What is your favorite bird species?
All Birds are Special, what makes all birds special is their habitat and all their major ecological zones.
Red-billed Firefinch
What is your name, and where do you live?
My name is Furaha Amiri Mbilinyi, I live in East Africa, Tanzania, in the Arusha Region.
What are the main regions or locations you cover as a bird guide?
I cover all the birding hotspots within the Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar Island.
Brown Snake-eagle
How long have you been a bird guide?
I have been a bird guide and a ringer for over 19 years now.
Bronze Sunbird
How did you get into bird guiding?
I was a part of the Tanzania Bird Atlas Team as a data collector and became one of the main authors of the Tanzanian Bird Guide, Africa’s first ornithological field guide in a native African language
Secretarybird
What are the aspects of being a bird guide that you like best? Which aspects do you
dislike most?
Best Aspects: Connecting with Nature. One of the most fulfilling parts is spending time in nature, observing birds and other wildlife. It feels like a constant adventure, discovering new species or witnessing interesting behaviors. Meeting Like-Minded People: Bird-watching attracts passionate, curious people. Being a guide allows you to meet people from diverse backgrounds who share a common interest in nature.
Diederik’s Cuckoo
What are the top 5-10 birds in your region that you think are the most interesting for visiting birders?
- Udzungwa Forest Partridge: Endemic to Central Tanzania-was discovered in 1991
- Grey Breasted Spurfowl: Endemic to North Tanzania-broad chestnut streaks on back, differs from red-necked sp by having grey brown not red legs, orange-pink(not red) throat, and white moustachial stripe
- Pemba Green Pigeon: Endemic to Pemba Island.
- Fischer’s Lovebird: Endemic to E Africa – a green lovebird with reddish-brown head, broad pale eye-ring, bright yellow upper breast, and wide nuchal (nape of the neck)
- Yellow-collared lovebird: Endemic to East Africa- dark brown head appearing black at a distance, breast and nape are golden yellow, body and wings are green.
- Hartlaub’s Turaco: Endemic to E Africa
- Pemba Scops Owl: Endemic to Pemba, where the only small Owl.
- White-Headed Mousebird: Endemic to NE Africa-whitish crest
- Red & Yellow Barbet: Endemic to NE Africa, with red head and bill S nominate race has a black throat in male,
- Foxy Lark: Endemic to NE Africa, often treated as a race of Fawn – Colored Lark, NE alopex is plain rufous lacks black wings,
- Short-Tailed Lark: Endemic to NE Africa, teardrop face pattern, long decurved bill are diagnostic, dark patches on the side of the neck, short tail square and dark., usually in pairs or small groups,
- Beesley’s Lark: Highly localized endemic to a small area west of Kilimanjaro in N Tanzania, in a place called Engikareti in a Maasai village, split from Spike-heeled Lark.
- Athi-Short Toed Lark: Endemic to N Tanzania and S Kenya., often treated as a race of Somali Short-toed Lark
- Golden Breasted Starling: Endemic to NE Africa, the best-looking Starling…
- Fischer’s Starling: Endemic to NE Africa resembles a female Wattled Starling but has dark rump.
- Sharpe’s Starling: Endemic to NE Africa, unmistakable black and white forest starling, told from abbot’s starling, female resembles Violet-backed Starling, but with pale eyes. Montane forest. Sound similar to forest wavers
- Tacazze Sunbird: Endemic to NE Africa, highlands, forest edges, gardens, and cultivation, very aggressive, chasing other birds from flowers.
- Rufous Tailed Weaver: Endemic to N Tanzania, silver eye, scaly brown form.
- White-Bellied Canary: Endemic to NE,
- Rosy Patched BushShrike: Endemic to NE Africa
Yellow-collared and Fischer’s Lovebird
Rufous-tailed Weaver
Can you outline at least one typical birdwatching trip in your area? Please briefly
describe the locations, the key birds and the approximate duration of such a trip.
Endemic Birds of Tanzania Mega tour.
Day by day Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in Tanzania (Kilimanjaro International Airport)
Connect with your tour guide, who will pick you up from the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) and transfer you to your lodge. There will be an evening birding activity around the lodge if time allows. Dinner and overnight at a Mountain Lodge
Activity: Optional Bird Walk around the Hotel grounds
Day 2: Birding in Arusha National Park
Have your breakfast and spend the first full day on Mount Meru, an impressive volcano that looms over Arusha town. The montane zones offer us chances of many birds, including both Narina and Bar-tailed Trogon, White-headed Barbet and Red-winged Starling, Turacos.
