Animal Sightings on my Tanzania Safari to the Serengeti

My Tanzania Safari to the Serengeti

As promised in an earlier post, here is a list of animal sightings from my August/September 2019 Tanzania safari to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire with African Dream Safaris. Feel free to write to me with questions about my trip, or post in the comment section below. I’m happy to chat.

Animal Pictures

Pictures are coming, but my daughter Dr. Daisy is still editing the 5,000 photos. It may take another couple weeks, so stay tuned! She’s got some amazing pictures.

Animal Sightings (not including birds)

• Elephants (over 100, including many babies)
• Leopard (2)
• Lions (84, including 2 little cubs that walked in front of the vehicle)
• Reedbuck
• Ground squirrel
• Blue monkey
• Golden (common) jackal
• Black-backed jackal
• African rock python (just swallowed a reedbuck!)
• Cape buffalo (> 2,000)
• Bat-eared fox
• Nile crocodile (>10)
• Steenbok
• Nile monitor
• Leopard Tortoise
• Common zebra (> ½ a million)
• Hippo (>100)
• Rock agama lizard (saw many “Spiderman lizards”)
• Warthog (including 3 babies)
• Masai giraffe (>50)
• Dwarf mongoose
• Banded mongoose
• Slender mongoose
• African yellow-winged bat
• Impala
• Wildebeest (> 1 ½ million)
• Eland
• Topi
• Thomson’s gazelle (baby tommies too)
• Grant Gazelle
• Olive baboon (also in Nairobi)
• Klipspringer
• Rock hyrax
• Bush hyrax
• Cape Hare
• Cheetah (approx. 12, including cubs)
• Fasa Waterbuck
• Common Waterbuck
• Black-faced vervet monkey
• Spotted hyena (and little ones)
• Hartebeest
• Dik dik
• Oribi
• Black rhino (3)
• Bushbuck
• Serval cat (stalking, pouncing, getting a big chubby mole)
• Army ants
• A 5-inch-long tan-colored scorpion (cause yeah, in our tent)
• Tsetse flies (Daisy got several bites; I only got one)

Bird Sightings (north Serengeti, central Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire)

All verified and id’d by Tanzanian guide/bird expert Russell because Carol is a terrible birder!

