Near-endemic Macrosphenus kretschmeri
A skulking, long-billed warbler of coastal and East Usambara thickets, named for the Baltic German naturalist who collected it.
Kretschmer’s Longbill is an odd bird, somewhere between a warbler and a greenbul, with a long bill and a habit of staying deep in cover. It is found only in eastern Tanzania and northern Mozambique.
Amani Nature Reserve is a reliable site, usually in the thick growth along the forest edge. It is one of the targets that make the East Usambaras essential for a full Tanzanian list.
Lowland forest and thickets around Amani in the East Usambaras.
Guide’s tipIt creeps through tangles like a mouse. Listen for the loud, repeated whistle and wait at a gap.
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.
Ancient Eastern Arc forests holding Tanzania’s rarest endemic birds.
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.
