Resident Ardea intermedia
A quiet white egret of marshes and lake edges, between the Great and Little Egrets in size and easy to overlook.
The Intermediate Egret is the egret nobody notices, which is exactly why birders enjoy picking it out. It hunts frogs and fish in flooded grass and is common on the big Rift Valley lakes.
Lake Manyara’s marshes hold all three white egrets together, which makes it a good place to learn them.
Marshes at Lake Manyara, the Serengeti wetlands and the Momella Lakes.
Guide’s tipCompare bill and neck length with any Great Egret nearby. The Intermediate has a shorter, stouter neck and no gape line past the eye.
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.
Montane forest, the Momella Lakes and Hartlaub’s Turaco, just 45 minutes from Arusha.
Africa’s largest lake, with papyrus specialists and lakeshore birds.
Quiet island park with forest birds, waterbirds and sitatunga.
Tree-climbing lions, groundwater forest and a soda lake full of waterbirds.
Vast plains, the Great Migration and big cats all year round.
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.
