Angola

Angola is opening up as a birding destination after 30 years of civil war; a few organised trips coming mainly out of South Africa concentrate on the SW escarpment area south of the capital Luanda to the Namibian border where Angola’s elusive endemics can be found. This area is the eldorado of Angolan birding. I recently had the opportunity to visit the far less fashionable Lunda Sul province in NE Angola for a month during the rainy season Nov/Dec.

This high plateau region proved rather disappointing in African terms. Birds were scarce numerically and very furtive compared with other African trips. Normally a camp would attract birds to scavenge around it, but not here where I only recorded two species within the camp. From the behaviour of the birds one would assume that there was a lot of hunting but the area is very thinly populated and people generally are not armed. It may well have been very different during the war that brought widespread hunger and exterminated most of the big game in Angola.

The countryside is poor offering only isolated areas of subsistence farming with no medical or educational facilities. Areas near the main towns, villages and river crossings are scarred by minefields and the appalling main roads make travel slow and difficult. The countryside however is spectacular and the people are friendly and helpful.

The area is high sandy plateau (1000-1200m) of miomba forest cut by many large rivers, which flow north into the Congo Basin. The river valleys have bands of dense gallery forest along the slopes, while the valleys themselves are wide, waterlogged callows.

Lack of preparation, the sheer unfamiliarity of the calls, not having a dedicated guide book for Angola, the necessity of doing some work and the fact that Sinclair’s “Birds of Southern Africa” went missing with my luggage for ten days probably didn’t help the total tally which was low for Africa.

The plateau appears like lush grassland with numerous trees and termite mounds. The grass is in fact tall fern as the soil is heavily eroded and probably not very fertile. Fork tailed Drongo, Black eyed Bulbul, Black crowned Tchagra and a regular Gymnogene were the most obvious species. Red necked Francolin are common but difficult to see. Star birds for me were a Golden tailed Woodpecker and a Blackheaded Oriole. Many warbler types inhabit the low scrub but most were difficult to pin down. Swallow and martin species were common but again difficult to identify on the wing; I managed White throated Swallow, Brown throated Martin and European Swallow.

The gallery forest on the river slopes was probably the most productive area. White Helmetshrike are the most distinctive birds of this habitat. Small groups roam noisily through the edges of the forest. Less common were Red billed Helmetshrike but when I did get to see them it was a party of eight birds. Black Cuckoo and Southern black Flycatcher are common but the spectacular Narina Trogon stands out.

The valleys are lush waterlogged grassland, impossible to walk into and surprisingly unproductive for birds. The highlight was a Black Coucal seen flying low at sunset, its roufous wings glowing.

An isolated shallow lake provided some interesting birds. At least three pair of Little Grebe appeared to be breeding, a Pied Kingfisher quartered the lake, from a distance almost tern like, and three Wood Sandpiper stalked the shore later joined by a pair of Saddlebilled Storks. Surprisingly a Bateleur flew over as they are normally associated with big game areas.

Visitors to the camp were a Brown headed Kingfisher which took one look and never returned and a very confiding Yellow billed Egret which stalked the ornamental grass for three days oblivious to the comings and goings.

Angola is reported as the winter destination of Ireland’s few remaining Corncrake; certainly the broad river valleys look like excellent and near impenetrable habitat. Dean’s “Birds of Angola”¹ however reports it as a rare vagrant with only two records, one a bird ringed in France and recovered in Cuanza Sul 1986. A local hunter and several drivers picked it from a page of crakes in Sinclair’s book as a bird they were familiar with. The jury is still out on this one but it would appear that the wintering grounds of Ireland’s Corncrakes lie further East in Africa.

A great country to visit, preferably to the SW escarpment area on an organised trip, but difficult if not near impossible to travel independently in as yet. Be prepared for high prices, non-existent infrastructure but with great landscapes and people in the interior.

¹“The Birds of Angola”: W.R.J. Dean, British Ornithologists’ Union