East African Birds

in Wildlife 101 by Araneta&Tan — July 23, 2009 at 5:33 am | 0 comments

Over the years, we have seen all kinds of birds on our trips across Kenya, Tanzania, and other areas of East Africa, and have managed to capture quite a few of these on film. We thought that in this post we’d tell you a little about some of the birds that are commonly seen in Tanzania.

Flamingos at Lake Manyara

Flamingo

The flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) has been set apart from others for many years, capturing the imagination of authors such as Lewis Carol for its unique pink colour. Seeing a flock of flamingos bathing in real life is everything you would imagine it to be. In fact the sight is even more spectacular during spring when the adults are joined by lots of fluffy little grey babies.

Masai Ostrich

The ostrich (Struthio camelus) is the largest bird on the planet, and even though it can’t fly, it can actually run at 45 mph. Luckily, they are a bit easier to catch on film than they would be in a race, and we have several photos of these stunning birds which are found across East Africa.

Secretary Bird

The Secretary Bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) is found across the open grasslands and Savannahs of East Africa and is actually found on the coat of arms of Sudan. The Secretary Bird is very unique in appearance, with a body similar to other birds of prey, but with very long legs. The Secretary Bird also has very distinctive black and white head plumes which match the colouring of the body. The look of the Secretary Bird is not all that makes it unique – it also has a very unique method of hunting in which it stamps on the heads of its prey to kill it. It is for both of these reasons that a photo of this fabulous bird is so special.

Great White Pelican

The Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) is a huge, white bird which is found in the swamps and lakes of Africa. The most unique feature of the pelican is its huge bill, which features a pouch underneath in which the pelican stores fish. Although the bird is found across several areas of east Africa, they actually only usually breed on Lake Elementeita. This makes for an absolutely amazing sight at breeding time, when more than 45,000 birds can crowd together on the water at any one time.

White Headed Vulture

Although they have a reputation of being one of the nastier members of the bird race, vultures are still one of our favourites to photograph. The white-headed vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis) is a threatened species found only in Africa and can usually be photographed when a carcass is found lying around, as they are usually pretty quick to dive in and pick the bones.

This is only the tip of the iceberg – you will be amazed at the beautiful, unique and colourful East African birds you will see when you are on a safari. Our rangers are all proud of the knowledge they have developed all throughout their working lives out in the bush. Ask them anything about birds and they can tell you everything there is to know about each species or a particular bird type.

We have literally hundreds of shots of different East Africa birds that we are also proud of ourselves. Africa is a bird lovers paradise and absolutely fantastic for birds photography. You can join us in one of our scheduled photographic safari and we can guarantee you some shots of birds which are just so much more spectacular than the British garden variety.

Contact us now at Araneta & Tan if you want to get some tips on how to best photograph East African birds or if you want to get more information about the photographic safaris we offer. info@aranetatan.com