Our guide is tour operator Jonathan Retzlaff who grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe in the Mhangura area and educated at Falcon College in Matableleland. H has always had a keen interest in birds and had the exceptional good fortune of studying under Ron Hartley a legend in his own lifetime. Whilst still at school he worked with him on various research projects for the Natural History Museum in Bulawayo, including the breeding of Taita Falcons. After leaving College he underwent an apprenticeship as a Professional Guide working in the Zambezi Valley for five years.  He has been in Mozambique for the last four years and has been a freelance birding guide for the Gorongoza National Park and the Carr Foundation.

Overview: Our tour is concentrated on Gorongosa National Park in Central Mozambique and the Bvumba in  Zimbabwe’s eastern highlands. The Gorongosa National park in the 1960’s and 1970’s was one of the most famous national parks in all of Africa, renown for it’s dense population of birds and mammals; particularly it’s lions. The park is making a dramatic recovery after being hidden for 25 years during Mozambique’s civil war and has still got a good population of lion, game and birds. It has some of the best birding in Southern Africa it with over 450 species of birds and has the diversity like no other park. It also has Gorongosa Mountain rising about 1.5 km out of the surrounding plains and has a natural lake called the Urema as well as two major rivers coming off the mountain.

The park offers Black Coucal, Green Coucal, Vanga Flycatcher, Racket-tailed Roller, Chestnut-fronted Helmet Shrike, Southern-banded Snake Eagle, Water-birds, Ground Hornbills and many more rare birds and raptors.The habitat is extremely diverse. There are flood plains, open plains, miombo, mapane, fever forest, montane evergreen forest, lowland forest, fynbos, grasslands, riverrine forest and palm forest. It has a Jurassic Park appearance. The mountain hides the Green-headed Oriole, Gunning’s Robin, Red-faced Crimson-wing, Green and Red-throated Twinspots, Livingstone’s Turaco and many more rare and exciting birds.

The Bvumba in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe is an extremely good birding area. Seldomseen is in the upper Bvumba where we will be staying for two day’s of the tour. You get a variety of Robins and sunbirds including the Swynnerton’s Robin, Violet-backed Sunbird, Marsh Tchagra, Blue-spotted Dove, Blue Swallow, Mottled Swift, Mottled Spinetail and Scarce Swift and many more rare and exciting birds. Maunsa is a great birding destination that hides the White-chested Alethe, Blue-throated Sunbird and Gunning’s Robin. Finally Lake Chicamba in Manica has a variety of exciting birds like the Miombo Rock Thrush and Fire-crowned Bishop. The birding on this tour is simply fantastic.

Day 1: Arrival

Beira Airport or Chimoio - You will be collected and taken up to the Gorongosa National Park 200km [around 2hours] from Beira, where we will be spending our first night in Chitengo safari camp. The camp is full of birds including the Collared-palm-Thrush and Vanga Flycatcher.

Overnight:  Chitengo Safari Lodge [Situated in Gorongosa National Park the lodge consists of bungalows with en suite facilities, verandas and ceiling fans]

Day 2: Musakadzi

Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique is one of the best birding spots in Southern Africa having great diversity. It covers four thousand square km and encompasses Gorongosa Mountain and two major rivers; the Musakadzi and Urema, which come off the Mountain and flow into the Urema lake and then in to the Pungwe river. It is the most Southern point of the great rift valley before going in to the Indian ocean. The park contains 4km of caves with lime stone gorges full of low land forest. It is extremely good birding because of its diverse habitat with montane evergreen forest, riverine forest, lowland forest, flood plains, open plains, marsh, Miombo woodland, Mopane savanna, wetlands, montane grassland, fynbos, fevertree forest, palm forest all within the area. What is more it has a ‘Jurassic Park’ appearance. We will also be seeing some big game and plains game. We are going to be birding in the Gorongosa area for three days.

