Birding tours                          Guaranteed departures

Kenya is one of the world’s most superb birding destinations and a must-visit for amateur and professional birders as the seamless overlapping habitats provide many bird species within short distances. Birding here is more exciting because you’ll find Cattle Egrets picking insects next to Buffaloes, Ox-peckers grooming a Rhino, Hyenas and Vultures fighting it out on a carcass and the floating Hippo is a safe ferry for playful Sacred Ibis and Little Egrets. The difficulty in planning a birding tour to Kenya is not about the availability of birds but of getting the right outfitter to organize your tour as many birding tours to Kenya are now marketed as competition of the IBAs visited and final numbers on the checklist – never mind how stressful and exhausting the tour is.

To prevent our birding tours from being road expeditions with endless hours of driving we choose IBAs which are on a close circuit but with different habitats giving us many species on short transfers. Consider that the road conditions here are not as good as in Europe and a crowded itinerary, which may look very exciting in a brochure or website, has more time being spent on long transfers with little time for quality birding. Besides people are too exhausted for productive birding - an important fact to consider when comparing itineraries.

We truly believe that the best way of enjoying birding is when one is rested and the feedback from our clients vindicates this. We therefore stay for 2-3 nights per selected site as this gives us in-depth and quality birding opportunities, instead of just ticking species off a list. Indeed we continue to be amazed when we see birding groups arriving at a site late in the afternoon, do some birding in the garden/jetty and at the crack of dawn the next day they are off to another hotspot. Another unique feature in our birding tours is that as much as possible we encourage people to step out of the car and actively bird on the ground, which results in more species seen.  We must emphasize that the tours do not involve full days of walking, so they are not strenuous. In all our tours accommodation with en suite facilities, is chosen for the proximity to the birding sites and also comfort. All hotels have extensive gardens that allow for easy birding even from the comfort of the room’s verandah.

How is Ontdek’s typical birding day?  We don’t subscribe to the dawn to dusk schedule as we honestly don’t think we would enjoy a holiday where every day we have to be up and going with the first light. We plan our day around our client’s pace, often having breaks within the day, so that people can rest (e.g. It is a test of endurance for a visitor to Kenya to bird in the afternoon heat). But since we spend more time in any chosen area we get enough time to bird the areas thoroughly seeing as much as those who have to run on dawn to dusk crash programs.  

Against all the above considerations our clients set personal records in tours they have enjoyed and participated in a relaxed way; ultimately this is how we judge the success of our tours.  You may choose to join our scheduled small group tours (maximum 10 clients) where you will meet like-minded birders who are interested in the quality of their birding experience. We could also design an itinerary to suit your traveling scheme.  You can depend on our experience and local knowledge to give you an ornithological and wildlife rich tour.  Welcome.

• 15-day tour: Mount Kenya region, Rift Valley Lakes, Kakamega Forest and the Masai Mara Game Reserve. This tour also takes off as a group tour on guaranteed departure dates.
     

• 8-day tour: Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks.
      

• 7-day tour: Naivasha area and Masai Mara Game Reserve.