Special Post: Birds of Kenya
This summer, I was honored to visit Kenya for six weeks as the artist-in-residence at Olepangi Farm in Laikipia County. I was in a birder’s paradise, especially for an amateur like me who has so much to see and learn. The directors of Olepangi Farm generously gifted a zoom lens for my Canon Rebel T7, which allowed me to capture subjects with remarkable detail.
The bottom of this post provides my complete sighting list. I identified 54 birds using Collins Illustrated Checklist: Birds of Eastern Africa (Ber Van Perlo, 1996).
I hope you enjoy this detour from Shakespeare’s canon into Kenya.
Honorable mention to our constant companions and ever-prompt alarm clocks: two red-rumped swallows who lived outside our tent. They would sit side-by-side, watch us with curiosity, and shout encouraging chirp-croaks if I was working on a challenging painting.
Sighting list (54)
Laikipia County
African drongo
African firefinch
African morning dove
African pied wagtail
Baglafecht weaver
Black-necked weaver
Capped wheatear
Common bulbul
Common quail
Crowned lapwing
Dusky turtle dove
Hadada ibis
Hamerkop
Hooded wheatear
Jameson’s firefinch
Lapwing
Little purple-banded sunbird
Long-legged buzzard
Mosque swallow
Mourning wheatear
Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
Red-headed weaver
Red-rumped swallow
Rueppell’s long-tailed starling
Rueppell’s robin-chat
Speckled mouse bird
Tropical boubou
Variable sunbird
Verreaux’s eagle
Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Augur buzzard
Black-headed heron
Egyptian goose
Goliath heron
Helmeted Guinea fowl
Magpie
Pied kingfisher
Sunlark
Superb starling
White-bellied bustard
White-headed buffalo weaver
Yellow-bellied oxpecker
Yellow-billed egret
Masai Mara National Reserve
African paradise monarch
Egyptian goose
Grey-headed kingfisher
Lappet-faced vulture
Marabou stork
Red-billed hornbill
Rueppell’s griffon
Sacred ibis
Secretarybird
Southern ground hornbill
Woolly-necked stork
Yellow-billed stork