SOMALILAND & DJIBOUTI – an adventure in search of the Horn of Africa endemics

PRICE INFORMATION

Birdquest Inclusions: Our tour prices include transportation, accommodations, meals and entrance fees.

We also include all tipping for local guides, drivers and accommodation/restaurant staff.

Important Note: The air travel between Djibouti City and Hargeisa is not included in the tour price. The only practical routing is via Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines, and it is significantly cheaper to include the Djibouti City to Addis Ababa and Addis Ababa to Hargeisa sectors in your intercontinental tickets with Ethiopian Airlines (the only realistic carrier to use for this unusual tour). We will provide clear information as to which flights you should book and on what date.

Deposit: 20% of the total tour price. Our office will let you know what deposit amount is due, in order to confirm your booking, following receipt of your online booking form.

TO BOOK THIS TOUR: Click here (you will need the tour dates)

The single supplement will not apply if you indicate on booking that you prefer to share a room and there is a room-mate of the same sex available.

This tour is priced in US Dollars. Amounts shown in other currencies are indicative.

SOMALILAND & DJIBOUTI BIRDING TOUR: DETAILED ITINERARY

Somaliland: Day 1

Our Somaliland birding tour commences this evening at Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland. We will stay overnight at Hargeisa.

(An airport to hotel transfer will be provided in connection with your arriving flight.)

Somaliland: Day 2

Today we will head for the port city of Berbera, where we will spend the night. As we descend towards Berbera, the countryside becomes more and more arid.

A stop or two along the way will produce the striking, near-endemic Somali Wheatear as well as the range-restricted Somali Bee-eater and ‘Somali’ Bulbul (now relumped in Common Bulbul). We may also encounter some Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse and our first African Collared Doves, as well as the range-restricted Somali Fiscal, Somali Crow (or Dwarf Raven) and Nile Valley and Abyssinian Sunbirds. Black Scrub Robin is also possible.

The coastal lagoons and beaches attract many species. Sooty and White-eyed Gulls, and Saunders’s Tern, are the most notable among these, but we may also come across African Sacred Ibis, Little and Grey Herons, Western Reef Heron, Greater Flamingo, Grey (or Black-bellied), Common Ringed and Kentish Plovers, Greater and Tibetan Sand Plovers, Eurasian Whimbrekl, Eurasian Curlewq, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Little Stint, Terek and Common Sandpipers, Common Greenshank, Lesser Black-backed Gull of the form heuglini and Gull-billed, Greater Crested, Lesser Crested and Common Terns.

By scanning offshore, we may see Brown Booby, Brown Noddy, Bridled Tern and, with luck, some distant Jouanin’s Petrels.

House Crows, most likely ship-assisted, have colonised the city and Graceful Prinias lurk in the few patches of vegetation.

Later this afternoon, we will explore a peaceful and undisturbed area of rocky gorges that are home to the localised endemic Somali Pigeon and also Striolated Bunting.

Somaliland: Day 3

Today, we shall head southeast to Burco (or Burao) for a three-night stay. (If we need to, we have another chance to seek out Somali Pigeon early this morning.)

The road gradually climbs over a scenic pass, and to the west lies the mountain range that includes Mount Wagar, which reaches a height of 2004m (6575ft). The whole area has been proposed as a national park, supporting Afromontane vegetation similar to Daallo. It was in this area in 2010 that we found Brown-tailed Rock Chat (originally thought to be Sombre Rock Chat, but later reidentified), and we should be able to encounter this localised speciality, as well as the range-restricted Yellow-breasted Barbet and Ethiopian Boubou.

The bush country in this region is rich in birdlife, and we should encounter such range-restricted specialities as ‘Dodson’s’ Bulbul, Somali Crombec, Shelley’s Starling and Ruppell’s Weaver. The range-restricted Magpie Starling is also possible in this area and in several other areas that we visit during this tour.

More widespread birds include Black-chested Snake Eagle, Spotted Thick-knee, Northern Red-billed and Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbills, Red-and-yellow Barbet, White-browed Scrub Robin, Red-fronted Warbler, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Grey Wren Warbler, Eastern Violet-backed Sunbird, Three-streaked Tchagra, Yellow-spotted Petronia, Red-headed Weaver, Purple Grenadier and Somali Bunting. The more thickly vegetated areas provide refuge for species such as Little Bee-eater, Rufous-crowned Roller, Nubian Woodpecker and Chestnut Weaver.

