Resident Pytilia melba
A small waxbill with a red face, green wings and a barred belly, feeding quietly on the ground in the thorn bush.
The Green-winged Pytilia, or Melba Finch, is one of the prettiest seed-eaters in the savanna. It feeds on the ground under bushes and is easy to overlook until a flock flies up.
It is host to the Paradise Whydah, whose long-tailed males display over the same bushes in the rains. We find it regularly in Tarangire and around the Ruaha camps.
Grassy thorn scrub in Tarangire, the Serengeti, Lake Manyara and Ruaha.
Guide’s tipPytilias come to drink with other waxbills. A puddle on a dry-season track is worth ten minutes.
Sightings are never guaranteed: these are wild animals in wild places. What we can promise is a guide who knows where to look.
Destinations
The parks and reserves where our guides look for it, each with its own best season and safaris.
Huge elephant herds, ancient baobabs and Tanzania’s endemic birds.
Tree-climbing lions, groundwater forest and a soda lake full of waterbirds.
Vast plains, the Great Migration and big cats all year round.
Tanzania’s largest park: big predators, baobab plains and 570+ bird species.
Keep exploring
Chersomanes beesleyi
Fewer than a hundred birds left, all on one patch of plain north of Arusha. Nowhere else on earth.
Tauraco hartlaubi
A flash of crimson wings in the forest canopy. Arusha National Park is the easiest place to see one.
Tauraco fischeri
The coastal and Usambara forests’ turaco, with a red crest tipped white. A target bird for every East Usambara trip.
Sagittarius serpentarius
A raptor that hunts on foot, stamping snakes to death in the grass. Unmistakable striding across the plains.
Balearica regulorum
The golden crown, the dance and the bugling call. Endangered, but still a daily sight on the crater floor.
Ardeotis kori
The heaviest flying bird in the world, pacing the plains with its neck puffed up in display.
Phoeniconaias minor
Pink crowds on the soda lakes. Numbers rise and fall with the water, so your guide checks before you go.
Lamprotornis unicolor
Tanzania’s own starling: long-tailed, dusty grey and common around the baobabs of Tarangire.
Tell us your dates and the birds or animals you most want to see. We’ll reply within 24 hours with a route and a full quote.