1. Ostrich (one male did the mating dance!)
2. Little grebe
3. White-breasted (great) cormorant
4. Great white pelican
5. Pink-backed pelican
6. Black-crowned night heron
7. Squacco heron
8. Cattle egret (sitting on zebras, giraffes, cape buffalo)
9. Little egret
10. Great white egret
11. Yellow-billed egret
12. Grey heron
13. Black-headed heron
14. Goliath heron
15. Hamerkop
16. Yellow-billed stork
17. Open-billed stork
18. Saddle-billed stork
19. Marabou stork
20. Sacred ibis
21. Glossy ibis
22. Hadada ibis
23. African spoonbill
24. Greater flamingo
25. Lesser flamingo
26. Egyptian goose
27. Spur-winged goose
28. Knob-billed duck
29. Red-billed teal
30. Black-shouldered kite
31. Yellow-billed kite (black)
32. Fish eagle
33. Hooded vulture
34. White-backed vulture
35. Ruppell’s vulture
36. Lappet-faced vulture
37. White-headed vulture
38. Black-chested snake eagle
39. Brown snake eagle
40. Bateleur
41. Gymnogene or African harrier hawk
42. Dark chanting goshawk
43. Pale chanting goshawk
44. Augur buzzard white morph
45. Augur buzzard dark morph
46. Tawny eagle
47. Long-crested eagle
48. Martial eagle
49. Secretary bird
50. Pygmy falcon
51. Common kestrel
52. Grey kestrel
53. Lanner falcon
54. Coqui francolin
55. Crested fancolin
56. Hildebrandt’s francolin
57. Scaly francolin
58. Red-necked spurfowl
59. Grey-breasted spurfowl
60. Yellow-necked spurfowl
61. Helmeted guineafowl
62. Black crake
63. Purple gallinule
64. Common moorhen
65. Red-knobbed coot
66. East African grey-crowned crane (my #1 bird; saw 32, then a flock of 60!)
67. Kori bustard
68. White-bellied bustard
69. Black-bellied bustard
70. Hartlaub’s bustard
71. African jacana
72. Lesser jacana
73. Painted snipe
74. Pied avocet
75. Black-winged stilt
76. Spotted thickknee
77. Two-banded courser
78. Temminck’s courser
79. Collared pranticole
80. Kittlitz’s plover
81. Three-banded plover
82. Wattled lapwing
83. Blacksmith lapwing
84. Spur-winged lapwing
85. Black-winged lapwing
86. Crowned lapwing
87. Long-toed lapwing
88. Marsh sandpiper
89. Wood sandpiper
90. Common sandpiper
91. Little stint
92. Ruff
93. Chestnut bellied sandpiper
94. Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse
95. Black-faced sandgrouse
96. Speckled pigeon
97. Laughing dove
98. Mourning dove
99. Ring-necked dove
100. Emerald-spotted wood dove
101. Namaqua dove
102. Orange-bellied parrot
103. Brown parrot (our guide Russell was relentless in finding this one for me!)
104. Fischer’s lovebird
105. Yellow-collared lovebird
106. Bare-faced go-away bird
107. White-bellied go-away bird
108. Great spotted cuckoo
109. White-browed coucal
110. Speckled mousebird
111. Pied kingfisher
112. Grey-headed kingfisher
113. Little bee-eater
114. Lilac-breasted roller (there were so many of these spectacular birds that we developed a little joke: “ho-hum, just another roller”)
115. Green wood hoopee
116. African hoopoe
117. Red-billed hornbill (this is Zazu from “The Lion King” for you non-birders)
118. Von der Decken’s hornbill
119. Grey hornbill
120. Silvery-cheeked hornbill
121. Southern ground hornbill
122. White-headed barbet
123. Red and yellow barbet
124. D’ Arnaud’s barbet
125. Usambiro barbet
126. Nubian woodpecker
127. Grey woodpecker
128. Bearded woodpecker
129. Rufous-naped lark
130. Red-capped lark
131. Fischer’s sparrowlark
132. Banded martin
133. Grey-rumped swallow
134. Mosque swallow
135. Lesser striped swallow
136. Blue swallow
137. White-rumped swift
138. African pied wagtail
139. Long-billed pipit
140. Grassland pipit
141. Yellow-vented bulbul
142. Olive thrush
143. White-browed robin chat
144. White-browed scrub robin
145. Schalow’s wheatear
146. Capped wheatear
147. Northern anteater chat
148. Sooty chat
149. Red-faced crombec
150. Banded parisoma
151. Common stone chat
152. Grey-backed camaroptera
153. Grey flycatcher
154. Pale flycatcher
155. Silverbird
156. Paradise flycatcher
157. Black-lored babbler
158. Brubru
159. Scarlet-chested sunbird
160. Beautiful sunbird
161. Black-headed oriole
162. Grey-backed fiscal
163. Long-tailed fiscal
164. Common fiscal
165. Magpie shrike
166. Northern white-crowned shrike
167. Brown-crowned Tchagra
168. Black-crowned Tchagra
169. Slate-coloured boubou
170. Fork-tailed common drongo
171. Pied crow
172. Ruppell’s starling
173. Superb starling (who knew I’d go nuts over a starling?)
174. Hildebrandt’s starling
175. Ashy starling
176. Wattled starling
177. Red-billed oxpecker
178. Yellow-billed oxpecker
179. Rufous sparrow
180. Grey-headed sparrow
181. Chestnut sparrow
182. Red-billed buffalo weaver
183. White-headed buffalo weaver
184. Speckle-fronted weaver
185. White-browed sparrow weaver
186. Rufous-tailed weaver
187. Grey-headed social weaver (capped)
188. Golden weaver
189. Red-billed quelea (giant flocks!)
190. Black-headed weaver
191. Fan-tailed widowbird
192. Green-winged pytilia
193. Red-billed firefinch
194. African firefinch
195. Crimson-rumped waxbill
196. Red-cheeked Cordonbleu
197. Blue-capped Cordonbleu
198. Purple grenadier
199. Yellow-rumped seedeater
200. Yellow-fronted canary
201. Golden-breasted bunting

The Tanzanian People are Wonderful!

I knew I’d fall in love with the Serengeti. I love wild places and work in the U.S. to protect public lands, but I didn’t know how much I’d love the people of Tanzania. Everywhere we went, the locals greeted us with “Jambo! Jambo! Welcome to our country. Please tell people about us.” I’ve lived and traveled around the world and without exception, the Tanzanian people are the friendliest I’ve ever met. They shake your hand. They want to chat. They’re warm and beautiful and kind, even at the airport. Their conservation work is truly impressive.

So now I’m sort of an ambassador for the country. I love Tanzania!