Target species: Racket-tailed Roller, Broad-billed Roller, Crested Guineafowl, Crowned Cranes, Wattled Cranes, Cape Parrot, Brown-headed Parrots, Purple-crested Turaco, Red- throated Twinspot, East african Swee, Grey Waxbill, Fire-crowned Bishop, Yellow Bishop, Green Coucal, Ayres hawk Eagle, Black Coucal, Pels fishing Owl, Pennant-winged Nightjar, Mashona Hyliota, African Broadbill, Spotted Creeper, Vanga Flycatcher, Short- winged Cisticola, Southern-banded snake Eagle, Collard-palm Thrush, Woodward’s Batis, Mozambique Batis, Madagascar squacco Heron, Red-faced Crimsonwing, Bohm’s bee-Eater, Livingstone’s Flycatcher, Wattle-eyed Flycatcher, Chestnut- fronted Helmet Shrike, Little spotted Woodpecker, Eastern Honeyguide, Yellow-bellied Hyliota.

Overnight:  Chitengo Safari Lodge

Days 3: Gorongosa Mountain

We leave Chitengo at 4am in the morning to start birding early. Its 1hrs drive from Chitengo camp and we drive half way up the Mountain and start birding from there. The Mountain is 18 km long and 1,860m high rising about 1.5km from the surrounding plains, the mountain habitats range from Montane evergreen forest, Low level grassland and Fynbos at the top. We will be birding on the Mountain for the whole day.  

Target species: Green Twinspot, Red-throated Twinspot, Livingstone’s Turaco, Purple crested Turaco, Grey Waxbill, Gurneys Sugarbird, Violet-backed Sunbird, Zambezi Indigobird, Narina Trogon, East african Swee, Olive Thrush, Forest Weaver, Crested Flycatcher, Swynnerton’s Robin, Ayres Hawk Eagle, Crowned Eagle, Delegorgue’s Pigeon, Blue spotted Dove, Moustached Warbler, Green headed Oriole, Niassa Seedcracker, Red faced crimson Wing, Blue spotted Dove, Short-winged Cisticola, Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon, Marsh Tchagra, Black-headed Apalis, Chirinda Apalis, Olive-headed Weaver, Lemon-breasted Canary, Gunning’s Robin, Singing Cisticola, Blue-throated Sunbird, Silvery-cheeked Hornbill.

Overnight:  Chitengo Safari Lodge

Days 4: The Urema Basin

During our third full day we are going to bird the eastern side of the park - the Urema Lake and river basin. Here we are going to see a lot of water birds. The Urema basin’s habitat has a lot of flood plain, grassland and palm forest and the Lion population is still very good here. Urema also has a breeding ground of Yellow-billed Storks in June-July. The birding is fantastic.

Target species: Sacred Ibis, Hadeda Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Breeding grounds of Yellow billed Storks, Saddle-billed Stork, Marabou Stork, Goliath Heron, White-backed night Heron, African marsh Harrier, African Spoonbill, Senegal Lapwing, Long-toed Lapwing, Open-Billed Stork, Bronze-Winged Courser, Temminick’s Courser, White-crowned Lapwing, Black-bellied Korhaan, Red-crested Korhaan, Crowned Crane, Wattled Crane, Red-necked Francolin, Secretarybird, White-headed Vulture, Palm-nut Vulture, Dark chanting Goshawk, Olive bee-Eater, Ground Hornbill, Crowned-Hornbill, Madagascar squacco Heron, Green Malkoha, Black Coucal, Eastern green Tinkerbird, Speckle-throated Woodpecker, Little-spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Bittern.

Overnight:  Chitengo Safari Lodge

Days 5: Maunsa Low Land Forest

Today we will leave Chitengo camp early in the morning and start heading for Maunsa which is on the eastern boundary of the park. Its going to take us around 2 hours to get there. Maunsa is a great birding spot with a lot of lowland forest where you find the White-chested Alethe and Gunning’s Robin. Maunsa is a great birding spot for lowland forest birds.

