Ruaha Birding

Birds of Ruaha National Park

The great variety of birds in Ruaha is a purpose of its location that is transitional to East Africa’s acacia savannah of miombo woodland belt in Southern Africa. This park features a checklist of about 450 birds. The crested barbet whose consistent trilling is a trait echo of the southern bush and occurs within Ruaha together with endemics of central Tanzanian like the yellow-collared lovebird plus ashy starling. From November up to April you will be able to see various Migratory birds.

Notable birds

The common Tanzanian red-billed hornbill, Endemic

The common Bateleur

Giant kingfisher

Collared palm-thrush

White-browed coucal

Spur-winged goose

Birding specials

African fish eagle

Ashy starling (endemic to Tanzania)

Black-bellied bustard

Collared palm-thrush

Crested barbet

Eleonora’s falcon

Emerald-spotted wood dove

Goliath heron

Long-crested eagle

Namaqua dove

Southern ground hornbill

Tanzanian red-billed hornbill (endemic to Tanzania)

White-bellied go-away bird

Yellow-collared lovebird (near endemic to Tanzania)

Best time for bird watching

The birdlife within Ruaha is excellent all year round, however at its best starting from November up to April as migratory birds come from Europe as well as Northern Africa can be found. At that moment, several resident birds are nesting and are also in breeding plumage. For game viewing it is best from mid and finish of the dry season, which is starting in June to the October.

Best parks for birding – including birding rating

All the renowned safari parks provide wonderful opportunities for birding and specials may be easily seen anywhere. The usually ignored, Arusha National Park has a remarkable variety of habitats, that host an amazing list of about 400 species within that area. Lake Manyara provides a great diversity of water birds.

The park is among the bird paradises in Tanzania with over 571 species and a couple of them are considered to be migrants from inside and out of Africa. The Migrating species from Madagascar, Europe, Asia as well as Australian have been recorded within the park. Some of the Species of desire in the park are: Ruaha red-billed hornbill (Tokus ruahae) that is dominant within the area. The not too long ago taken possession of wetland – Usangu basin is among Tanzania important bird area (IBA) as identified by Birdlife International. Even though birds can be viewed throughout the year, the finest time for watching birds is during the wet season.

The park is now facing a tremendous environmental challenge in the gradual drying up of River Ruaha. The river previously flowed throughout the year, however from1993 there have been increasingly long periods every dry season in which it has dried up completely. a number of hypotheses have been stated to account for this, among them is one that states that  view is that it is a result of the expansion of the irrigation schemes for the cultivation of rice as well as  keeping of livestock within the Usangu wetland, that feeds into River Ruaha.
Ruaha National Park

How To Get To Ruaha

Ruaha Weather

Ruaha Birding