Gatamaiyu Forest Birding

Gatamaiyu Forest is an exemplary birding montane forest that is part of the larger Kikuyu Escarpment Forest, which covers an area of 37,620 hectares ( 376.2 square kilometers ). Additional forest blocks that form the Kikuyu Escarpment Forest include: Kereita, Uplands, Kinale, Kamae, Kieni, Raggia, and Kijabe. Gatamaiyu Forest covers an area of 4,720 hectares ( 47.2 square kilometers) of which 75 percent is indigenous forest, eight percent is exotic forest, and the rest is bamboo, scrublands, and some green farmlands. Gatamaiyu Forest’s altitude is between 1800 and 2700 meters above sea level, and the forest topography is ragged with many majestic, steep-sided valleys containing raging streams.

The Gatamaiyu Forest Day birding tour requires an early rise. To beat the traffic in Nairobi , the drive takes 45 minutes to an hour, and the weather in the forest is quite comfortable. Birdwatching is mainly done on foot, relying on bird sounds, and patience is required. It is advisable to have comfy hiking shoes. Also, carry insect repellent, Gatamaiyu forest has Deer Flies ( between February and April ), which have a nasty bite. A rain jacket is recommended, too, as the weather in the forest can change without warning. Gatamaiyu forest birding tour is leisurely paced, suitable for any age bracket, and available daily throughout the year.

Gatamaiyu Forest Birdwatching starts as you exit the Nakuru – Naivasha highway, be on the lookout for the African Stonechat, perching in bushes next to the road, Cape Crows feeding on the roadside, Augur Buzzard soaring high up in the clear blue sky, spirited duets of Hunter’s Cisticola can be heard on the scenic tea plantations along the newly tarred road to the forest. Golden-winged Sunbird may be seen viciously defending Leonotis flowers from other sunbirds, Black Sawwing/Roughwing flying low, catching insects, and White-eye Slaty Flycatcher perching on the fencing poles. Twelve species of sunbirds may be seen in a day birding tour in Gatamaiyu Forest, which include: Tacazze, Malachite, Eastern and Northern Double-collared, Variable, Golden-winged, Olive, Collared, Bronze, Scarlet-chested, Amethyst, and Green-headed Sunbirds. Gatamaiyu Forest is one of the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in Kenya, with about 138 species of birds recorded in and around the forest, of which 31 are forest specialists, and 20 are considered rare. About 39 of Kenya’s 67 Afro tropical highlands biome bird species occur in the Gatamaiyu forest. The forest is home to the globally threatened Abbott’s Starling , the smallest of the starlings, with a shrinking home in a few evergreen forests in Kenya and Tanzania .

Gatamaiyu Forest restricted-range bird species : Jackson Francolin, Hunter’s Cisticola. As well as a significant number of regionally-threatened bird species, including African Green Ibis, Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle, Rufous-breasted Sparrowhawk, African Crowned Eagle, and Red-chested Owlet .

African Elephants are occasionally encountered at Gatamaiyu Forest where they normally come for mineral salt lick, wandering from the main Aberdare National Park ; Mount Kenya Guereza , Sykes’s Monkey Giant forest Hog, Bushbuck, Gambian Pouched Rat, Jackson’s Mongoose, Common Duiker, Lesser Bush-baby, Porcupine, Slender-tailed Mongoose, Civet, Bush Ochre Squirrel, Giant Forest Squirrel, and African Golden Cat – the only forest-dependent wild cat in Africa , endemic to tropical forest in the continent