Resident Ardeotis kori
The heaviest flying bird in the world, pacing the plains with its neck puffed up in display.
Male Kori Bustards can weigh nearly twenty kilograms, and when one inflates its throat feathers into a white balloon to display, it is impossible to miss. They walk slowly through short grass, picking off insects, lizards and seeds.
We see them regularly on the Serengeti plains and the crater floor. They are wary, so a long lens and a quiet approach pay off.
Serengeti plains, the Ngorongoro Crater floor and open country near Tarangire.
Guide’s tipLook for a Carmine Bee-eater riding on a bustard’s back; it catches the insects the bustard flushes.
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.
The Rift Valley soda lake where East Africa’s Lesser Flamingos breed.
The only place on earth to see the critically endangered Beesley’s Lark.
Huge elephant herds, ancient baobabs and Tanzania’s endemic birds.
A volcanic caldera with black rhino, lions and big grassland birds.
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.
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.
Agapornis personatus
Green, yellow and masked in black, chattering in flocks around the baobabs. A Tanzanian endemic you will hear before you see.
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.
