with a record of over 515 species in an area of only 117km².

Birds in the park include the newly-almost-described Nairobi Pipit, Saddle-billed Stork, Secretary Bird, Black-shouldered Kite, Lappet-faced Vulture, Black-chested Snake-Eagle, Martial Eagle, Shelly's & Yellow-necked Spurfowls, African Finfoot, Black-bellied & Hartlaub's Bustards, Pangani, Rosy-breasted Longclaws, 9 species of Cistocolas, Red-throated Tit, Jackson's Widowbird, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, among others.

The park has big game such as the Cape buffalo, Burchell's Zebra, Hippo, Masai Giraffe, Coke's artebeest, Vervet and Syke's Monkey, both Black and White Rhinos.

We will drive birding down the rift valley to Olorgesaille. Though typically a hot country, rewards
may include species like Cut Throat, Blue-capped Cordon-Bleu, Northern Crombec, Banded Parisoma, Southern Grosbeak Canary, Crimson-rumped Waxbill, Grey Wren Warbler, Taita Fiscal, Von der Decken's Hornbill, Fischer's Sparrow-Lark, Grey-headed Silverbill, Grey-capped Social-Weaver, Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Straw-tailed Whydah, Ashy & Tiny Cisticolas, Crested Francolin, Spot-flanked, Black-throated Barbets, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Eastern Violet-backed, Beautiful, Scarlet-chested Sunbirds, among many more.

Today we head for Gatamaiyu Forest, a central highlands montane forest. It boast many montane species including the Chestnut-throated, Grey, Black-collared, Black-throated Apalises, Montane Oriole, Bar-tailed Trogons, Black-fronted Bush-shrike, Mustached Green Tinkerbird, White-browed Crombec. Also the Mountain, Cabanis’s Greenbuls, African Hill Babbler, Cinnamon Bracken, Brown Woodland Warblers, Hunter’s Cisticola, Brown-capped Weaver, Grey-headed Negrofinch, Yellow-bellied Waxbill.

While Manguo Ponds a good birding spot en-route to the forest and has a wide variety of waterfowls. In the afternoon we’ll head to Naivasha en-route via Kinangop in search of Sharpe's Longclaw a Kenya's endemic later leaving for Lake Naivasha. A boat ride along the papyrus shore of the Lake Naivasha may produce Little Grebe, Great White Pelican, Great, Long-tailed Cormorant, Great Egret, Purple, Goliath Heron, Hamerkop, Sacred, Hadada Ibis, Greater, Lesser Flamingo, Cape, Red-billed Teal, African Jacana, Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Three-banded, Long-toed Plovers, Marsh, Wood, Green Sandpipers.

After an early morning breakfast we leave for the Highland Grassland birding in search of two Kenyan
endemics Aberdare Cisticola and Sharpe’s Longclaw we will also look for more specialties like Wing-snapping, Hunter’s, Levaillant’s Cisticolas, Great Crested Grebe, Maccoa & African White-backed Ducks, Lesser Jacana among many others.

Today we will spend the most part of the day in Lake Nakuru National Park birding most of the habitats such us the alkaline shores, acacia woodland, grassland, rivers and inlets with marshes holds residents as well as migratory species.
White-fronted Bee-eater, Arrow-Marked Babbler, Little Rock Thrush, Wailing & Rattling Cisticolas, Rüppell’s Long-tailed Starling, White-shouldered Cliff Chat, Grey-backed Fiscal, Tropical Boubou, Black Cuckoo-shrike, among many others.
In addition, the park is rich in big games that includes the giraffe, buffalo, waterbuck, eland, hippo, both Black and White Rhino, lion, leopard, Spotted Hyena. And in the early afternoon we will transfer to Lake Baringo Conservation Area.

Birding around Lake Baringo Conservation Area is interesting in the fact that we spend most of the day
outside the car. And if lucky with the help of the local guides we hope to see some the specialties such as the Hemprich's, Jackson's Hornbills, Northern White-faced Scops Owl, Bristle-crowned Starling, Brown-tailed Rock Chat, Green-winged Pytilia, Red-&-Yellow Barbet, Heuglin’s Courser, Slender-tailed Nightjar while birding along the camp site and the hotel grounds could yield the Verreaux's Eagle-Owl, African Pigmy Kingfisher, Black-headed Plover.

