Lake Manyara, Tanzania.

Date of Visit – December 2022

Journal Entry – 22 March 2023

Kingfishers

Lake Manyara National Park is a great place to see a distinct variety of kingfishers. We saw the Malachite Kingfisher and Grey Headed Kingfisher in just a 4-hour safari. When we saw the Malachite Kingfisher our first impression was of a White Belied Kingfisher, after checking in my copy of the Birds of East Africa field guide we found out that the White Belied was only found in remote parts of East Africa. Later we confirmed it was a Malachite Kingfisher.

Hornbills

Lake Manyara National Park is one of my favorite places to see and observe  Hornbills. We saw the African Grey, Crowned, and Silver Cheeked Hornbill in just a 4-hour safari. We saw 2 specimens of the Silver Cheeked and 1 of the Crowned Hornbill at the entrance gate. We saw the Silver Cheeked Hornbill 9 times at different angles sometimes to our left and sometimes to our right and occasionally flying above our land cruiser. The female has a very distinctive red circle around its eye and a smaller Casque. As for the male, it does not have a distinctive red circle around its eye and has a bulkier head, and its Casque is larger than the female Silver Cheeked Hornbill.

Raptors  

Lake Manyara National Park was my favorite place to see raptors in Africa. We saw the Palm-Nut Vulture, Eurasian Hobby, Ovambo Sparrow-hawk, African Harrier Hawk,  Augur Buzzard, Verreaux’s Owl, Brown Snake Eagle, African Crowned Eagle, and Steppe Eagle. When we saw the Crowned Eagle we saw it eating a monkey skull and putting its talons inside the empty eye sockets of the monkey skull, later on, it dropped its prey and moved to the right of the branch.