Resident Nectarinia tacazze
A big highland sunbird that glows purple and bronze in the sun, feeding on flowers along the crater rim.
The Tacazze Sunbird is one of the largest sunbirds in East Africa and one of the most spectacular when the light catches it. It lives in highland forest and gardens above about 1,800 metres.
The lodges and viewpoints on the Ngorongoro Crater rim are an easy place to see it, often alongside Golden-winged and Eastern Double-collared Sunbirds. Mount Meru in Arusha National Park holds it too.
The Ngorongoro Crater rim and the upper slopes of Mount Meru.
Guide’s tipSunbirds return to the same flowering bush all morning. Find the flowers and wait with your camera ready.
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.
A volcanic caldera with black rhino, lions and big grassland 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.
