Introduction

This website will document our recent birding trip to The Gambia during February 2020. We used local guide, Ebrima Sidibeh, otherwise known as 'Hawkeye' for his ability to spot birds where others might struggle. He certainly didn't disappoint, with a total of 270 species seen during our seven day stay; one of the largest totals Ebrima has amassed over 20 years of guiding in The Gambia and surrounding countries.

Please click on the tabs above to view:

• Bird list - a list of all bird species seen arranged by day.
• Ebrima - information about our guide including review and contact information.
• Birding sites - a map of the birding sites we visited.
• Photos - a complete set of our photos taken on the trip.

Feel free to get in contact with me via the contact form on the right if you have any questions.

Below is a day by day account of the trip.

Day 1 - Kotu

We arrived at our hotel in Kotu at 3am on our first day, and therefore decided to have a relaxed day to recuperate and get a hang of the birds before being guided for the remainder of the trip. Nonetheless, we woke at 7:30am and managed eight hours of birding, producing a total of 89 species.

The hotel we booked was the Palm Beach Hotel, and arriving during the night, it was hard to get a grasp of its setting. Stepping out of the hotel entrance in the morning, we were amazed to find ourselves looking right out across Kotu Creek, greeted by an assortment of waterbirds, including Giant Kingfisher, Whimbrel, Spur-winged Plover, Long-tailed Cormorant, Gull-billed Tern, Black Heron and Pink-backed Pelicans.

Walking up the track away from the hotel, two Blue-bellied Rollers perched up on posts in a field; the best views we received all trip.

Blue-bellied Roller

We soon bumped into one of the many unofficial bird guides, all of whom will have an owl in a nearby tree that they wish to show you; a cunning tactic for use on newly arrived birders. The official bird guides in the Bird Guides Association will not do this. The number of guides is hardly surprising though, since the guides in the association now do a lot of teaching on birds in schools around Gambia, and there has now been a big increase in pupils leaving school with their heart set on becoming a bird guide... which can't be a bad thing.

Anyway, he showed us both Pearl-spotted Owlet and Northern White-faced Owl, before following us around and showing us the secret spot for Greater Painted-Snipe which you would never find without a guide. It is best to visit this spot in the evening when the sunlight is right behind you. The snipe are only 15 or so metres from the viewing screen, and give exceptional sustained views.

Greater Painted-Snipe

A look around the wetlands to the east of the bridge revealed a single Spotted Redshank which is slightly on the scarce side. Large numbers of Wattled and Spur-winged Lapwing were roosting on the mud, with half a dozen Little Ringed Plover, singles of Grey Plover and Hamerkop, and a few each of Common, Wood and Green Sandpiper. A beautiful Blue-breasted Kingfisher perched up wonderfully close, making the odd dive down into the shallow water.

Blue-breasted Kingfisher

We then had a walk around the golf course where we had great views of a couple of Green Woodhoopoes in a large mixed flock of Yellow-billed Shrikes and Blackcap Babblers.

Since the internet was out at our hotel, we got one of the official bird guides at Kotu Bridge to ring Ebrima up for us, and we arranged to meet after lunch at the hotel to go over the upcoming six day trip. Ebrima arrived on time and we discussed the itinerary before he wrote us a receipt.

After a quick rest, we headed back out and had a wonder around the Kotu sewage farm lakes. It was great here, with a large flock of White-faced Whistling Ducks, Black-winged Stilts, African Jacanas, Yellow Wagtails, a flyover Bearded Barbet and displaying African Grey and Western Red-billed Hornbills.

African Grey Hornbill

We ended the day back watching the Greater Painted-Snipe in the perfect golden light. Possibly the best place in the world to get such close views of this species. A Black-crowned Night Heron put in a brief appearance under the mangroves and a Little Bee-eater perched up on top. On the walk back we stopped off where some ladies on the beach prepared a large plate of tropical fruit to share, before getting an early night for the week ahead.

Day 2 - Kotu to Morgan Kunda

After breakfast at 7am in our hotel, Ebrima arrived early for a 7:30am pick-up and we headed out onto the main highway that runs along the south side of the river. The road has been tarmacked for the last few years which meant that the ride was a lot smoother than it must have been for birders in the past when Ebrima started out as a guide in his early twenties some 20+ years ago.

A flyover Lanner Falcon was the best bird seen from the car before our first stop off; an area of scrub and grassland near Sotokoi Village. This area had a scattering of some all important mature grey plumb trees that have sustained a small population of this stop's target bird; the Brown-headed Parrot. After a while of searching, Ebrima spotted some of the parrots feeding in the top of a tree. Despite trying our hardest to get a view of the birds with the sun behind us, the birds didn't cooperate, however the views were good nonetheless.

