10-Day Coastal Birding Safari with Peter Wairasho

Leave Nairobi early and use suitable stops on the drive to look for dryland and savanna birds. Named possibilities include Red-throated Tit, Bare-eyed Thrush, several larks, Tawny, Booted and Wahlberg’s eagles, Lilac-breasted Roller and African Hoopoe. Begin the Amboseli programme in the afternoon and settle in for the first of two nights.

Spend a full day on game drives in Amboseli, with Mount Kilimanjaro as a possible backdrop. African Fish Eagle, Secretarybird and Bateleur are named possibilities. Wetland priorities extend to African Jacana and Goliath Heron, with Black-winged Stilt, Pangani Longclaw and Greater Painted Snipe also listed. Elephant, zebra, wildebeest, lion, hyena and cheetah sightings are possible.

Drive southeast from Amboseli to Tsavo West National Park. Begin exploring volcanic hills, lava flows, springs and savanna, including a possible viewpoint stop at Poacher’s Lookout. Named bird possibilities include Corncrake, Basra Reed Warbler, Northern, Isabelline and Pied wheatears, Martial Eagle and Long-crested Eagle.

Use a full day for Tsavo West’s varied habitats and current bird activity. Continue looking for shrikes, warblers, sunbirds, bustards, owlets, eagles, starlings and bushshrikes, alongside possible elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, leopard and hippo sightings.

Transfer early to the Taita Hills for forest birding focused on highly localised species. Taita White-eye, Taita Apalis and Taita Thrush are central named possibilities. The wider recorded list adds Lemon Dove and Stripe-cheeked Greenbul, plus Evergreen Forest Warbler and Orange Ground Thrush. Overnight is in the Taita Hills or Tsavo area.

Continue to Tsavo East National Park, whose open plains, semi-arid bush and Galana River support more than 500 recorded bird species. Vulturine Guineafowl and Somali Ostrich head the recorded list. Further possibilities include Somali Bee-eater and Golden Pipit; Somali Courser and White-backed Vulture; and Bateleur, d’Arnaud’s Barbet and Cut-throat Finch.

Bird along the route from Tsavo East to Watamu or Malindi as the landscape changes from savanna to the coastal ecosystem. The evening is reserved for settling in beside the Indian Ocean.

Explore Arabuko-Sokoke Forest for range-restricted birds. Clarke’s Weaver and Sokoke Scops Owl are named priorities, while Amani Sunbird and East Coast Akalat add to the forest list. In the afternoon, move to Mida Creek, where Crab-plover and Whimbrel are possibilities alongside Curlew and Mangrove Kingfisher, plus varied sandpipers and plovers.

Visit the Sabaki River Mouth, a Kenyan Important Bird Area and Key Biodiversity Area with more than 240 recorded species. Sooty Gull and Saunders’s Tern are named possibilities, followed by Osprey and Eurasian Marsh Harrier. The recorded shorebird and tern list also includes Pied Avocet, Ruddy Turnstone, Brown Noddy, Sandwich Tern and Roseate Tern.

Transfer to Malindi Airport for the included domestic flight to Nairobi, timed for the onward departure arrangements.