GABON’S LOANGO NATIONAL PARK – African River Martins, Vermiculated Fish Owls & Western Gorillas

PRICE INFORMATION

Gabon Birding Tour Prices: Prices in Gabon are very high, but there are reasons for this. Some accommodations in Gabon are surprisingly expensive (this is especially true at Loango), as is transport for tourism purposes. Prices are driven upwards by there being only a very limited infrastructure of hotels and lodges, and imported vehicles are very costly.

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

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

We also include these flights: Libreville-Port Gentil-Libreville.

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)

Gorilla Tracking Permit at Loango: As of the time of writing, permits cost a remarkable $500 per person. The Gorilla Tracking Permit price is subject to change and is not included in the tour price. Please be sure to inform us on booking if you want a permit. The actual cost of the permit at the time (the cost is subject to change) will be included on your tour invoice. The additional deposit (due at the time of booking) if you would like a Gorilla tracking permit is $500 or equivalent. Permit fees are not refundable.

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.

Air Travel To & From The Tour: Our in-house IATA ticket agency will be pleased to arrange your air travel on request, or you may arrange this yourself if you prefer.

GABON’S LOANGO NATIONAL PARK BIRDING TOUR: DETAILED ITINERARY

Gabon’s Loango: Day 1  Our tour begins this evening at Libreville, Gabon’s capital city on the Atlantic coast, where we will stay overnight.

Gabon’s Loango: Day 2  From Libreville we take a short morning flight south to Port Gentil, the gateway to the huge Loango National Park. Following the opening of a new, Chinese-built highway, getting to the park has become much easier and now takes little more than three hours. We will spend seven nights at Loango National Park and we will enjoy our first outing by boat or open safari vehicle this afternoon.

Gabon’s Loango: Days 3-8  Loango National Park has been rightly called ‘Africa’s Last Eden’, for here, in a vast 1550 square kilometres (almost 600 square miles) sanctuary, is a mosaic of lush rainforest, gallery woodlands, open, sandy savannas, huge lagoons, coastal scrub and pristine beaches. At certain times of year Forest Elephants, African Forest Buffalos and, rarely, even Hippopotamuses, Western Gorillas and Leopards have been seen venturing onto the white beaches or, even more rarely, enjoying the surf! Such moments have become a hallmark of the park, but these are sights that are most frequent at the height of the rainy seasons and not at the time of our visit.

The park was created in 1956, long before President Omar Bongo signed the 2002 decree creating 12 new national parks in the country and thus catapulted Gabon to the forefront of African conservation efforts. Just a few tiny villages exist in the park, leaving this wilderness virtually devoid of people. During our stay, we shall enjoy some unique bird and wildlife opportunities.

The ultimate highlight of the bird highlights at Loango, and indeed Gabon’s ‘Grailbird’, is the strange and little-known African River Martin. The last surviving member of its tribe (the White-eyed River Martin of Southeast Asia is now thought extinct), these strange creatures, which are almost prehistoric-looking, are currently placed in the swallow family and live mostly along hard-to-access stretches of the great River Congo. However, for part of each year, a section of the population migrate to coastal Gabon to nest in burrows in the sandy savannas. This decidedly odd-looking hirundine baffled Gustav Hartlaub, who first described the bird as a type of roller! Other taxonomists have placed it with the woodswallows or indeed even in its own family! There is definitely nothing else like it in this world of ours.

The river martins usually first arrive at Loango during August and by late November or early December their colonies are deserted and they return to the Congo. At times between late August and mid-September, numbers (in some years, thousands) roost at certain islands in the vast Iguela lagoon. This is the most reliable period at Loango at which to see the martins, although numbers vary from year to year. At first appearing as dots high in the sky, the numbers build up until the birds start elaborate displays when numbers are large, forming into smoke-like balls when numbers are large or plunging, twisting and turning streamers, in the manner of pre-roosting (‘murmuring’) European Starlings. Eventually, the birds descend to one of the islands. It is a sight one can never forget. After the roosting period (but not every year) the birds stay on and nest in some accessible areas in the Loango savannas (more rarely they nest far from the few roads), forming similar display patterns over the colonies or gathering on the ground to noisily court each other and dig their nesting burrows. Quite definitely seeing the African River Martins of Loango is one of Africa’s greatest of all birding experiences!

Another mega-speciality of Loango is the splendid Vermiculated Fish Owl, which is very reliably found here in the forested fringes of the many rivers. The marmalade-coloured Pel’s Fish Owl is also quite common here and we should also find one of these impressive owls during our stay.

Loango also has many other bird specialities. The restricted-range Rosy Bee-eater is positively numerous and we will surely enjoy fantastic views of this marvellous species. Forbes’s Plovers run across the short-grassed sandy wastes, whilst the restricted-range Loango Weaver can be found breeding along the waterways, often in areas with palms. The beautiful, restricted-range Violet-tailed Sunbird is another speciality of the rivers and lagoon margins.