Brown-headed Parrot

While feeding, the parrots were incredibly hard to spot.

Other birds seen at this stop off included a flyover Beaudouin's Snake-Eagle, Long-crested Eagle, a couple of Wahlberg's Eagles and a Palmnut Vulture. A few African Green Pigeons were in trees and a Stone Partridge was flushed.

The next stop, a little further up the road was at the Kampanti rice fields. These fields are irrigated with water through the dry season, which attracts many raptors in for a drink. On approach, a couple of Grasshopper Buzzards perched in trees and a few African Harrier-Hawks were flying around. Then suddenly there were three Wahlberg's Eagles sharing the skies with the omnipresent Black Kites. Then we realised there was also a Tawny Eagle... amazing. We set up under a tree to view the area that the raptors come down to drink from, and soon, an African Hawk-Eagle landed on the ground right in front of us, spending the following 20 minutes lapping up water from a puddle, and giving us breathtaking views in the process.

African Hawk Eagle

Another Beaudouin's Snake-Eagle was spotted high overhead, and then a much larger Brown Snake-Eagle appeared behind us before itself also coming down for a drink.

Brown Snake-Eagle

Other birds seen in the area included Northern Crombec, Yellow-throated Greenbul, a couple of Abyssinian Rollers, and a few Yellow-billed Oxpeckers that were pecking away at a large sore on the back of a cow.

During a stop off at Brumen Bridge at a cafe for lunch, we were joined by some Splendid Starlings before continuing to two area of good habitat outside Nema Kuta and at Toniataba. Ebrima employed his Pearl-spotted Owlet whistling technique to attract in the birds in. Small passerines hate owlets, so soon there were 25+ birds, the majority being sunbirds, anxiously flitting around. In fact it really suprised me how well this always worked. Birds would just appear out of nowhere; presumably having been roosting in the shade of bushes to escape the worst of the midday sun. It makes you realise just how many birds there are when you multiply these small areas up to a larger landscape scale. The highlights from these stops were Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Brown-backed Woodpecker, White-rumped Seedeater, Black-crowned Tchagra, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Senegal Batis, Vieillot's Barbet, Pygmy and Collared Sunbirds, Brown-backed and Fine-spotted Woodpeckers, and a Brown Babbler.

Brown-backed Woodpecker

A few minutes after driving off, we spotted a dead donkey at the side of the road, so Ebrima reversed up a bit and we got out to enjoy amazing close views of 10+ Ruppell's Griffon Vultures, three White-backed Vultures and 10+ Hooded Vultures. They quickly left the feast and perched in nearby trees, obviously wary of our presence, so we decided to leave them be.

Ruppell's Griffon Vulture

A ghostly male Montagu's Harrier was seen from the car in the dying daylight just before arriving at Morgan Kunda, a lovely sustainable, well run lodge set up by an Englishman. The money made from your stay here goes directly into the community, providing an education for its children, and supporting a maternity project.

Day 3 - Morgan Kunda to Georgetown

A quick look around the grounds of the lodge before breakfast showed a Yellow-crowned Gonolek, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Grey-backed Camaroptera and 20+ Gull-billed Tern that flew over, presumably having just left their night-time roost.

After breakfast, we headed out to the countryside near to the lodge. A pair of Pearl-spotted Owlets were seen in a grove of trees, one of which had a stand-off with a Grey Woodpecker which lasted a few minutes.

Pearl-spotted Owlet and Grey Woodpecker

We spent a while looking through some barren fields where Ebrima had seen a family of Temminck's Coursers on all of his previous visits here this winter, however it was clear that they had moved on. There were however four Black-headed Lapwings, ten Little Ringed Plovers, and the trip's only four Hoopoes. Small passerines were conspicuous by their absence in what was great habitat, perhaps due to the higher than normal wind. Ebrima pulled a few good species out of the bag though, including a nest building Speckle-fronted Weaver, Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver, ten Northern Anteater Shrikes and brief but good views of two huge Warthogs, tailed by a row of piglets.

Speckle-fronted Weaver

We then stopped off at a huge wetland area called Dibba Kunda where a family of Black Crowned Cranes have been present. We drew a blank at the first stop-off point, but managed to find two very elegant Marsh Sandpipers, a couple of Ruff roosting with the lapwings and thick-knees, and a Plain-backed Pipit in the short grass at the edge of the water.

