Bird watching safari can be combined with a beach holiday or game viewing safari for those who would like to experience a bit of jungle and the comfort of the white sand beaches of the Kenyan coast making it a paradise treat holiday. In the coastal region we have various birding spots such as the Mida Creek. It has an area of 26100 ha. and stretches for almost 40 km along the seashores and its a fascinating world of cultures to discover, lying at 0-10 m above the sea level. The area comprises of a complex of marine and tidal habitats on Kenya's north coast, stretching from just south of Malindi town southwards to beyond the entrance of Mida creek.
Habitats include inter-tidal rock, sand and mud, fringing reefs and coral gardens; beds of sea grass; coral cliffs, platforms and islets; sand beaches; and mangrove forests. The sand dunes are great workout to build leg muscles and the tiny sand granules are fantastic as they massage every nerve of your foot - it's natural reflexology. The species of focus will include among others the Crab plover, Terek sandpiper, Mangrove kingfisher, Greater Sand plover, Eurasian Oystercatcher among others. It is a perfect place photographing the humbling and magnificent Mangrove forest (the magical trees) of Mida creek.
There is also the Arabuko Sokoke forest with an area of 41600 ha at an altitude of 0-21m above sea level. It has tree types of habitats namely mixed forest, Brachystegia and Cynometra forest.Here we find species like Sokoke scopes owl, Clarke's Weaver, Amani sunbird, Ant-eater thrush, Eastern Nicator, Mombasa woodpecker among other globally threaten species that only occurs in this forest.
Away from the coast there is the Lake Nakuru an alkaline pink dotted lake at the floor of the Great Rift Valley. It is a host to a wide variety of bird species and even one of the worlds most gregarious birds, the flamingo. You also get to encounter the great white pelican, pink backed pelican, all water birds that breed in alkaline waters, the white stork, marabou stork, it hosts over four hundred species. The tropical rain forest known as the Kakamega forest which is in the heart of an intensively cultivated agricultural area, is a superb remainder of virgin tropical rainforest and is of course the home to a wide range of specialty birds, many which are not found anywhere else in Kenya. The forest is not only home to the rare De Brazza's monkey (only found in Kakamega Forest), but also to the Hammer-headed Fruit Bat, Flying Squirrel, 400 species of butterflies and no less than 330 species of birds.
Yes, birding in a forest has its fair share of difficulties but this is easily forgotten when our count increases with hopeful sightings of the impressive Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill, Ross' and the Great Blue Turaco. Other notables are the Grey-headed Negro-finch, Red-headed Bluebill, Chestnut Wattle-eye, Mackinnon's Shrike and many more.
There are many birding spots in Kenya to be covered in just one article and below is a sample itinerary just to give a clue of a safari flow however a tailor made
The Kenya birding safari starts in Nairobi National Park followed by the Rift Valley Lakes which is a mixture of fresh water lakes (Naivasha and Baringo) and salt water lakes (Nakuru and Bogoria). Further west we find the unique Kakamega Forest, a remaining patch of the tropical rain forest . We end the tour birding in Masai Mara, the Africa of everyone's dream: rolling plains, great wildlife and a wide diversity of birds species.
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