Safari Notes: Bird Watching In Africa

-
Africa is a treasure house for birding. The continent has over 2,050 bird species recorded, two thirds of which are found nowhere else. East Africa, in particular, has an amazing variety of birds, perhaps due to a mild climate devoid of extremes. The region has 4 of the Top Ten Birding Sites in Africa as rated by the African Bird Club (www.africanbirdclub.org) -an international organisation devoted to the study of Africa's birds. These sites are: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (Uganda), Bale Mountains (Ethiopia), the Rift Valley Lakes (Kenya) and Murchison Falls Park (Uganda). africapoint

Bird watching is an activity that can be done wherever one is, on almost any part of the globe. It is fun, educational and doesn't require much, except a pair of good eyes; at most, a pair of binoculars. No matter where one lives, there are always birds around. Africa offers a large number and a variety of bird species; Eastern Africa has the largest number, especially Kenya and Tanzania. And Eastern Africa has the best sites for watching the gregarious flamingos, pelicans, herons, storks, cormorants, marabous, hamerkops, ibis, cranes, vultures, ostriches, weavers, owls, sparrows and hundreds of more other species.

East Africa's birds are scattered in all sorts of habitats: mountain forest, lowland forest, seacoast, deserts, savannah, lakes, marsh, swamps and mudflats. In this article, we shall look at the region's water birds. This category refers to those birds that depend directly on water for food, habitat and breeding or indirectly for a certain component of their life cycle. Most water birds linger along the shallow shoreline of lakes, temporary waters in the inland ecosystems and rivers and very few venture far away from shore. Water birds delight birders, being easier to spot and photograph, as they tend to be larger and live more in the open.


Further Info: Birdwatching in Eastafrica, African Bird Club, Bird Links

Popular posts from this blog

The Albatross

-
Image
They have have been called the grandest living flying machine on Earth . No wonder: the Albatross has a wing span of 3 meters and a body mass of up to 12 kilograms. They can live for up to as long as 60 years. But as they have one of the lowest reproductive rates of any birds and as they are being hunted and killed, they may become extinct. Biologists have discovered that swordfish, tuna and other fishing fleets, are catching these birds while fishing, and are killing more that tens of thousands of these birds every year. In a couple of decades many species may be wiped out unless urgent action is taken . More: British Antarctic Survey , Save The Albatross , Endangered , National Geographic , WWF , Facts , petcaretips , Earthlife , antarcticaconnection , coolantarctica , Wikipedia , Encarta , Ecuador Travel , Books
Read more

Rwanda Genocide Deniers

-
Image
It's very shocking and extremely disturbing that, there are some people who deny that there was Genocide in Rwanda ; there are those who have been trying hard to spread lies and propaganda and twist real facts and the truth about the Rwandan genocide; there are those who deny that , it took meticulous planning - resulting in about 800,000 Tutsis and some Hutus, systematically being brutally butchered, in Rwanda, in 1994: .........thousands of children butchered individually, by machete. And the massacres at hundreds of churches, mostly Catholic churches at that. Not to mention the systematic gang rapes of Tutsi women and girls which led the international tribunal to define rape as an act of genocide when part of an extermination campaign. The genocide, while it coincided with the civil war and was clearly driven by the politics around the conflict, was mostly carried out by civilians against civilians far from the front. There was no "other side". There were the murde...
Read more

Dinder National Park Sudan

-
Image
Dinder - Sudan Situated in the East of the country, very close to the Ethiopian border, about 400 km. (205 mi.) south-east of Khartoum - Sudan's capital city, is Dinder National Park (DNP) - some times called Dinda ( In Arabic: محميه الدندر ) . Covering about 6,475 sq. km. (2,500 sq. mi.) - some estimates say the park covers a much larger area; which would make it one of the largest in Africa. Established in 1935, it is the most important wildlife reserve in Northern Sudan. It is one of the two parks in the country  designated as Biosphere Reserves . The other is Radom National Park (RNP) in southern Darfur. The park, in Dinder District, Sennar State, like all game parks and reserves in Sudan, is confronted with several threatening problems such as trespassing livestock, poaching, increased human settlements and encroachment in the surrounding areas. Like all game parks and reserves in Sudan, you can hardly find any detailed information on the park. Photos of it, too, are v...
Read more