At our second view point we were relieved to see that the cranes were together feeding happily out on the marsh. The family group was composed by two parents and three young, and were a treat to watch with both Marsh and Montagu's Harriers dancing in the background. Two Purple Herons at this location were also the only records from our trip.

Black Crowned Cranes

The next stop was what proved to be one of the more memorable parts of our trip. Ebrima asked us whether we'd like to walk out into the bush to look for bustards. Despite the 40+ degree midday sun, of course we had to say yes. We spread out to cover more area and began walking out into the middle of nowhere. First, we flushed some Singing Bush Larks, which at times gave good views. I then flush what looked like a minutely small quail from a couple of metres, and shouted to Ebrima. The bird flew right passed him and we were able to identify it as a Quail-Plover. A very rare bird for Gambia, for which there are only a handful of previous records. Despite it landing within about 30 metres, we couldn't flush the bird again. After another 20 or so minutes of wondering through the dry spiky grass, I locked eyes with a bustard right in front of me; a Savile's Bustard. It showed very well before flying over us into denser grassland, by which time I had also clocked some White-bellied Bustards in the distance. With a bit of field-craft, using bushes for cover, we managed to get really close to these fantastic looking birds; four in total. However, we were getting dehydrated so we left the bustards in peace and returned back to our now very hot drinking water.

Savile's Bustard

White-bellied Bustard

We then had a lunch break at the reservoir in Njow, a site that gets Egyptian Plovers during the first part of the dry season, however we were a month too late. Ebrima set about making us all delicious baguettes while we watched the fantastic looking Sahel Paradise Whydah, which we were glad to see had clung onto its long, showy tail feathers. The reservoir held the usual assortment of common wetland birds, and other than that, an Orange-necked Falcon gave a couple of high speed flypasts, and on a later nearby roadside stop, a couple of Cut-throat Finches perched up nicely.

Sahel Paradise Whydah

A little further down the road, we stopped at Wassu Quarry where there was a large colony of Red-throated Bee-eaters. There must have been over 30 birds here using the steep sandy side of the quarry to dig their nest holes. I enjoyed giving one of the local school children a view of them through the scope on their walk back home.

Red-throated Bee-eaters

Just as the sun was setting, we arrived at the ferry port that connects travellers on the north bank to Georgetown. However, the long line of lorries queued up confirmed our fears that the ferry had broken down, and we were told that it would need two days of repair work to get it working again. So we sat down enjoying the sunset over the River Gambie while Ebrima arranged for a small passenger boat to take us over directly to our lodge for the night, and paid some guards to keep watch over the car during the night. We felt perfectly safe during the trip, and never had one hint of hostility. However, one can't be too careful leaving an unattended car at a busy ferry port full of angry truckers!

Day 4 - Georgetown to Tendaba

Be began the day with a three hour boat trip to visit the creeks to the north-west of Georgetown, sharing the company of a couple of other English birders we'd met the day before. On the journey out, two Banded Snake-Eagles perched up on the other side of the river, and we passed right under an impressive African Fish Eagle.

African Fish Eagle

Several Violet Turacos were seen making their way through the trees, three Oriole Warblers showed well low down in the bank-side vegetation, and four Swamp Flycatchers perched on low overhanging branches.

We turned a corner and made our way up a narrow creek, and after five minutes of scanning, the moment of truth came when an African Finfoot was picked up making its way along a bank. We spent about ten minutes watching this enigmatic species at extremely close range while it exhibited its natural behavior, completely unphased by our presence. It would swim back and forth, stopping to peck through the muddy bank sides for invertebrates, occasionally darting up over the bank to chase any prey items making an escape.

African Finfoot

We then turned back to the main river and when around to the channel of the river that runs around the south side of MacCarthy Island, where hippos can often be seen. Unfortunately, the tide was too high for them to come out onto the river from where they forage deep behind the thick vegetation on the riverside. Despite this, a flock of 12 Knob-billed Ducks and a Gabar Goshawk flew over.

With the ferry out of action, we had to travel back the way we came. We stopped off at a series of ponds to look for African Pygmy Goose, but drew a blank. This species would have been nailed on if we had been able to continue across to the south bank.

After a long drive, and having crossed back over to the south using the new road bridge, where the Georgetown ferry itself had been operating just two years ago, we stopped off back at Toniataba where after a long search, found two Brown-rumped Buntings in the top of a tree. Other birds in the area included Brubru, Yellow Penduline Tit, Green Bee-eater, Red-winged Prinia and White-fronted Black-Chat.