Somaliland: Days 4-5

During our time in the Burco region, we will explore to the southeast, visiting a stony area with dense thorny thickets. In this inhospitable landscape, we will look for the diminutive Philippa’s Crombec, a localised near-endemic species that happily appears to be quite common in this area, and we should also find the range-restricted Gillett’s Lark and Arabian Warbler, and the white-bellied form of the Variable Sunbird.

Moving further south, the vegetation gradually changes into a mosaic of dense thorn bush interspersed by more open areas with tussock grass and punctuated with huge, red, pillar-like termitaria favoured by the Horn of Africa form of the Little Owl. The sandy soils also turn to a strong red colour, making for a fascinating landscape.

The main species to find here will be the striking, range-restricted Collared Lark, and we shall be searching the area where, after several decades of apparent absence, we rediscovered the species during our pioneering tour in 2010.

Also restricted to these red soils is the striking nominate race of the Fawn-coloured Lark, but this species prefers the bushier areas where the range-restricted Red-naped Bushshrike, Pale Prinia and Swainson’s Sparrow are also easy to find. The range-restricted Pygmy Batis, Yellow-vented Eremomela, Scaly Chatterer and stunning Golden-breasted Starling have ranges that extend into this area, and we should also encounter Pygmy Falcon, Blue-naped Mousebird, Northern Carmine Bee-eater, Lilac-breasted Roller, Ethiopian Swallow, Upcher’s Warbler, Hunter’s Sunbird, Green-winged Pytilia and Straw-tailed Whydah.

Somaliland: Day 6

Today, we head north-east across the wide expanses of the Ban Cade Plains. These desolate wastelands are impressively bleak, often with no landmark for mile after mile, and Egyptian and Lappet-faced Vultures and Tawny Eagles scour the open countryside for food.

This is an excellent area for the impressive and range-restricted Heuglin’s Bustard as well as the near-endemic Little Brown Bustard and Somali Courser.

There are some superb ‘lark plains’ with a wide selection of species. As well as the more widespread Desert and Thekla’s Larks and Black-crowned and Chestnut-headed Sparrow-Larks, special larks of the area include the endemic Lesser Hoopoe Lark and Somali Lark and the range-restricted Short-tailed, Rufous-capped and Somali Short-toed Larks!

Other species we may well encounter on the Ben Cade plains include Double-banded Courser, Spotted Sandgrouse (often numerous), Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse and Greater Kestrel. We may also find migrants such as Desert Wheatear and Common Whitethroat.

Eventually, we will reach El Afweyn, where we will spend the night.

Somaliland: Day 7

We continue across the Ban Cade plains, stopping to bird en route. As we near Ceerigaabo (or Erigavo), where we will spend four nights, a few Cape Rooks will appear, and the town is also home to a pair of Verreaux’s Eagle-Owls.

Somaliland: Days 8-10

Daallo Forest Reserve lies in the centre of northern Somaliland on the Golis Range escarpment. These limestone mountains rise steeply from the coastal plain, and the evergreen forest is comprised mainly of junipers. The evergreen forest is surrounded by dry woodland, semi-desert grassland and shrubland that thins to sparsely vegetated sandy plains nearer the sea.

During our stay in this area, we will explore different habitats from the juniper forests at the top of the escarpment through the impressive Dragon’s Blood Tree forests and then the thorny scrub where Frankincense trees grow out of the bare rocks.

The area is prime habitat for four endemics – Archer’s Buzzard, Somali Thrush, Somali Golden-winged Grosbeak and Warsangli Linnet – and the range-restricted Somali Starling. The thrush and starling present no problem to us as they are common. However, the numbers of the linnet and the grosbeak appear to fluctuate with the seasons, and these two may require a lot of time and persistence, while the buzzard is fairly scarce, though we can expect to see two or three individuals during our visit.

This different habitat introduces a range of new species, and we should also see such special, range-restricted birds as Black-billed Wood Hoopoe, Hemprich’s Hornbill, Grey-headed Batis, Blackstart, Abyssinian Wheatear and Brown-rumped Seedeater. The shy Archer’s Francolin (sometimes treated as a species distinct from Orange River Francolin) is more difficult to find than the numerous Yellow-necked Spurfowl. Other species of interest include Little Rock Thrush, Brown Woodland Warbler and, with luck, the migrant Ménétries’s Warbler.