Bar-tailed Trogon
As we drive/head up the mist-enshrouded slopes, the yellowwood trees become draped in Usnea old man’s beard lichen and we search for skulking gems such as Green Backed twin sport, White-starred Robin, Evergreen Forest Warbler (B.lopezi), Orange Ground Thrush, Abyssinian Ground Thrush (the two thrushes are not easy to see into the thicket ) and the dapper Brown Woodland-Warbler.
We will enjoy lunch within the National Park, thereafter we will have a slow pace descent whilst searching for difficult canopy species such as Kendricks, Abbott’s, and Sharpe’s Starlings. Meals and overnight at Maasai Lodge.
Activity: Slow pace birding, very short walks inside the park
Day 3: Maasai Lodge to Tarangire National Park via Lark Plains
After breakfast, we drive around the looming Mt. Meru to the lark plains. These grasslands are home to the last 200+- Beesley’s Larks on Earth, and we will search for this critically endangered Tanzanian endemic. The plains are lined by Drepanolobium whistling thorn trees, while hills offer a scrubby habitat that can deliver Red-fronted and White-headed Barbets, Red-throated Tit, eremomelas, four other Lark species, and crombecs. The thicket habitat and riparian strips offer many great birds.
Early arrival to the lodge. Dinner and overnight at a tented camp.
Activity: Slow Bird Walks in the Lark Plain.
Days 4: Tarangire National Park
After breakfast, enjoy a full day in Tarangire with picnic box, where we shall enjoy some of northern Tanzania’s finest birding. The low baobab-clad plains and fever-tree groves support many cool species including three Tanzanian endemics: Ashy Starling, Yellow-collared Lovebird, and Rufous-tailed Weaver.
Ashy Starling
Late arrival at the lodge. Dinner and overnight at a Game Lodge,
Activity: Full day birding in the park no walking today
Day 5: Arusha to Same (Birding at Nyumba ya Mungu Reservoir)
After breakfast, pack up and depart.
We will make a little detour to some very nice habitat just short of Nyumba ya Mungu reservoir. Species to be expected here include Rufous and Scaly Chatterer, Pringle´s Puffback, Southern Grosbeak Canary, Yellow-necked Weaver, Pygmy Batis, Somali Bunting, Pink-breasted Lark, Abyssinian White-eye, Red-fronted Warbler and many more birds.
After that, we will head for a small woodland just outside Mkomazi National Park, where we will hunt for species like Tsavo, Black-bellied and Hunter´s Sunbird, Red-and-yellow, Black-throated and D`Arnaud´s Barbets, Grey Wren-Warbler, Fischer´s Starling, Straw-tailed Whydah and many more birds.
Red-and-yellow Barbet
Dinner and overnight at a Motel
Activity: Slow-paced birding en route to the reservoir, a long day drive with few stops.
Day 6: Same to West Usambaras
After breakfast, drive to the south Pare road birding en-route at stops near the road for some 500-meter site, where we will see plenty of other birds as well. This offers a great diversity of birds. Enjoy a picnic lunch en route to West Usambaras.
Arrive at the West Usambara in the evening, hopefully with time for some late birding at the Mkuze forest reserve, prior to arrival at Muller’s mountain lodge. New introductions might be Forest Batis and others. Dinner and overnight at a Mountain Lodge.
Activity: Slow-paced birding of the endemics of the Eastern arc Mts.
Day 7: West Usambaras (highlands) Full-day
Spend a full day in the West Usambara Mountains (Magamba Forest), supporting good stands of forest support a species that is found nowhere else in the world, the Usambara Akalat; it is also home to the very localized Usambara Weaver.
Other rare forest gems we will seek include Oriole Finch, Spot-throat Modulatrix, Usambara (Mountain) Greenbul, Fulleborn’s Boubou, Red-capped Tailorbird, and many others. Overnights in the quaint Muller’s lodge offer great birding with homemade meals and colonial atmosphere accommodation.
Activity: Early morning wake-up birding walk on the west Usambara.
Day 8: West to East Usambaras – Amani Nature Reserve (lowlands)
We will make our way to the northern extension of the ancient Eastern Arc Mountains. Although these mountains are geographically very close to the West Usambaras, the avifauna is dramatically different hinting at an age when Asia and Africa were joined. These mountains are an incredibly exciting birding destination. The lowland coastal forests at Kambai and the Sigi section of the Amani reserve support a plethora of exciting forest birds including the magical Chestnut-fronted Helmet-shrike, Red-tailed Ant-thrush, and the stunning Green-headed Oriole, and many other birds are on our target list for the day. Dinner and overnight at Emau Hills.