A little way down the road near Nema Kuta, we finally connected with some Temminck's Coursers in a barren field. We received great views of two birds as they slowly circled us, approaching closer and closer. Then another six flew over showing their blunt ended, lapwing-like wings, which for some reason I hadn't expected having never seen coursers before.

Temmink's Courser

Arriving at Tendaba Camp, we were pleased to see that it wasn't as bad as we had expected having heard a number of reviews. Our room was clean enough, and they have apparently got their act together now on the food front too.

Day 5 - Tendaba to Farasutu

We began the day with another boat trip. This time across the River Gambie, which, now we where further down stream, was a good couple of kilometres across. We made for a network of channels surrounded by mangroves and saltmarsh, and saw a small flock of Spur-winged Geese during the crossing.

After going a short way into the mangroves, we stopped the boat after Ebrima heard some African Blue Flycatchers high in the trees. After five or so minutes, we managed to catch glimpses of them hopping about behind the branches. Several Mouse-brown Sunbirds were seen foraging low in the mangroves and large numbers of African Darters and Great Cormorants roosted in trees, the latter being a mix of the white bellied and black bellied subspecies.

When the boat made it to an area of extensive saltmarsh, Wooly-necked and Yellow-billed Storks were seen foraging, and Ebrima pointed out a Martial Eagle perched in a distant tree with some large Mosque Swallows off to the left. A White-throated Bee-eater also made a brief appearance.

Yellow-billed Stork

We then moved on to the main day roost of the White-backed Night-Herons, however, after an extensive search along the length of trees, and ingesting an unhealthy amount of engine exhaust smoke, we drew a blank and had to move on. Four or five boats had been out and had seen the herons the previous day, and it was assumed that this disturbance had made them change their roost site, or at least gone a lot deep into the wood away from the river.

Compensation, however, came a few minutes later when I spotted the head of an African Clawless Otter near the river bank. As we moved closer, its pup was seen briefly before diving down to keep a low profile. The parent gave great close views for around five minutes, scrabbling around on the bank, and obviously trying to distract us from the youngster. This was a very rare encounter that Ebrima said he had only ever seen a handful of times, and none of them as sustained and as close as this one was.

African Clawed Otter

On the journey out of the maze of mangrove channels, we got good flight views of a Goliath Heron as it was disturbed from the bank.

Goliath Heron

Once back at the lodge, we had a search of the trees in the grounds which we had been told were roost sites for fruit bats. Sure enough, right up in the top of the crown of one particular tree, we found five of them, lazily staring down at us, giving great scope views.

Back on the road again, we stopped after Ebrima heard a White-shouldered Black Tit from the car, but despite a long search, we couldn't find the bird. We did however see our only Striped Kingfisher and Bateleur of the trip.

The final birding spot of the day was Farasutu Forest, which I would highly recommend every birder to visit. The forest is a community forest and all entrance fees (50p per person I think) go towards supporting the local village. Make sure you bring some extra cash with you as you'll definitely want to give a bit extra - we wished we'd brought more - the bird drinking stations are packed with variety and give exceptional views. It makes you realise just how important ecotourism is to the area, as without it, the forest would inevitably have been removed to make way for more farmland.

A stunning male Western Bluebill was the highlight, but we also saw Violet Turaco, Little Greenbul, Common Wattle-eye, Grey-headed Bristle-bill and Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird amongst others.

Western Bluebill

We then went off with the young man who keeps the water stations filled up and does a lot of work monitoring the birds in the forest. He brought us right to a spot where an African Wood Owl was roosting. This beautiful owl remained asleep as we enjoyed great views of it through the scope.

African Wood Owl

The theme of owls continued when we were taken out of the forest to a more open area. We soon found two Greyish Eagle-Owls roosting in a tree, this time a little more alert.

Greyish Eagle-Owl

Nightjars were the next order of the day, with one each of Long-tailed and Standard-winged Nightjars expertly found in the leaf-litter by the young man. The Standard-winged shocked us both by how small it was.

Long-tailed Nightjar

After this, we we rowed across the river to where we were staying for the night - the amazing Sita Joyeh on Baobab Island. This was by far the nicest place we stayed the whole trip, and again, we would really recommend it. Despite this though, we were the only guests, and it was hard to work out why it wasn't busier, especially having just come from the much more inferior Tendaba which was at full capacity. We enjoyed the evening watching the bats flying around and perching up in the open air dining building, and watched five African Scops Owls in the beautiful grounds.