During our 2010 tour, we discovered a population of scops owls in the forest that appears to have calls similar to those of the Arabian Scops Owl. Proper field research and DNA work may one day be carried out on these birds, and there is always the possibility that a new taxon is involved, and perhaps it will be described as a new Somali endemic species!

The white-eyes at Daallo are another puzzle. Originally treated as Abyssinian White-eyes, more recently they have been considered an isolated population of the Socotra White-eye by some authorities. However, genetic studies have now shown that the Somaliland population is an undescribed taxon and represents a new species, which we can provisionally call ‘Daallo’ White-eye.

During our 2012 tour, a new species of cisticola for Somaliland was discovered here, and this may also prove to be a new taxon. The cisticola is not uncommon at Daallo, so we shall be hoping to add to the limited knowledge about it.

Other species that we shall be looking out for include Black Kite, Verreaux’s Eagle, Common Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, African Olive Pigeon, Bruce’s Green Pigeon, Red-eyed Dove, White-browed Coucal, Alpine Swift, Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Black-throated Barbet, Cardinal Woodpecker, Red-rumped Swallow, Pale Crag Martin, Tree Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Long-billed Pipit, Common Redstart, Common Nightingale, Common Rock Thrush, Common Chiffchaff, Grey-backed Camaroptera, African Paradise Flycatcher, Black-crowned Tchagra, Fan-tailed Raven and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting.

Hamadryas (or Sacred) Baboons, Salt’s Dik-diks and Ethiopian Klipspringers are all commonly encountered. We should also see the sweet little Speke’s Gundi.

Somaliland: Day 11

Today, we will return to Burco (or Burao) for a two nights stay, stopping for anything of interest along the way.

Additional species, not already mentioned, that we may well see during our Somaliland journey include Marabou Stork, Hooded Vulture, Eastern Chanting and Gabar Goshawks, African Hawk-Eagle, Lanner Falcon, Crested Francolin, Buff-crested Bustard, Crowned Plover, Namaqua, Ring-necked, African Mourning and Laughing Doves, Speckled Pigeon, Orange-bellied Parrot, White-bellied Go-away Bird, Little and Nyanza Swifts, White-throated Bee-eater, Eurasian Hoopoe, Abyssinian Scimitarbill and Greater Honeyguide, Crested Lark, Tawny Pipit, Barn Swallow, Rufous Scrub Robin, Isabelline Wheatear, Northern Crombec, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Banded Parisoma, Desert Cisticola, Yellow-bellied Eremomela, African Grey and Spotted Flycatchers, Northern Grey Tit, Mouse-coloured Penduline Tit, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Great Grey and Rufous-tailed Shrikes, Northern White-crowned Shrike, Brubru, Rosy-patched Bushshrike, Slate-coloured Boubou, Fork-tailed Drongo, Superb, Greater Blue-eared and Wattled Starlings, the range-restricted White-crowned Starling, Red-billed Oxpecker, Red-billed and White-headed Buffalo Weavers, Masked and Vitelline Masked Weavers, Red-billed Firefinch, African Silverbill and White-bellied Canary.

Mammals are not very conspicuous in Somaliland, but we should encounter Desert Warthog and Dorcas Gazelle.

Somaliland: Day 12

From Burco, providing the dirt road conditions permit at the time, we will visit some plains that hold numerous larks.

The prime interest here is the slim possibility of the near-endemic Sharpe’s Lark, a very rare species that has not been definitely recorded for many years (probably the last time it was tentatively recorded in Somaliland was in this area in 2010). So, we are certainly not going to hold our collective breath, but it would be a dream finish to the tour!

Somaliland: Day 13

Today we will return to Hargeisa for the final night of our special tour of Somaliland.

We will have the opportunity to make some birding stops along the way, which may include another chance to watch the localised Somali Pigeon in the extremely arid mountains that are their home.

Somaliland: Day 14

We can use this morning for some final birding if need be, or visit some rocky hills, where we can hope to find the dainty and delightful Beira. This delicate antelope is something of a rarity and can often be difficult to find in its fragmented remaining range, but here we have an excellent chance of seeing them.

Our tour ends this afternoon at Hargeisa airport.

DJIBOUTI EXTENSION

Djibouti: Day 1

Our Djibouti birding extension starts this morning in Djibouti City, situated on the Gulf of Aden near the mouth of the Red Sea, where we will stay overnight.

