TANZANIA DAY 4 - Heading to the East Usambara Mountains

We had a 6am breakfast and then descended the West Usambara Mountains, driving for about an hour and a half to an area of steep hills and small rocky cliffs with a stream. We had two targets here – Grey-olive Greenbul and East Coast (Zanzibar) Boubou and both duly showed relatively easily. 

East Coast (Zanzibar) Boubou

A Sombre Greenbul caused a little confusion initially but in the end we had point-blank views of this rather distinctive greenbul with pale eyes, bill and legs. We spent a while scanning for Mocking Cliff-Chat without success, but did see Augur Buzzard, Brown-breasted Barbet, Moustached Tinkerbird, Rock Kestrel, Rock Martin, and a couple Collared Sunbirds. About a couple of hours later we stopped at a small marsh where a pair of Coastal Cisticolas showed quite well after a bit of a wait, and we also had an Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle fly over, some African Palm Swifts and a Hamerkop. 

Ayres's Hawk-Eagle

But it was rather hot and sultry here and a total contrast to the cool mountain weather we’d just left! After another hour we had reached the base of the East Usambara Mountains, stopping to see our first African Harrier Hawk of the trip on the way up. We stopped amidst splendid forest for lunch, but first birded along the road where Green-headed Oriole and Black-and-white Shrike-Flycatcher were seen. As we ate our picnic lunch, Abdul pointed out a Little Sparrowhawk perched nearby and boy did it look stunning in the scope. You can see the views we had through the scope in the video below.....

 

Leaving here we headed ever upwards until we entered Amani Forest Reserve and birded along a side track overlooking a deep valley. Many Silver-cheeked Hornbills were present, in fact none of us had seen so many hornbills in one place before. 

Silvery-cheeked Hornbill is ultra common here....

It was amazing. But we were here for rarer birds and sure enough, thanks to Abdul’s skill we nailed Purple-banded Sunbird first, and then the endemic Banded Green Sunbird. A pair of the latter were scoped for ages as they lingered around a tall, dead branch right at the edge of the canopy. Nice! 

We also enjoyed scope views of White-eared Barbets, saw our first Scarlet-chested Sunbird and several Black Saw-wings as well. Continuing the drive to the Park HQ we had a Brown-hooded Kingfisher perched on telegraph wires, and better still a Half-collared Kingfisher perched on a rock in the tumbling stream. 

Half-collared Kingfisher

Once we reached the Park HQ we birded the vicinity and found a superb pair of Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbirds, scoped a Green Barbet and then a Little Spotted (Green-backed) Woodpecker flew in and gave mind-blowing views. 

Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird

Little Spotted (Green-backed) Woodpecker

We also had our best views of Olive Sunbird to date, saw another Amethyst Sunbird, and a mixed group of birds feeding in the verges held Yellow-bellied Waxbill, African Citril and several Black-and-white Mannikins of the red-backed morph. Our base for the next 2 nights was the accommodation next to the Park HQ, which was a little ‘rustic’ and basic but the food wasn’t too bad at all, they had nice cold beers and you can have a hot shower. So it ticks a lot of boxes and negates the need for camping.