Bird Watching in Ethiopia

A client travelled on our 'Ethiopia's Endemic Birds' tour and submitted this entry to our writing competition.

Brown-throated Wattle-eye by Ingeborg van Leeuwen

I arrived at Addis Ababa as someone new to wildlife holidays, third world travel and relatively new to birdwatching. I have the cheap binoculars and no idea what to expect. Everyone else seemed to be adorned in expensive gear and be identifying species flying over the sprawling city beyond, all before we were out of the airport building. I tried to recall at what point this had seemed like a good idea.

We boarded our minibus and found room between us for luggage, telescopes, bottles of water and hefty matching guidebooks. The engine started and after the first of many head counts, we were off. We bounced our way along dusty tracks and carefully weaved through Ethiopian traffic of HGVs, vivid blue tuk-tuks, heavily-laden donkeys and wandering cattle. Inside the bus was an equally varied mix of dedicated birdwatchers, keen amateurs and wildlife enthusiasts, each with a bus window view of Africa. I began to pick up snippets of information and before we’d even left Addis I could recognise a Dusky Turtle Dove, knew what a Yellow-billed Kite should look like and discovered that birds have ‘supercilia’ and not ‘eyebrows’.

The city’s myriad of tin huts and fruit stalls gave way to acres of corn, millet and teff (a native grass species), which in turn gave way to a vast open landscape of dry soil, withered grasses and acacia scrub. Despite the seemingly arid environment, Ethiopia appeared to abound with bird species: eagles and vultures circled high overhead, every suitably high perch was topped with a bird of prey, and flocks of ‘little brown jobs’ flitted through the bushes. Hour by hour (and with more than a little help) my ‘bird list’ grew, each stop bringing new and unexpected species.

The diversity of bird species was phenomenal; whilst I am used to one starling, shrike and cuckoo species here, in Ethiopia there are 24 starlings, 21 shrikes and 12 cuckoos and that’s without mentioning the cuckoo-shrikes or the bizarre coucals. Species like the rollers and bee-eaters seem unnecessarily colourful - as if designed by a child with a new pack of colouring pens. Others like the nightjars and the bustards blend effortlessly into their habitat like a magic-eye puzzle.

Our Ethiopian and English guides were second-to-none - they made finding scarce, cryptic or rapidly disappearing birds in this vast country seem effortless - spotting birds where even the keenest birders might otherwise miss them. They were also quick to set up scopes so we could all get close-up views of faraway birds and had a wealth of knowledge of the subject matter to share with the group. This meant a novice like me was not only able to see an enormous number of species but also obtain brilliant views and learn a great deal about them. Those of us less adept at identifying species helped the group out by ‘spotting’ and I for one became skilled at trying to explain where in the vast thorny thicket the small brown unidentified warbler was sitting.

The guides’ ability to find birds was unfaltering in a vast array of habitats. Among the arid acacia scrub of the Awash National Park we found Abyssinian Ground Hornbills and Kori Bustard as well as Oryx, gazelles and hyenas. On the shores of Lake Awassa just a short walk from the chaos of the fish market there were African Black Crakes, Goliath Herons and African Pygmy Geese among the dense vegetation.

It’s fair to say that whatever my preconceptions of Ethiopia there were surprises to be had; even the most uninviting of habitats can play host to a surprising number of resilient and hardy species. Even among the scorched black volcanic rocks hopped Blackstarts and a Blue Rock Thrush, and Eygptian Vultures circled overhead.

One of the greatest surprises came after a trek along the saltpans of Langano. The soil was bone-dry, cracked and barren. The horizon shimmered with heat haze and the wind whipped up dust twisters that reached up to the vast cloudless sky. It was so devoid of life it could have been mistaken for another planet. Yet at its end, as the soil turned to mud we witnessed a congregation of hundreds of flamingoes, cranes, ducks and plovers gorging themselves in the fertile shallows of Lake Langano.

And if I thought Ethiopia and the Great Rift Valley are just about the arid plains and the great lakes there was Wondo Genet. A fertile hilly landscape carpeted in verdant forests. Though encroached on by human settlement, where the pristine forest remains it is dense and impassable. The branches overhead are shaken by leaping Colobus Monkeys and Sun Squirrels and by the movement of White-cheeked Turacos and hornbills hopping among the canopy. Other species such as the Bruce’s Green Pigeon can be more difficult to spot as they sit motionless and some, such as the mythical-sounding Narina Trogon, are notoriously tricky to find, but worth an afternoon in the forest when one is eventually spotted.

As my time in Ethiopia came to a close my knowledge of birds and birdwatching had improved immeasurably. I remain by no means an expert and am still very much a novice, but I’ve seen a Grey-backed Camaroptera and I can tell an Eremomela from a Cisticola (even if I still struggle to pronounce them). I know the difference between boubous, brubrus, bulbuls, barbets and babblers and, whilst I may struggle to name all 24 species of starling, I could tell you a little bit about some of them. To boot, I’ve learned an awful lot about a country of which I knew nothing. I also managed to tot up an impressive list of well over 300 birds, many of them endemics - more than enough to make the birders at home jealous.

As I left Addis Ababa I realised I was hooked on birdwatching abroad and the flight home was spent planning my next escape. I have met a minibus full of experienced and well-travelled friends who provided advice and encouragement on the trip and beyond. Ethiopia may seem a long way away when you’re back in Blighty but I have only happy memories. There is a lot of great wildlife out there just waiting to be found on my next adventure!

Read more about our 'Ethiopia's Endemic Birds' holiday.