(An airport transfer will be provided in connection with your arriving flight.)

Common species in the city include the range-restricted ‘Somali’ Bulbul (now relumped in Common Bulbul), as well as Rose-ringed Parakeet, Graceful Prinia, Red-billed Firefinch and innumerable House Crows (the latter are thought to be a ship-borne self-introduction).

Nowadays, there is only a very slim chance of coming across Arabian Golden Sparrow , which has a tiny foothold in Africa, as the building boom in the Djibouti City region has destroyed just about all of its habitat!

After we have settled in at our hotel, we will head off to explore some coastal habitats.

The mudflats and sandflats around Djibouti City are productive, and here we may well see such interesting and much-wanted species as the strange Crab-plover (a monotypic bird family) and the range-restricted Sooty and White-eyed Gulls and White-cheeked and Saunders’s Terns.

Other species along the coast are likely to include Western Reef, Little and Grey Herons, African Sacred Ibis, Eurasian Spoonbill, Greater Flamingo, Osprey, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Black-winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Common Ringed, Kentish, Tibetan Sand, Greater Sand and Grey (or Black-bellied) Ploivers, Spur-winged Lapwing, Sanderling, Little Stint, Curlew, Terek, Wood and Common Sandpipers, Ruff, Bar-tailed Godwit, Eurasian Whimbrel, Eurasian Curlew, Common Redshank, Common Greenshank, Ruddy Turnstone, Lesser Black-backed Gull (of the form heuglini, sometimes split as Heuglin’s Gull), and Greater Crested and Lesser Crested Terns. Less frequently encountered are Great White and Pink-backed Pelicans, Pacific Golden Plover and Gull-billed, Caspian and White-winged Terns.

Djibouti: Day 2

The dramatic landscape of Djibouti is mainly volcanic, with some impressive basalt desert scenery and several ranges of mountains divided by deep valleys and sandy plains.

As we drive along the scenic coastal road this morning, enjoying the views over the Gulf of Tadjoura and Ghoubet Kharab, we will stop for anything of interest. We shall surely encounter White-crowned Wheatear, and we have chances for seabirds such as Brown Booby, Brown Noddy, Bridled Tern and, with a lot of luck, even Jouanin’s Petrel.

Our destination is the Goda Mountains on the northern side of the Gulf of Tadjoura, where we will spend the night.

The Forêt du Day in the Goda Mountains consists of acacia at lower levels with degraded juniper forest dominating only on the higher tops that peak at 1783m (5850ft). Sadly, a fungal disease has attacked the forest, and many of the trees are either dead or dying. Quite what the ultimate effects on the birdlife will be remains to be seen. Some deep wadis cut through the mountains, and these support the Bankoualé Palm, a near-endemic species.

These high slopes provide some welcome specks of greenery in the desiccated landscape and harbour the country’s only currently recognised endemic bird, the little-known Djibouti Spurfowl, which may take some diligent searching for, but has always been seen well on our previous visits.

Yellow-rumped (or White-throated) Seedeater is another local speciality that was previously thought to be endemic to Ethiopia and Eritrea. In addition, the range-restricted Sombre Rock Chat is also likely to be encountered.

Other species we will be on the lookout for include Bonelli’s Eagle (here at an isolated outpost), the much-wanted Gambaga Flycatcher (this is surely one of the best places to find this remarkably localised species), the range-restricted Ethiopian Boubou and Ortolan Bunting.

We are likely to come across Sacred (or Hamadryas) Baboon and possibly Ethiopian Klipspringer.

[Intriguingly, two undescribed but possible new taxa have come to light in Djibouti. The first is a yellow-tailed and yellow-breasted version of Green-winged Pytilia that lacks any red in its plumage. As ‘normal’ Green-winged Pytilias occur in the area, this may only represent a case of aberrant individuals rather than a new species (indeed, there have been very few observations). The second is even more intriguing and has been provisionally named ‘Tôha Sunbird’. However, it has only been observed once, in secondary acacia forest and scrub in 1985, with no photographs or specimens being obtained! If this is a good species, it has yet to reappear!]

Djibouti: Day 3

After spending the morning in the Forêt du Day and the wider Goda Mountains, we will head back to Djibouti City for an overnight stay.

Djibouti: Day 4

The extension ends this morning at Djibouti City airport. (Travel by air to Hargeisa via Addis Ababa.)