Central and Western Kenya: Birding and Wildlife Safari

This 23-day birding and wildlife holiday in Kenya comprehensively covers the central and western regions of this spectacularly diverse East African country. Additionally, this trip offers a more premium experience than most birding tours in this amazing mammal- and bird-rich country; we use relatively spacious vehicles and comfortable accommodations, which are superior to those offered by other Kenya birdwatching holidays we’ve seen.

White-bellied Bustard should be seen on the plains of the Maasai Mara.

Kenya has a spectacularly diverse array of habitats packed into a small area. On this trip, we will explore the plains of the Maasai Mara, the papyrus swamps of Lake Victoria, the saline lakes of the Great Rift Valley, the lush montane forests of Mount Kenya, and the Acacia woodlands of Samburu National Reserve, to name only a few. We will encounter endless herds of wildlife, opportunistic predators such as Africa’s big cats, and a myriad of colorful bird species.

Kenya is smaller than Texas yet boasts an incredible 1,162 bird species. A relatively modest ten of these species are single-country endemics, but Kenya also boasts a range of East African endemics, including a number of species that occur only in Kenya and Tanzania. The country has 62 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and some of the most famous game parks in the world, including the Maasai Mara and its endless migrating wildebeest herds, Amboseli with Mount Kilimanjaro as a backdrop, and many others.

African Elephants with youngsters in the Maasai Mara.

This comprehensive wildlife and birding vacation to Kenya should enable you to see around 500 bird species, enjoy excellent large game viewing, and allow you to see some of Africa’s most famous sites. While we appreciate all the wildlife, we are sure to spend adequate time looking for the localized bird specials of Kenya (and East Africa as a whole), including five of Kenya’s endemic birds: Hinde’s Babbler, Aberdare Cisticola, Williams’s Lark, Sharpe’s Longclaw, and Kikuyu White-eye. Other notable species include Jackson’s Spurfowl (essentially endemic to Kenya but occasionally reported from the Ugandan slope of Mount Elgon), Elgon Francolin, Grey-chested Babbler, Golden-winged Sunbird, Friedmann’s Lark, Donaldson Smith’s Sparrow-Weaver, Abbott’s Starling, Grey-crested Helmetshrike, and Turner’s Eremomela, among others.