Thursday, January 28, 2010

Birdspotting Zambia style

January 27, 2010
Mosi-ao-Tunya National Park
Livingstone, Zambia


Today I did the one thing I really, really wanted to do in Zambia--I hired a guide and looked for birds. Zambia is world renowned for the amazing variety of birds you can spot. Clearly, my East Africa bird guide is insufficient, because Zambia has so many endemic species, but sadly, someone (J) would not let me bring my southern Africa bird book (too cumbersome). So I found a local guide, Chinga, who showed me lots of amazing birds in the national park. My favorites were the blue waxbill, tropical boubou, gray naped flycatcher, palm thrush and broad beaked roller. Chinga told me that a developer wanted to turn this section of land bordering the park into a golf course but Chinga and other conservationists campaigned against it. Imagine all of the homeless birds if the plan had gone through!




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