BIRDING IN ETHIOPIA 16 DAYS | 15 NIGHTS
16 DAYS
SHORT DESCRIPTION
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ITINERARY
Arrive at Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa and at the airport you will be met and greeted by our representative and transferred to your hotel for check-in, the hotel is located five minutes away from the Airport.
Addis Ababa, the capital of modern Ethiopia, and gateway for most tourists, is the political and commercial heart of the country. The name of Addis Ababa can translate as ‘New flower’, spanning altitude of 2,350m to more than 2,600m, climatically the city is warm and temperate, and the summers are much rainier than the winters. The average annual temperature in Addis Ababa is 16.3 °C (61.4 °F). The current population of the city is around 4.5 million people; it was founded by Emperor Menelik in 1887.
Before reaching Debre Libanos, we cross the famed Sululta Plains, which are a brilliant place to find beautiful Spot-breasted Lapwing, the taxonomically strange Blue-winged Goose, and other endemics. We also hope to find our first gelada baboon (nicknamed bleeding-heart baboon) – these ferocious-looking but vegetarian baboons have huge vocabularies and a complex social system. We’ll eventually reach our well-placed accommodation, from where we will look for Egyptian Vulture, Griffon Vulture, Bearded Vulture, and other raptors as they gracefully sail by, as well as Little Rock Thrush and many other mountain
The park also popular for a variety of mammals such as Beisa Oryx, the Anubis Baboon, Colobus Monkey, Black-backed Jackal, Bat-eared Fox, Egyptian Mongoose,Warthog ,Soemmering’s Gazelle, Lesser Kudu, Salt’s Dik-dik etc. The Predators are rare though and very unlikely to be seen.
The Great Rift valley of Ethiopia is a branch of the East African Rift that runs through Ethiopia in a southwest direction from the Afar Triple Junction. The Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes are the northernmost of the African Rift Valley lakes, in central Ethiopia, the main Ethiopian Rift, also known as the Great Rift Valley, splits the Ethiopian highlands into northern and southern halves, and the Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes occupy the floor of the rift valley between the two highlands. Most of the Ethiopian Rift Valley lakes do not have an outlet, and most are alkaline. Lake Ziway is the largest of the Northern group of rift valley lakes covering 440 km2 surrounded by volcanic hills and is home of the Zay people. The lake earned just a quick hit on a southern stopover, for its productive birdlife and hippopotamus. The lake encompasses five Islands, including Gelila, Fundro, Debre Sina, Tsedacha and Tulu Gudo, which is home to a monastery said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant around the ninth century.
The Key bird Species we will explore today around the rift valley lakes area will be Spur -Winged Goose, African Comb Duck, Garganey, Hottentot teal, Northern Carmine Bee-eater and Silver Cheeked Hornbill. Then we will have stay over at the beautiful Haile Resort Ziway, owned by a famous Athlete Haile Gebre sillase; Olympic gold medalist and numbers Long distance world record holder.
Awasa, also called Hawassa, is a city in the Great Rift Valley of central Ethiopia; it lies at the eastern edge of large Lake Awassa. Lake Awassa watershed is located in the middle of the Ethiopian Rift Valley between the Abijata–Shalla basin to the north and that of Lakes Abaya and Chamo to the south. Significant numbers of congregatory water birds occur on the lake, 20,000 birds counted along less than 25% of the shoreline in January 1999. It is particularly important for Red-knobbed coot (Fulica cristata) Over 300 Marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) were counted in November 1997, the largest concentration of this species in Ethiopia.
Today we will spot will spot various birds that include Pink-backed Pelican, Black -headed heron, Goliath Heron, yellow billed stork, GlossyIbis, and Black Crake.
It is also a good place to find: Banded Snake Eagle,African Harrier Hawk,Bare-faced Go-away-bird,Blue-headed Coucal , Senegal Thicknee, Giant Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Pygmy Kingfisher, Woodland Kingfisher, Northern Carmine Bee-eater, Little Bee-eater, Red-breasted Wryneck, Black-billedWood-hoopoe, Grey-backed Fiscal, Spotted Creeper, Variable Sunbird, Shining Sunbird, Lesser Swamp Warbler, Masked Weaver, Grospeakweaver, White-browed Sparrow-weaver, Pied Crow and the king of the lake the Hippopotamus.