After breakfast we leave for Kakamega Forest Reserve. Birding enroute to kakamega Forest. The few stops along the way may produce Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver, Gambaga Flycatcher, Long-billed Pipit, Boran Cisticola, White-crested Turaco, Double-toothed Barbet, Western banded Snake Eagle,
African Water Rail, Zebra Waxbill among others, arriving at our lodge late in the afternoon.

This is the only true rain forest remaining in Kenya and was once a continuation of the Guinea-Congolian
rainforest, rich in species nowhere else to be seen in Kenya. Spending a few days here we hope to see a good number of these forest species that could include the Blue-headed Bee-Eater, Grey-winged Robin, Yellow Spotted, Yellow-billed Barbet, Shelly's, Joyful, Toro olive, Cabanis' Greenbul, African Blue Flycatcher, African Shrike-Flycatcher, Snowy-headed Robin Chat, Common, Jameson's, Chestnut Wattle-eye, Olive Green Camaroptera, Green, Cooper Sunbird, Mackinnon Shrike, Luhder's Bush-Shrike, Bocage's Bush- shrike, Petit's Cuckoo-shrike, Black-necked, Dark-backed, Vieillot's Weaver, Red-headed
Malimbe, Red-headed Bluebill.

After an early morning breakfast we head on the west in search of the localized Rock Pratincole along
the river while birding the whole morning on the villages, farmland and the Busia Grasslands. We hope to find a few more localized birds such as the Bar-breasted Firefinch, Yellow-throated Leaflove, Senegal Coucal, White-crested Turaco, Copper’s Sunbird, among others. Arriving in Kisumu later in the late afternoon.

A morning birding on the shores of the second largest fresh-water lake in the world. Along the Papyrus vegetation at an old fishing village with expectation to see some of the specialties like the Papyrus Gonolek, Swamp Flycatcher, Greater Swamp Warbler, White-winged Warbler, Red-chested, Copper Sunbirds, Slender-billed, Northern Brown-throated, Yellow-backed, Jackson’s Golden-backed Weavers, Southern Red Bishop, Black-billed Barbet.
After this we leave for the world famous Masai Mara National Reserve, a plain of rolling grassland dotted with a mixture of acacia trees and the plain game which includes large herds of elephants, zebras, topis, hartebeests, gazelles, Impala’s not forgetting the well-known Mara/ Serengeti Wildebeest’s migration, lions, cheetah. We'll stay on the western part of the reserve along the Olololoo Escarpments blended by river, swampy, grassy and forested habitats. Specialties include the Long-tailed, Rock Cisticolas, Wattled Plover, Rufous-bellied Heron, Pale Wren Warbler. Also Rosy-breasted Longclaw, Ashy Flycatcher, Grey-rumped, Red-rumped Swallow, White-headed, Lappet-faced, White-headed Vulture, White-naped Raven, Ross Turaco, Black-backed Puffback, Croaking Cisticola, Fan-tailed Widowbird, Hildebrandt’s Starling, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Black & White Casqued Hornbill, Narina Trogon, Lilac-breasted Roller, Common Wattle-eye, Silverbird, Plain and Long-billed Pipit, Saddle-billed, Woolly-necked Stork, Yellow-fronted Canary among many others.

We’ll take birdwalk along the escarpment in search of the Red-tailed Chat, Long-tailed & Rock Cisticolas, Yellow-bellied Hyliota, Schalow’s Turaco, Pale Wren Warbler while a bonus of the Mwanza Flat-headed Agama is almost guaranteed.
Lunch at the camp later in the afternoon heading for with a game drive in the park and back late in the afternoon.

After breakfast you will be transferred to the airstrip for your flight back to Wilson airport in Nairobi. Upon arrival in Nairobi you will be transported to the Nairobi Hemingway’s Hotel for a day room and then you will be transferred to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your flight back home.