Birding Weekly 20140504

Over looking Mont Tingui in the Northern region of Ivory Coast

After time in the Warigué, we made our way down to an area called Mont Tingui, a phenomenal area in West Africa and probably one of the few remaining wilderness areas left in West Africa. It is a great mix of Rain Forest patches surrounded by Wooded Savanna. The area is said to have over 450 different bird species, this is for an area close to 100 000 ha. The diversity here is great with forested species and savanna species converging. 

Birding a forest always proves difficult as birds often are found high in the canopy of tall trees while little life happens on the forest floor. However I was able to stumble across some forest specials, the Tropical Boubou (Laniarius aethiopicus), Guinea Turaco (Tauraco persa) and Crested Guineafowl (Guttera plumifera). The short time spent in the forest and birding from the forest floor made it difficult to find other species.

Within the Wooded Savanna a couple of Red-necked Buzzard (Buteo auguralis) were found. A Pied flycatcher (Ficedula semitorquata) also made an appearance one early morning along the banks of the Kinkéné River.

Blue-bellied Roller (Coracias cyanogaster): This species is often a highlight for West Africa trips and rightly so. It is a magnificent roller for the region and more commonly seen West in the region. We were fortunate to get regularly sightings of this species. Interestingly enough though we had more sightings in cultivated fields with Shae Butter trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) remaining than in wild areas. 

Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula semitorquata): This flycatcher interests me each time I see it. This was the first time I had seen the male and its contrasting black and white colours. This makes it unmistakable to identify. The female is unmistakable in resembling a small brown flycatcher yet has the distinct white primary feathers. They not an easy bird to find yet I have seem them regularly when they are around (October through to May). The Migrate from Europe south to West and North Africa during the European winters. Thus the male I saw along the Kinkéné River should be heading North soon.

Red-necked buzzard (Buteo auguralis): Its complete rufous tail with paler underparts and red-breast make it fairly easy to identify in the field. Exploring around Mont Tingui and Warigué we found a few. Very shy of people's presence these area were the only place I had seen them while staying in WA, although there distribution is fairly widespread across the region.

Other Species: White Helmet-shrikes (Prionops plumatus)

Senegal parrot (Poicephalus senegalensis)

Piping Hornbill (Bycanistes fistulator)

Blue-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon malimbica)

Side note: Mont Tingue and Warigué are two proposed sites for community conservation. My involvement there was to assess where these communities are after the civil war in Ivory Coast and then make recommendation to them in order to get the wildlife areas back up and operational to take on tourism. The trip was successful, although with lots of work needing to be done.