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| Birding Tour to Tanzania |  Tanzania encompasses a fine variety of habitats, many shared with adjacent countries, but it almost wholly contains the Eastern Arc mountain range.
At Mikumi National Park alongside freshwater swamps you will encounter dancing orange-red Zanzibar Bishops and African Jacanas striding over the lily pads.
When exploring the acacia and miombo woodland and the grassy plains, you may encounter Dickinson’s Kestrel, usually associated with Borassus Palms. Here you may also observe speckle-throated woodpeckers tap the timber for tasty hidden morsels, stierling’s barred warblers sing like crickets from the tops of acacias and yellow-throated petronias wag their tails, as well as finding the long-crested green and crimson Livingstone’s Turaco, the smart white-capped Arnott’s Chat and, if fortunate, Broad-tailed Paradise Whydah.
The lower part of the Ndzungwa National Park is home for the endemic Rufous-winged Sunbird, the hyperactive Livingstone’s Flycatcher at the northern edge of its range, possibly the skulking Lesser Seedcracker, and more common species include “bonking” Green Barbet, the explosive Square-tailed Drongo, and Dark-backed Weaver. At Ifakara, just over ten years ago, three new species were discovered: Kilombero Weaver, common in the floodplain, and two cisticolas still awaiting description but known as Kilombero and White-tailed. More difficult to encounter here: the morose booming Coppery-tailed Coucals at their northernmost range and strident and argumentative White-headed Plovers. You may also observe Red-necked or Amur Falcon, the latter recently arrived from north of the Himalayas, secretive Marsh Tchagra, attractive Zebra Waxbill and a wide variety of marshland species.
At the Uluguru Mountains birding may include the endemic Moreau’s Warbler with its musical duet, the nectar-loving Loveridge’s Sunbird and local species such as Olive-flanked Robin-Chat, as well as African Tailorbird and the very local Bertram’s Weaver.
Exploring the forest near Amani, you may be on the lookout for Long-billed Apalis, a dowdy warbler but one of Africa’s rarest species; the crimson-naped Fischer’s Turaco, a noisy but colorful inhabitant of the canopy; yodeling Green-headed Orioles; shadow-loving Sharpe’s Akalat; the endemic Banded Green Sunbird; and Usambara Hyliota, a strange bird whose affinities are not well understood. At night you may look for Usambara Nightjar and Usambara Eagle-Owl.
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