SÃO TOMÉ & PRÍNCIPE – a feast of little-known endemic birds on two beautiful Atlantic islands

PRICE INFORMATION

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: São Tomé-Príncipe-São Tomé.

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.

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.

SÃO TOMÉ & PRÍNCIPE BIRDING TOUR: DETAILED ITINERARY

São Tomé & Príncipe: Day 1  Our São Tomé & Príncipe birding tour begins this evening at São Tomé airport. We will stay for five nights on São Tomé.

(The shortest and easiest way to reach São Tomé is by the regular flights from Lisbon with TAP Air Portugal, but other flight routings are possible.)

São Tomé & Príncipe: Days 2-5  The northeastern lowlands of São Tomé comprise a mixed habitat of dry woodland interspersed with agriculture, whilst along the rugged coastline are small estuaries, creeks and mangroves.

As we stroll along the tracks through the drier woodland we should see a few Yellow-billed Kites overhead and flush some small flocks of Southern Cordon-bleus from the grass verges. Groups of African Palm and Little Swifts forage overhead and our first endemics, Sao Tome Prinia and Newton’s Sunbird, should soon be found, perhaps followed by a Sao Tome Spinetail fluttering low over the forest.

Amongst the crops, we should encounter Golden-backed and Black-winged Red Bishops, White-winged Widowbird, Southern Masked Weaver and Pin-tailed Whydah, and we may possibly flush a Harlequin Quail.

The coastline of the island is dotted with small fishing villages surrounded by coconut palm plantations and it is here that we will look for the football-sized nests of the Giant Weaver, which is twice the size of any other African weaver. We should also find Reed Cormorant, Western Cattle Egret and Common Moorhen.

We shall, however, be concentrating our efforts in the central highlands and in the southeastern portion of the island in order to find as many as possible of the endemic birds. Most of the low lying areas and coastal perimeter of the island have been settled except for the inaccessible southwest.

Old overgrown cocoa plantations and lush forests covering deep valleys are cut through by rushing streams and are accessible along narrow tracks. It is along these paths, in a mysterious habitat that is so often wreathed in mist, that we shall look for the São Tomé form of the Malachite Kingfisher (sometimes split as Sao TomeKingfisher), Sao Tome Thrush, Sao Tome Oriole, Sao Tome Paradise Flycatcher, Sao Tome White-eye, Black-capped (or Sao Tome) Speirops and Principe Seedeater. (The job of creating names for all these fabulous endemic birds must have proved no great task for the early ornithologists).

In the denser tangles, we should find small groups of Sao Tome Weavers as they cling, woodpecker-fashion, to the moss-covered trunks. Examining any flowering tree, especially the beautiful wild yellow hibiscus or red Erythrina, should reward us with views of the rare Giant Sunbird. To see this huge sunbird as it probes its long, decurved bill into a flower is a truly incredible experience.

In the more open stretches of rainforest, or on the edge of the old plantations where Red-headed Lovebirds are often to be seen, we will look for Sao Tome Lemon Dove, Sao Tome Olive Pigeon, Island (or Sao Tome) Bronze-naped Pigeon and Sao Tome Green Pigeon feeding in the fruiting trees or perching high in the canopy and basking in the sun after the mist has cleared. Fortunately, the Sao Tome Scops Owl sometimes calls by day, which may enable us to locate this tiny and exquisite bird, but if not we will return one evening to find it with the help of a spotlight.

We will spend much of our time in a remote area where we have a very good chance of seeing all four of the hardest São Tomé endemics to find: the shy Sao Tome (or Dwarf Olive) Ibis that forages on the forest floor, the bizarre Sao Tome Short-tail that favours rocky stream beds, the Sao Tome Fiscal (no other fiscal in Africa is black, white and yellow or lives inside the rainforest) and even the rare Sao Tome Grosbeak (rediscovered in 1991 after a gap of 100 years and since then only seen by a small number of people, including participants on recent Birdquest tours).

São Tomé & Príncipe: Day 6  Today we will take a morning flight across to the island of Príncipe for a three nights stay.

Following our arrival, we will commence our explorations on Príncipe.

São Tomé & Príncipe: Days 7-8  Providing the weather is clear during some of our time on Príncipe, we will see the high, distinctly rather tepui-shaped mountains of the interior, formed from eroded volcanic plugs and craters, with their heavily forested slopes.

A slow walk on the road towards the mist-enshrouded mountains should find us in the thick of the island’s endemic birdlife. The brightly coloured Principe Golden Weaver can be seen nest building in the trees whilst the Principe Sunbird is fairly common and so too are the Principe Glossy Starling and Principe Drongo (sometimes split from Velvet-mantled Drongo). The delicate and beautifully marked Principe Speirops is thinly distributed but we should find them gleaning in the canopy or working the mid-stratum much like their close relatives the white-eyes. An explosive ringing song will reveal the presence of Dohrn’sWarbler (formerly Dohrn’s Thrush-Babbler, a most unusual bird which is quite unlike any other African passerine and is nowadays thought to belong to the sylviid babblers The small family groups will come forward to investigate any ‘pishing’ noises we make. The Principe Kingfisher (sometimes split from Malachite Kingfisher) should be easy to find as it feeds along the beach. Of the non-endemics, Laughing and Lemon Doves and Common Waxbill can be found along the roadside and in the forests.

Príncipe also holds a healthy population of birds that look like African Grey Parrots, but which one genetic study has suggested are more closely related to the Timneh Parrot of the southwestern region of West Africa. Indeed, the IOC includes Príncipe in the species’ range following that study. However, as the birds on Príncipe look nothing like Timneh Parrots, and there are African Grey Parrots on the other Gulf of Guinea islands, this study is considered controversial.

Travelling further afield, we will explore areas where the recently-discovered Principe Scops Owl, the uncommon Principe Thrush and the rare Principe White-eye can all be found.

During a boat trip we should see White-tailed Tropicbird, Brown Booby, Sooty Tern and Brown and Black Noddies.

São Tomé & Príncipe: Day 9  After some early morning birding we will catch a flight back to São Tomé airport, where our São Tomé & Príncipe birding tour ends this afternoon.