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EASTERN TANZANIA

Tuesday 13th November - Sunday 2nd December 2007

Nik Borrow

This reformatted tour embraced spiky East African thorn-bush, dry plains, floodplains, miombo woodland and of course those havens of biodiversity and endemism; the Eastern Arc Mountains and remote Pemba Island. The aim of this trip was to try and see some of the most difficult Tanzanian endemic birds whilst suffering as little discomfort and hardship as possible. With this in mind there was no camping, no (intentionally) long insufferable hikes or climbs and plenty of time budgeted in order to hunt out the skulkers and indeed we managed to see virtually all of the easily accessible avian gems that these little visited areas have to offer in comfort. Out of the amazing total of 489 species of birds recorded 473 were seen and 35 mammals were also noted. We began with Brown-breasted Barbets in our hotel garden near Moshi, White-headed Mousebirds, Pringle’s Puffbacks, Tsavo Purple-banded Sunbirds and Scaly Chatterers in the thorn-scrub en route to Same and Taveta Golden Weavers along the Pangani River. On the heights of the South Pare Mountains we sought out the South Pare White-eye and the recently split Usambara Thrush and Usambara Double-collared Sunbird. In the West Usambaras undergrowth skulkers such as White-chested Alethe, Red-capped Forest Warbler, Spot-throat and Usambara Ground Robin were all seen and a male Usambara Weaver was (with only minutes to spare before we had to leave) finally spotted gleaning, nuthatch-like along the moss-festooned branches. The neighbouring East Usambaras yielded Long-billed Apalis, Kretschmer’s Longbill and Uluguru Violet-backed and Banded Green Sunbirds. We found the beautiful Böhm’s Bee-eater as we journeyed south to the Uluguru Mountains and an excursion into the mountain top forests there gave us stunning views of Sharpe’s Akalat, Uluguru Mountain Greenbul, Chapin’s Apalis and dazzling Loveridge’s Sunbirds. Mrs Moreau’s Warblers squeaked at us and showed exceptionally well and there were also Bertram’s Weavers in the surrounding cultivation. The dry, open floodplain of the Kilombero River produced Kilombero Weaver and two endemic species of cisticola currently known as White-tailed and Kilombero Cisticolas but still awaiting formal description. A climb to a spectacular waterfall in the Udzungwas gave us the delightful Livingstone’s Flycatcher as well as the endemic Iringa Red Colobus. Moving on a small detour took us into habitat where we watched endemic Ashy Starlings and the recently split Ruaha Red-billed Hornbill. Mikumi National Park produced a marvellous selection of game that included a pride of Lions. However the birds stole the show and we were treated to excitable Speckle-throated Woodpeckers, Racket-tailed Rollers, shining Shelley’s Sunbirds and chunky Cinnamon-breasted Tits in the flowering trees. We finished our trip on the relaxing island of Pemba where we found all four endemics. We watched a Pemba Scops Owl hooting away above our heads on the first night. The Pemba White-eye and Pemba Sunbird both offered no great challenge but the Pemba Green Pigeon proved irritatingly elusive although ultimately everybody had the opportunity to see them. On the glorious beaches we found the sublime Crab-plover and we also visited a roost site of the endemic Pemba Flying Fox before heading home.