Activity: Slow-paced birding en route to the East Usambaras with few highway stops.
Days 9: East Usambara Amani Nature Reserve (highlands): Full-day birding
On this day, we shall focus on the magical high-altitude avifauna of the Eastern Arc Mountains. This ancient arc of crystalline mountains is jam-packed with real specials such as the Forest and Pale Batis, Banded Green, Amani, and Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbirds, Green Barbet, Fischer’s Turaco, White-breasted Alethe, and the bizarre and exceptionally rare Long Billed Forest warbler (Tailorbird), Meals and overnight at Emau Hills.
Activity: Early morning wake-up birding and walks on the East Usambara.
Day 10: East Usambara to Morogoro town
After breakfast, depart with a picnic box and a full-day birding en route. Drive towards the Wami Bridge for Bohm’s Bee-eater on the main Tanga- Chalinze Highway, then on to Morogoro, where you will have a few good birding spots on the way. Meals and overnight at Hotel Morogoro.
Activity: Long Day Drive, from Northeast to the South, a few birding stops but mostly highway driving.
Day 11: Morogoro to the Uluguru Mountains
Today will be an early morning start as we leave the town of Morogoro for the high forests of Ulugurus Mountain.
We will depart with four-wheel-drive vehicles in search of our target species; note that we are not going for serious hiking up the mountain or camping, but we are only doing day trip birding. There will be partial walking in search of Uluguru Bush-shrike, Angola Swallow, and Bertram’s Weaver. The forest edge and bush will also provide us with some superb birds, and we are likely to encounter Southern Citril, Yellow-bellied Waxbill, Evergreen Forest Warbler, Dark-capped Yellow Warbler, and Bar-throated Apalis, amongst others. Dinner and overnight at Hotel Morogoro.
Activity: Very early morning wake-up birding +2-3hrs Hike/walks in the forest edges.
Day 12: Uluguru Mountain to Mikumi National Park
Today, we make our way to Mikumi with birding en route,
We will keep a lookout for raptors, the sought-after Pale-billed Hornbill, White-crested Helmetshrike, Zanzibar, Black-winged and Yellow Bishops, and White-winged Widowbird with orange shoulder patches of the distinctive subspecies eques. This is mainly a travel day, and we plan to arrive in Mikumi in the early evening for an evening birding and game drive. Dinner and overnight at a tented Camp.
Activity: Miombo Woodlands Birding en route on a few stops for bird parties.
Day 13: Mikumi National Park (on the Kilosa road) to West Udzungwa Forest
We have a half-day to explore this fabulous reserve on the Kilosa road for numerous broad-leafed and miombo, specialties including Brown-necked Parrot, African Barred Owlet, Böhm’s Spinetail, Racket-tailed Roller, Pale-billed Hornbill, elusive Speckle-throated Woodpecker, Cinnamon-breasted Tit, Stierling’s Wren-Warbler, Green-capped Eremomela, Yellow-bellied Hyliota, Miombo Blue-eared Starling, Kurrichane Thrush Bearded Scrub-Robin, Arnot’s Chat, Pale Flycatcher, Shelley’s Sunbird (the subspecies that occurs here may be split).
Other species we may see in the park include Crested Barbet, Brown-backed Honeybird, Red-throated Wryneck, Golden-tailed Woodpecker, Croaking Cisticola, Neddicky, and Yellow-bellied Eremomela. Dinner and overnight at Udzungwa Falls.
Activity: Early morning wake-up birding walks on the Kilosa road.
Day 14: West Udzungwa Mountains
Spend a full day in the West Udzungwa Mountains another exciting location, the Kilombero River floodplain, this will include sailing in a wooded boat birding, this lovely area has become famous as recently as 1986 when a survey team located three new species to science, namely: White-tailed Cisticola, Kilombero Cisticola, and Kilombero Weaver. These species are confined to the floodplain area of the Kilombero River. Dinner and overnight at Udzungwa Falls.
Activity: Birding for the Kilombero Flood plains endemics.
Day 15: West to East Udzungwa Mountains
Today we will depart early on the long drive to the East Udzungwas. We will again have a chance to search for Uhehe Fiscal and Kipengere Seedeater on the way out.
Traveling north, we pass through a wonderful Baobab Forest, stretch our legs, and enjoy some open country birding. Species we may encounter here include impressive endemic Tanzanian Red-billed Hornbill. We should arrive in the afternoon for a rest and overnight at the Iringa Hotel.
