Botswana Bird-Watching Safaris & Tours

The extensive Okavango Delta, which welcomes thousands of migrating birds to its verdant canals during full floods, is a birdwatcher’s dream come true in the middle of the Kalahari Desert. By traditional dugout canoe or mokoro, explore the expansive grass floodplains of this vast inland river delta. Look out for Pel’s fishing owls, African jacanas, slaty egrets, western banded snake eagles, and brightly coloured kingfishers, which are arguably just as spectacular as the Delta’s renowned elephants, hippos, and lions.

Look for stunning lilac-breasted rollers perched on branches in Moremi and Savuti, farther north. You can also observe striking saddle-billed storks by the Chobe River. The Makgadikgadi Pans’ lunar surface becomes pink from November to March as a result of periodic rains that fill the salt pans and bring thousands of flamingos, a stunning but fleeting natural phenomenon.

Kenya Bird-Watching Safaris & Tours

One of Africa’s most striking wildlife displays is the large flocks of flamingos that frequent the soda lakes in the Kenyan Rift Valley. When the lake’s algal conditions are ideal, two million flamingos flock to Lake Nakuru, making for an incredible sight. Among the 450 kinds of birds that live at Lake Nakuru National Park are flamingos.

In addition to viewing osprey and fish eagles, safaris around Lake Naivasha also expose giraffes, buffalo, and hippos. Hell’s Gate National Park, which is adjacent to Naivasha, serves as a haven for the rare and bone-eating lammergeyer, also known as the bearded vulture.

Uganda Bird-Watching Safaris & Tours

Murchinson Falls National Park, Uganda’s most visited national park, is home to more than 550 different kinds of birds in addition to lions, elephants, giraffes, Cape buffalo, hippos, and other wildlife. The rare shoebill stork, which saunters through the park’s intricate network of Nile rivers, is the main attraction here. It seems almost prehistoric. The national bird of Uganda, the “dancing” grey-crowned crane, is also visible.

Even though Uganda is home to over a thousand different kinds of birds—nearly 10% of all bird species worldwide—the majority of birding vacations here also take in the stunning other wildlife of the nation. Thus, you will be able to go through the Kibale and Bwindi Impenetrable National Parks and track chimpanzees and mountain gorillas. In addition to your birding experiences, you may attempt whitewater rafting down the Nile if you’d rather get your adrenaline fix in other ways.

Uganda: Birds and Apes

Zambia Bird-Watching Safaris & Tours

Unknown to most people, the Great Migration of Wildebeest across the savannah plains of the Serengeti and Masai Mara is not the largest mammal migration in the world.

The award belongs to African giant fruit bats, which arrive in large numbers in Zambia’s Kasanka National Park between mid-October and late November every year. A multitude of Africa’s most magnificent predatory birds, such as the rarely seen bat hawk, as well as a variety of eagles and vultures drawn in by the abundant prey, follow the bats.

Travels to Zambia for bird watching are typically coupled with safaris through the magnificent—yet rarely crowded—South Luangwa National Park. Often hailed as Africa’s best wildlife reserve, South Luangwa is home to a sizable number of leopards and the Big Five. It is also the cradle of the walking safari. Walking through the savannah and taking in its scents and noises is a spine-tingling experience that should not be missed on any vacation to Zambia.

Ethiopia Bird-Watching Safaris & Tours

Ethiopia is home to 830 different bird species, 23 of which are unique to the world. Combine this with a remarkably diverse culture that has remained mostly unaffected by Western colonization of Africa, as well as widespread tourism, and you have a genuinely alluring location for birdwatching. Visit the Bale Mountains, where Lake Awassa provides a stunning setting for some of Ethiopia’s most exquisite birdlife, such as the African firefinch, brown snake eagle, and malachite kingfisher.