The waterways are prime habitat for Hartlaub’s Duck, African Finfoot and there is even the possibility of encountering White-crested Tiger Heron. We also have a fair chance of encountering White-backed Night Heron, while at the mouth of the Iguela lagoon there should be a number of wintering Damara Terns from southwest Africa as well as the range-restricted West African Crested Tern

Additional major regional specialities at Loango include the superb Black-headed Bee-eater, Chattering Cisticola and Long-legged Pipit. There is also a fair chance for Black Guineafowl and, after dark, the large and little-known Bates’s Nightjar. The lovely Bare-cheeked Trogon is occasionally seen.

Other interesting, mostly Western African specialities we may well find here include the impressive Long-tailed Hawk, Red-necked Buzzard, Blue-headed Wood Dove (a bird with a bouncing ping-pong-ball-like call), Grey Parrot (Loango must have one of the largest remaining populations of the species; they are positively numerous!), Blue Malkoha, Great Blue and Yellow-billed Turacos, Sabine’s and Cassin’s Spinetails, the dazzling White-bellied and Shining-blue Kingfishers, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, the secretive Chocolate-backed Kingfisher, the huge and ‘prehistoric-looking’ Black-casqued Hornbill (common here), Red-billed Dwarf, African Pied, Piping and White-thighed Hornbills, the superb White-crested Hornbill with its long, flowing tail (which is regularly seen following troops of monkeys), Yellow-throated, Speckled and Red-rumped Tinkerbirds, White-bibbed (or White-throated Blue) and Red-breasted Swallows, Square-tailed Saw-wing, Spotted, Eastern Bearded, Red-tailed and Icterine Greenbuls, Swamp Palm Bulbul, Red-tailed Leaflove, Red-tailed and Yellow-lored Bristlebills, Swamp Boubou, Banded Prinia, Fraser’s Rufous Thrush, White-browed Forest Flycatcher, Cassin’s Flycatcher, Purple-headed Starling, Carmelite, Reichenbach’s, Mangrove, Blue-throated Brown, Olive-bellied, Tiny and Johanna’s Sunbirds, and Slender-billed Weaver. Latham’s Francolin, Congo Serpent Eagle and Thick-billed Cuckoo also occur at Loango, but tend to be hard to find.

More widespread species that are likely to be new here include Pink-backed Pelican, Striated, Squacco, Goliath, Purple and Grey Herons, Little, Intermediate and Great Egrets, African Spoonbill, Hadada Ibis, Woolly-necked and Yellow-billed Storks, Hamerkop, White-faced Whistling Duck, African Harrier-Hawk, Palm-nut Vulture, African Fish Eagle, Lizard Buzzard, Water Thick-knee, Senegal and White-crowned Lapwings, Kittlitz’s Plover, Common and Wood Sandpipers, Common Greenshank, Common and Little Terns, African Skimmer, Blue-spotted Wood Dove, Red-chested, Diederik and Klaas’s Cuckoos, Blue-headed Coucal, Square-tailed Nightjar, African Palm and Little Swifts, Black Spinetail, Black and Blue-breasted Bee-eaters, Woodland, Malachite, Giant and Pied Kingfishers, Chestnut Wattle-eye, Red-bellied Paradise Flycatcher, Common Bulbul, Grey-rumped Swallow, Banded Martin, Winding, Zitting and Pectoral-patch Cisticolas, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, African Pied Wagtail, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Green-headed Sunbird, Yellow-mantled Widowbird and Quailfinch. The localized Black-rumped Buttonquail also occurs, but is uncommon.

The small Forest Elephant and the forest form of the African (or Cape) Buffalo, known as African Forest Buffalo, are both fairly easy to see here. Another feature of the area are the gatherings of Red River Hogs, so we will be keeping watch for a herd of these brightly coloured pigs with their tasselled ears.

We shall also be on the lookout for Red-capped (or White-collared) and Grey-cheeked Mangabeys, Putty-nosed and Moustached Monkeys, Hippopotamus and Western Sitatunga. Central African Slender-snouted Crocodiles are quite common in the more forested rivers, much more so than the larger Nile Crocodile. At night, large Franquet’s Epauletted Fruit Bats can be seen, often hanging from branches in the trees.

Those who wish to will be able to enjoy an extraordinary encounter with Western (or Western Lowland) Gorillas. We will travel by boat to the camp of the gorilla researchers and hike with them into the rainforest to where the gorillas have already been spotted that morning (anything from 10 minutes to an hour or more). The Western Gorillas, which are isolated from the eastern populations by a huge gap in the distribution, regularly climb high into rainforest trees in search of ripe fruits, and they are surprisingly nimble climbers. The habituated group of around 10 individuals that the researchers will take us to is dominated by Kayama, a huge ‘silverback’ male. In fact Western Gorilla mature males, from about 16-18 years of age, have pale brown fur on their nape and rump, with ‘silver’ restricted to the mid-back. There are also mature females and their offspring, plus immature males and females. As always with gorillas, an encounter with these extraordinary cousins of ours is both a privilege and an experience one can never forget.

Gabon’s Loango: Day 9  After a last morning at Loango, we will return to Port Gentil and take an early evening flight to Libreville, where the tour ends.