The Bale Mountains National Park contains a spectacularly diverse landscape. The high altitude, afro-montane Sanetti Plateau rises to over 4,000m and includes the highest peak in the southern Ethiopia highlands. This undulating plateau is marked by numerous glacial lakes and swamps and surrounded by higher volcanic ridges and peaks. The southern slopes of the massif are covered by the lush and largely unexplored Harenna Forest. Often called the “Rooftop of Africa,” the Bale Mountains forests harbour a wide variety of flora and fauna that evolved in isolation. In Bale visitors will see many species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and plants found only in Ethiopia and in some cases only in the Bale Mountains.
With such a high diversity of wildlife, the Bale Mountains National Park is a crucial protected area for a significant portion of Ethiopia’s and the world’s biodiversity. Visitors to the area can see mountain Nyala, the largest population of Ethiopia wolfs, black and white colobus monkeys, baboons, bushbuck, and warthogs, among others animals. Lucky visitors might also get a glimpse of lions, leopards, the rare Bale monkey, or wild dogs. The Bale Mountains are considered Ethiopia’s most important bird area with over 280 bird species. Visitors to the Bale Mountain National Park can explore the variety of bird habitats including grasslands, woodlands, forests, moorlands, wetlands, and alpine lakes. Six of Ethiopia’s 16 endemic bird species are found in Bale and 7 globally threatened bird species can be seen here including the greater spotted eagle, imperial eagle, lesser kestrel, and the wattled crane.
Today we will spot some of the endemics such as Blue-winged Goose, Spotbreasted Lapwing, Abyssinian Long claw, Wattled Ibis, Black-headed Siskin, Rouget’s Rail, Banded Barbet and other species. We will also have the chance to encounter variety of Mammals that include Mountain Nyala,now entirely restricted to the Bale Mountain massif, Menelik’s Bushbuck and Warthog, unusual at this high altitude. Then we drive to Goba Wabe Shebelle Hotel to stay over for one Night, Goba WabeShebelle
Hotel is basic standard hotel but ideally located for early morning Birding.
We will walk through these plains in search of this special bird, which we hope to watch performing its parachute display flight. We should also find salvadori’s seedeater, African Bare-eyed Thrush, Foxy Lark, northern Grosbeak canary, Pale Prinia, Pectoral- patch cysticola ,Plain Backed pipit, Rattling Cisticolas, Reichenow’s Seedeater, Shelley’s Rufous Sparrow, Somali Courser, Spotted Palm Thrush, White-bellied Bustard and White-crowned Starling.
If we’re very lucky, we may see coveys of Coqui Francolin or flush a migratory Corn Crake.
This area of Acacia savanna is characterized by giant red termite mounds, some towering 5m above the plains) and both these birds seem to be associated in some way with these marvels of natural architecture.
Today we are expecting to increase number of new birds in our list including White tailed Swallow, Stresemann’s bush crow, Acacia Tit, African White Wing Dove, Banded Parisoma, Black-capped Social Weavers, Eastern Violet-backed Sunbird, Grey-capped, Hunter’s Sunbird, Juba Weaver, Magpie Starling, Purple Grenadier, Parrot Billed Sparrow , Scaly Chatterer and Shelley’s Sparrow.
We will arrive in Arba Minch around midday and checked into a good hotel and enjoyed lunch in the late afternoon we will made the short drive to Nechsar National Park to see birds such as Bat hawk,masked weaver,yellow-throated dangerouse, desert cisticola , black-bellied bustard ,Lesser kestrel, African cuckoo hawk, moutagus barriers, scaly-throated Honeyguide.
Nechisar National Park is considered an important habitat for bird populations particularly those migrating. It has a noted population of kingfishers, storks, pelicans, flamingos and African fish eagles. Other birds include Falco naumanni and Circus macrourus, which are fairly common on passage.
Wildlife species in the park include Greater kudu, Ethiopian Swayne’s Hartebeest, Burchell’s Zebra, Grant’s Gazelle, Guenther’s Dik-dik, black backed jackal, grey Duiker, wild boar, gureza and the endangered African hunting dog. Some of the primates in the park include bushbuck,vervet monkeys, Anubis baboon and many others.
After breakfast and relaxing morning in paradise lodge , you will transfer to Arbaminch Airport for the flight to Addis Ababa and you will check in for day use room and finally in the evening you will taken to traditional restaurant for fair well dinner live folklore dance and transfer to International Airport.
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CONTACT US, TODAY
TELL US ABOUT YOUR IDEAS OR JUST SAY HELLO.