Activity: Slow-paced birding en route to the East Udzungwa Mts
Day 16: East Udzungwa – Udzungwa Scarp Forest
Full-day birding and partial hiking in the Uluti forest scarp. The mornings are generally the most productive for birding and you will attempt to track down some of the serious skulkers that inhabit these forests such as the rare Dappled Mountain Robin, Iringa, and Sharpe’s Akalat, White-chested Alethe, Spot-throat and Swynnerton’s Robin, Rufous-winged Sunbird etc…
Other great birds include a number of flock-associated species such as White-tailed Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler, Grey Cuckoo-shrike, Bar-tailed Trogon, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Shelley’s and Yellow-streaked Greenbuls and Black-headed Apalis. Overnight at Iringa Hotel.
Activity: Early morning wake-up birding walks on the East (Uluti Forest).
Day 17: Iringa Hotel to Kisolanza Southern Highlands
After breakfast, head to Kisolanza, a very nice birding destination with plenty of birds, This is the southern highland of Tanzania, it provides easy access to Ruaha National Park, and there will be highway stops for some other highlands species, such as Jackson widowbird, Kurichane Thrush, Whyte’s Barbet, Miombo Wren-Warbler, Fulleborn’s Longclaw, Reichard’s Seedeater, Fawn-breasted Waxbill, Miombo double Sunbird, Jackson Widowbird, Locust Finch, Miombo rock thrush, Lesser Jacana, Reichard’s Seed-Eater, Wing Snapping Cisticola and others. Dinner and overnight at Kisolanza Farm.
Activity: Slow-paced birding en route to the Southern Highlands.
Day 18: Kisolanza Highlands to Ruaha National Park
After breakfast, depart with a picnic box for a full-day birding en route, while you drive towards Ruaha National Park.
Look out for the (Ruaha) southern highlands specialties among others you will be looking for the Ruaha Chat, Ruaha Hornbill, Variable Indigobird, Rufous Bush Chat, Reichard’s Seedeater, Cabanis’s Bunting, Miombo Sunbird, and Coppery-tailed Coucal. Dinner and overnight at Ruaha Lodge.
Activity: Slow-paced birding at Kisolanza Farm en route to Ruaha National Park.
Day 19: Msembe Airstrip to Pemba Island
Explore Pemba, one of the legendary Spice Islands, laden with cloves, which are spread out on the streets throughout the island. The friendly people and laid-back culture encapsulate what Zanzibar must have been like before tourists overran it.
Do birding around the lodge shores. On the seashore, possible species include the spectacular Crab Plover as well as Sooty Gull, Saunder’s, Gull-billed, and Lesser Crested Terns and waders. Dinner and overnight at Pemba Hotel.
Activity: Morning birding en route Msembe Airstrip for Zanzibar flight.
Day 20: Ngezi Forest Reserve Full-Day Birding Activity
Head to the exciting Ngezi Forest Reserve to look for the island’s other endemic birds tiny Pemba Scops Owl, Pemba Sunbird, Pemba White-eye and Pemba Green Pigeon, and maybe one of the introduced species (Java sparrow) and other interesting species. At a mere 14 km2, Ngezi Forest Reserve is the largest remaining forest patch on the island. Meals and overnight at Pemba Hotel.
Activity: Early morning wake-up birding walks on the island.
Day 21: Depart to Pemba Airport
Today, you will be driven to Pemba Airport and connect with your scheduled domestic flight to Dar Es Salaam/Kilimanjaro Airport. Upon arrival, you will connect with your Outbound International flight back home.
What other suggestions can you give to birders interested in your area?
About the tour described above:
- It covers various climatic conditions within Tanzania.
- It will have driving, walking, and hiking.
- Bring a camera, photos are the best memories for the future
- Bring enough clothes, shoes, personal items
- Bring good binoculars
- Bring drinking water bottles for refilling
Hadada Ibis
If any reader of 10,000 Birds is interested in birding with you, how can they best contact you?
My email address: fmbilinyi@gmail.com, Mobile:+255754573979.
Grey-backed Camaroptera
Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers of 10,000 Birds?
Bird watching isn’t just a hobby; it’s a chance to reconnect with nature in its purest form. Every time you step outside and observe the birds around you, you’re engaging with the world in a meaningful way. So, let’s continue to explore, respect, and protect the incredible diversity of avian life.
Happy birding!
I am drooling over that list of 20 specials and the trip description…