Magical Kenya: Exotic Birds & Big Game Galore!

Cheetah mother and daughter hunting © Andrew Whittaker

The African safari of a lifetime, featuring easy world-class birding and unparalleled big game viewing, highlighting the breathtaking migration of some 1.5 million wildebeest and countless zebra across Kenya’s world-famous Masai Mara National Reserve (where we spend a week). During this season of abundance, predators abound, from majestic Lion prides, Leopards, and families of elegant Cheetahs to clans of laughing Hyenas. Exciting daily safaris will also offer spectacular viewing of herds of African Elephants, rhinoceroses (two species), three subspecies of giraffe, and Beisa Oryx along with many other striking mammals, around 50 species being the norm! Birding is exceptional, too; expect 400+ species, including bee-eaters, rollers, turacos, kingfishers, sunbirds, and glossy starlings. The delightful East African Rift Valley’s alkaline lakes can also offer the spectacle of half a million Lesser Flamingos. Photographic opportunities are truly exceptional throughout.

Kenya, the jewel in East Africa’s wildlife crown and one of the world’s premier destinations for big game and birds, has some of the most breathtaking national parks on earth, along with great infrastructure, safe travel, and super-friendly people. With 1,150 species recorded so far, Kenya boasts the richest avifauna in all of Africa, made all the more accessible by an up-to-date and well-illustrated field guide. We will encounter a host of exciting new African bird families: ostriches, Hamerkops, Secretarybirds, guineafowl, turacos, blood-drinking oxpeckers, mousebirds, wood-hoopoes, bush-shrikes, and wild-looking whydahs and widowbirds. Kenya’s terrific avian diversity puts it high on the list of “must-visit” destinations, whether you are new to African birding or have visited many times.

Kenya’s iconic scenery ranges from wilderness grassy plains and rolling hills to the rich lakes of the Rift Valley, and the lush rain forests of the Aberdare Mountains to the muddy palm-bordered rivers and stark acacia brush of Samburu. This diversity of habitats offers an equally delightful mix of exciting birding and magnificent big game observations. We can expect to see nearly fifty species of large mammals, including African Elephant, White Rhino, Leopard, Lion, Cheetah, hyenas, zebra, Hippopotamus, giraffe, African Buffalo, and an assortment of delicate antelopes.

We are based for most of our tour in three luxurious ecolodges in the very heart of two of Kenya’s world-famous game reserves: the Masai Mara and Samburu National Reserve, both brimming with colorful birds and herds of big game, plus the delightful forested Aberdare Range with its famous mammal salt lick. We begin in Nairobi National Park, famed as a stronghold for the endangered White Rhino and a spectacular assortment of other big game and birds, making for the perfect introduction to our Kenyan safari. We will also enjoy delightful visits to the famous East African Rift Valley to picturesque Lakes Nakuru, Bogoria, and Baringo.

The famous migration through the Masai Mara features some 1.5 million wildebeests and hundreds of thousands of zebras, Elands, and gazelles in search of fresh grazing. This almost unbelievable concentration of large mammals attracts an equally incredible concentration of the big cats. At the Aberdare National Park, our lodge, the Ark, offers amazing viewing platforms above a consistently productive salt lick allowing outstanding close observations of herds of elephants, elegant bushbuck, and other exciting mammals. Following a relaxed birding boat trip on Lake Baringo, which holds a large variety of waterbirds from pelicans, cormorants, and flamingos to herons, ibis, storks, shorebirds, and fish-eagles, we finish up in the wondrous Samburu Reserve with its Reticulated Giraffes, rare Grevy’s Zebras, odd Gerenuks, tiny Kirk's Dikdiks, elegant Beisa Oryx, and Greater Kudus. Birds here include such sought-after specialties as the Kori Bustard, Vulturine Guineafowl, Somali Ostrich, Somali Bee-eater, Golden Pipit, and much more.

Our tour is carefully designed to give us time to take in and enjoy (and not be overwhelmed by) the outstanding variety of raptors, bustards, sandgrouse, shorebirds, larks, chats, warblers, shrikes, and weaver colonies we will encounter during our daily safaris. Furthermore, mouth-watering birding and mammal watching is also available right at our lodges; one lodge even has a boardwalk leading through the forest to a blind for watching the fascinating antics of hippos.

Good to excellent accommodations and food; comfortable customized safari vehicles offer easy wildlife viewing with window seats for all, and with tops that pop-up, allowing those who wish to stand for observation or photography; exciting boat trip on Lake Baringo for water birds; moderate pace with midday breaks; easy walking options; due to our altitude the climate is pleasantly warm and usually dry by day, but also expect cooler (to sometimes cold) early mornings or nights, especially in the Aberdares; hotter normally at Lake Baringo and sometimes in Samburu.

Lilac-breasted Roller © Andrew Whittaker