|
BIRDING IN ZAMBIA
Recommended Reading
Important Bird Areas of Zambia by Pete Leonard provides an excellent guide to the key birding sites in Zambia.
The Birds of Zambia by Dowsett, Aspinwall and Dowsett-Lemaire is an atlas, not a field guide, but provides more detailed maps and more information on distribution than available in any field guide. It contains no accompanying images to the maps and text though, but is essential reading for any birder.
Birds of Africa South of the Sahara by Ian Sinclair and Peter Ryan is an adequate field guide for Zambia, with illustrations and maps for all species.
However, as the maps are drawn on a continent wide scale, they are neccessarily coarse and miss the finer details of distribution within Zambia.
In addition, many of the illustrations, especially those of birds only occurring north of the Zambezi, do not do the birds justice, and the taxonomy used often does not agree with more authorative texts, such as The Birds of Zambia.
WorldBirds
Please help us to keep tabs on our birds. Keep your trip sightings lists and enter your sightings for Zambia at www.worldbirds.org. Its easy!
IBA Bird Guides
ZOS has trained people who live in neighbouring communities as IBA guides. These guides
have had 3 separate training sessions and they are equipped with a guide book and
a pair of binoculars. Please use these guides when you visit IBAs as they
have been trained to find the important birds in the area. We are hoping that this will bring a small amount
of income into the IBAs and our suggested charge for use of one of our trained guides is K40,000. Of this
K20,000 will be for the guide and K20,000 will be for IBA Site Support Group. The guides listed below have passed
the tests and further guides will be added as the year progresses. For more information on the IBAs, consult 'Important Bird Areas of Zambia' by Peter Leonard.
Chisamba
Close to Lusaka, good for a day's outing on a business stop-over in Lusaka. Zambian barbets, Miombo endemics and waterbirds abound.
Contact:
Simataa Nakambowa 0966 037178 OR Geshom Kunda Chibwe 0976 600145
Imanda
Lovely mushitus (swamp forest) teeming with forest specials. Close to Lake Kashiba, a deep sunken lake and national monument.
Contact:
Vincent Nkunikeni 0979 064557
Sioma Ngwezi National Park
A large and little visited National Park, with a number of species that are restricted to the more arid south-west of the country. An ideal site for the intrepid explorer to visit.
Contact:
Jebby Mutakazona 00264 814381838
Machile
This is the stronghold of the black-cheeked lovebird and supports most of the world's population of these rare and threatened birds.
Contact:
Agnitor Mutelo 0979 754338 OR Mwangala Malumo 0979 105899
Simungoma
A site on the border with Namibia, the wetland areas are good for skimmers and slaty egrets, while the woodlands hold many more arid adapted species. A good site for boosting your Zambia bird list with species that occur nowhere else in the country. Perfect to combine with a lovebird trip to Machile.
Contact:
Evans Nawa Mumbuwa message via 0979 401647 OR Brian Zuze 0976 980447
Chimfunshi
The wet north, close to the border with Congo, and near the source of the Kafue River. Visit here for Zambezain endemics and forest specials. A good stopover site on the way to the Mwinilunga IBAs.
Contact:
Stemson Hamalambo 0976 969505 OR Patrick Chambatu message through 0976 969505
Nkanga River Conservation Area
This is undoubtedly the best site in Zambia to see Zambian barbets. Good for miombo specials and raptors too. Amur and red-footed falcons abound in the summer.
Contact Nkanga River Conservation Area on nansaibm@zamtel.zm
Other IBAs
Other guides will be added to the website soon. Watch this space!
 |
