Travelling to Negelle

We set out on the long drive to Negelle at 5.30am and headed over the Sanetti Plateau seeing plenty of previously seen species, including more beautiful Spot-breasted Plovers. As the road began to descend towards the Harenna Forest we quickly picked up Bale Parisoma (possibly a split from Brown Parisoma) and Cinnamon Bracken Warbler.

 

Bale Parisoma

In the forest we had our first real rain of the tour and this hampered our birding on and off all day. But we did pick up Black-and-white Mannikin, Yellow-bellied Waxbill, Grey Cuckooshrike, Spectacled and a surprising Speke’s Weaver, and best of all an Abyssinian Crimsonwing. 

Vitelline Masked Weaver

The road was quite bad as we left the forest but improved somewhat as we drove out into the drier Acacia forest and at our picnic lunch spot we found Black-billed Barbet and some distant Chestnut Weavers. We drove on and a random stop to stretch our legs turned out to be pretty good with several Vitelline Masked Weavers feeding in a nearby tree, several Shelley’s Starlings, a group of White-headed Buffalo-weavers, Red-fronted Barbet, Red-and-yellow Barbet, Eastern Paradise Whydah, Straw-tailed Whydah, Slate-coloured Boubou, Red-billed Quelea and a flyover Bateleur. Wow!

Eastern Paradise-Whydah

Shelley's Starling

Straw-tailed Paradise-Whydah

Our ultimate goal was to find Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco and at the first site we tried, a pair were found quite quickly, along with a Levaillant’s Cuckoo. But at the second site we had mind-blowing views of this bird feeding along a hedge….

Levaillant's Cuckoo

Prince Ruspoli's Turaco

Prince Ruspoli's Turaco

There were also several Bruce’s Green-pigeons feeding in a large fig tree, along with a pair of Double-toothed Barbets, and a Northern Black Flycatcher certainly wasn’t ‘bird of the day’. We still had an hours drive to get to Negelle and finally arrived around 7pm. We stayed in a new hotel which was really quite nice and contrary to what we had heard back in the UK.