Target species: White-chested Alethe, Gunning’s Robin, Trumpeter Hornbill, Silvery-cheeked Hornbill, Gorgeous bush Shrike, Black-fronted bush Shrikes, Singing Cisticola, Chestnut-fronted Helmet Shrike, Livingstone’s Flycatcher, Wattle-eyed Flycatcher, White-chested Alethe, Gunning’s Robin, Chestnut-fronted Helmet Shrike, Wattle-eyed Flycatcher.

Overnight:  Maunsa Birding Camp (The accommodation here consists of cabanas with en suite facilities, verandas and ceiling fans)

Day 6: Maunsa - Bvumba Mountains Manica

The Bvumba Mountains are truly a magnificent birding destination with lots to offer. We are going to spend the morning birding at Maunsa. We will leave after lunch for the three hour drive to the Bvumba which is going to take us up to about 3000m where we are spending the night .We will start birding early in the morning.

Target species: Blue spotted Dove, Copper Sunbird, Malachite Sunbird, Bronzy Sunbird, Miombo-double collared Sunbird, Swynnerton’s Robin, Variable Sunbird, Violet-backed Sunbird, Western-olive Sunbird, Blue-throated Sunbird, Marsh Tchagra, Black-fronted Bushshrike, Starred Robin, White-tailed crested Flycatcher, Black-winged Bishop, Gurneys Sugarbird, Broad-tailed Warbler, Red-winged Warbler, Mashona (southern) Hyliota, Yellow Warbler, Barrett’s Warbler, Orange Thrush, Tiny greenbul, Senegal Coucal, Buff-spotted Flufftail, Spotted Creeper, Swynnerton’s Robin, Bronzy Sunbird, Blue-spotted Dove, Woodward’s Batis, Marsh Tchagra, White tailed crested Flycatcher, Stripe-cheeked Bulbul, Western olive Sunbird, Silvery-cheeked Hornbill, Violet- backed Sunbird, Roberts Warbler.).,

Overnight:  Seldomseen Lodge (The accommodation here consists of bungalows with en suite facilities – there is no air-con or ceiling fans but the local climate is cool so they are not needed)

Day 7: Bvumba

Birding in the Bvumba Mountains – We are birding the Seldomseen area on day seven.

Target species:  Orange-winged Pytilia, Violet-eared, Waxbill, Orange-breasted Waxbill, Golden Weaver, (large Weaver), Chin-spot Batis, Pale Flycatcher, Bar-throated Apalis, Purple Roller, Broad-billed Roller, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Mottled Swift, Mottled Spinetail, Scarce Swift, Blue Swallo 

Overnight:  Seldomseen lodge

Day 8:  Bvumba Mountains – Lake Chikamba

It will be a one hour drive from the Bvumba to the lakeside. We will spend the day birding looking for the (Miombo rock Thrush) at the lake. The lake has very good birding has a lot of grassland birds such as Whydah’s, Widow Finches, Larks, Bishops as well as water birds.

Target species: Zambezi Indigobird, Broad-tailed paradise Whydah, Fan-tailed Widow, Plain- backed Sunbird, Retz’s Helmet Shrike, Orange-breasted Bush shrike, Gorgeous bush Shrike, Swamp Boubou, Woodward’s Batis, Pale Batis, Croaking Cisticola, Black- backed Cisticola, Short-winged Cisticola, Red-faced Crombec, Miombo rock Thrush, Miombo Tit, White-eared Barbet, Miombo rock Thrush, Fire crowned Bishop 

Overnight:  Cassa Misika lodge (This is a guest house with en suite facilities and air-con)

Day 9: Chikamba – Beira - Chimoio Airport

It will be a three hour journey back to the airport for your overseas flight or there is a connecting flight from Chimoio.

Further Recommendations

See our Southern African itineraries for extensions to this tour...