Day 6 - Farasutu to Marakissa

We finished the day where we had left off the day before, visiting a water station, however this time in a different, more open area of Farasutu. Again, you'll want to make sure you have some spare cash with you. The water bowls were heaving with birds coming and going, the best being three species of honeyguides, Greater, Lesser and the rarer Spotted Honeyguide, a good selection of wintering warblers, including Blackcap, Whitethroat, Western Olivaceous Warbler, Willow Warbler and Subalpine Warbler, a few Little and Black-necked Weavers, Blue-spotted Wood-Dove, along with a few Lesser Blue-eared Starling, a Bronze-tailed Starling, and some showy Bearded Barbets.

Bearded Barbets

Spotted Honeyguide

We then moved onto Bonto Forest (another community project) in the search for some Verreaux's Eagle-Owls. They apparently change their roosts quite often, and understandably so considering the numbers of noisy Western Plantain-eaters in the canopy. Ebrima, phoned around to muster some help from some locals who keep track of the owls, and after a bit of a wait, one was found high up in a large tree.

Verreaux's Eagle-Owl

A wonder through the rest of the forest revealed a Green Crombec, two Northern Puffbacks, Sulphur-breasted Bushshrike, Collared Sunbird, Buff-spotted Woodpecker, African Paradise Flycatcher and a showy African Pygmy Kingfisher. However the most surreal moment was meeting Iolo Williams leading a birding group, of whom which we happened to follow around for the for the rest of the day and the morning of the following day.

African Pygmy Kingfisher

Sulphur-breasted Bushshrike

We spent the rest of the day relaxing at Marakissa River Camp. A Giant Kingfisher perched up above a small pool, and Iolo and I watched an Osprey flying over the small nature reserve that adjoins the camp, and contemplated whether it may have been Welsh.

Giant Kingfisher

Day 7 - Marakissa to Tanji

The highlight from a quick walk around some habitat near to the lodge first thing was a Melodious Warbler; the only one of the trip. A Grey Kestrel and a couple each of Blue-bellied Rollers and Pearl-spotted Owlets were also in the area among other common species.

On to Kartong, and we quickly set about trying to search for Grey-headed Kingfishers in an area of farmland, however with no luck. We were rewarded with the trip's first Great White Pelican flying high, distantly towards the sea, and a Tree Pipit low down in a bush. Again, similarly, on a long search for a single Northern Carmine Bee-eater along the sand dunes by the beach, we were almost going call it a day when Ebrima spotted it with a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater on top of a distant tree. We soon had incredible close views as it flew into a tree right next to us and began fly-catching. While the hunt for the bee-eater ensued, Ebrima also picked out some flyover Quailfinches which did the decent thing and landed giving us good views of them perched.

Northern Carmine Bee-eater

We cut through over the top of the dune ridge onto the beach and quickly saw two White-fronted Plovers around a small pool with Common Ringed Plovers. One of the White-fronted Plovers was sporting some colour-rings/flags; a bird that was ringed by the people at the Kartong Bird Observatory. Looking out to sea, a large flock of Lesser Black-backed and Kelp Gulls loafed on the sea to the south, in what were probably Senegalese waters.

We then tried another spot where the Grey-headed Kingfishers had been seen earlier in the day, and sure enough they were both sat in the same tree. It all comes good in the end.

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Ebrima was keen to get going to our next destination, Brufut Woods at Tanji, as soon as possible, because our next target, the Green Turaco, only comes to visit the water bowls once, or twice if you're lucky, around midday. It was already 12:15pm so we were cutting it fine. After an hour waiting at the drinking station, it became apparent that the long searches for the bee-eater and kingfishers had cost us. Ebrima had phone a contact who said that it had been seen about half an hour before we arrived. A brief glimpse of a Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat and great close views of the commoner birds on the water bowls ensured that it wasn't a wasted visit.

Driving back towards the sea, we stopped along the river mouth to view hundreds of roosting Caspian and Royal Terns. On closer inspection, two Lesser Crested and eight Sandwich Terns were among them with five buoyant Little Terns flying out to sea. Several elegant Slender-billed Gulls also loosely associated with the flock, and on the way back up the dune sides to the car, a couple of Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters perched up.

Caspian Terns, Royal Terns, Sandwich Terns and Grey-hooded Gulls

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

After a lovely traditional meal at Ebrima's family home, courtesy of Mrs Sidibeh, we headed back out with two of his young children to Kotu Creek and added another two new species, Sedge Warbler and Zitting Cisticola, to bring our final trip list up to 270 species. Ebrima's eldest son is definitely picking up his dad's passion for birds, so don't be surprised if he comes along to help in the not too distant future!