Birds of Kilimanjaro National Park
When talk about birds of Kilimanjaro National Park, it means that you will see in abundance though is birdlife. Malachite Sunbirds can be easily viewed in the heath and moorland areas of the Karanga Valley on the Machame Route. These stunningly beautiful birds have a distinctive bright metallic green coloring and a small scarlet patch on their chests and can often be seen hooking their long beaks into giant lobelias to extract the nectar. Mountain buzzards, crowned eagles, and the rare Lammergeyer giant vultures can also be spotted on the slopes.
Birds of Kilimanjaro National Park is the cultivated fields on the lower slopes provide plenty of food, the forest zone provides shelter and plenty of nesting sites, while the barren upper slopes are ideal hunting grounds for raptors. In the forest, look out for the noisy dark green Hartlaub’s turaco (there was one nesting near the first-day lunch stop on the Machame Route), easy to distinguish when it flies because of its bright red under-wings. The silvery-cheeked hornbills and speckled mousebirds hang around the fruit trees in the forest, particularly the fig trees. There’s also the trogon which, despite a red belly, is difficult to see because it remains motionless in the branches. Smaller birds include the Ruppell’s robin chat (black and white head, grey top, orange lower half) and the common bulbul, with a black crest and yellow beneath the tail. White-necked raven, a common visitor to the campsites on Kili.
Further about Birds of Kilimanjaro National Park up the slopes, the noisy, scavenging, garrulous white-necked raven is a constant presence on the heath and moorland zones, eternally hovering on the breeze around the huts and lunch-stops on the lookout for any scraps. Smaller but just as ubiquitous is the alpine chat, a small brown bird with white side feathers in its tail, and the streaky seed-eater, another brown bird (this time with streaks on it’s back) that often hangs around the huts. The alpine swift also enjoys these misty, cold conditions.
The prize for the most beautiful bird on the mountain, however, goes to the dazzling scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird.
Metallic green save for a small scarlet patch on either side of its chest, this delightful bird can often be seen hovering above the grass, hooking its long beak in to reach the nectar from the giant lobelias or feeding on the lobelias.
Climbing further and we come to raptor territory. You’ll rarely see these birds up close as they spend most of the day gliding on the currents looking for prey. The mountain and augur buzzards (right) are regularly spotted hovering above the Saddle (a specimen of the former also hangs about the School Huts when it’s quiet).
These are impressive Birds of Kilimanjaro National Park in themselves – especially if you’re lucky enough to see one up close – though neither is as large as the enormous crowned eagle and the rare lammergeyer, a giant vulture with long wings and a wedge tail (you can see a picture of this in the revolving banner at the top of this page).