Irangi Forest Birding

Irangi Forest is nestled on the eastern side of the Mount Kenya zone which is the largest forest remaining in Kenya. It’s an ecosystem as a whole that plays a critical role in the water catchment for two main rivers in the country, the Tana and Ewaso Nyiro. Irangi Forest is an Important Bird Area (IBA) with rich biological diversity, not only in terms of ecosystems but also in terms of species. The area also has a wide variety of fauna with major species of large mammals of international conservation interest, including elephant, leopard, giant forest hog, mountain bongo and black-fronted duiker, species of ungulates

Mt Kenya summit

Fact File Irangi Forest

Size: 18,500 Hectares

Location: Embu Country

Altitude: 2000m

Drive time: 3 hours from Nairobi

                                                     Gate to Irangi forest

Attractions

Scenery is Amazing

Rupingazi Waterfall

Mount Kenya Peaks can be seen clearly from Irangi campsite early morning

The forest has 29 permanent rivers

Have some of the known oldest trees (Camphor trees presumed to be over 300 years old)

Forest Birdlife prolific

Camphor Tree

 Birds Checklist

Mountain Buzzard, Green Ibis,

Hamerkop, Eurasian Hobby, African Goshawk, Little Sparrow Hawk, Great Sparrow, Augur Buzzard, Booted Eagle, Ayres’s Hawk Eagle, Crowned Eagle, Dusky Nightjar,

Fine banded Woodpecker

Olive Pigeon, Lemon Dove, Red-eyed Dove, Tambourine Dove, Hartlaub’s Turaco, African Emerald Cuckoo, African Wood Owl, Little & White-rumped Swifts, Bar-tailed Trogon, Cinnamon chested Bee-eater, Silvery cheeked Hornbill

Immature African Harrier Hawk

 Moustached& Yellow-rumped Tinkerbirds, White-eared Barbet, Fine banded Woodpecker, Black-fronted Bushshrike, Lesser Honeyguide, Grey cuckoo Shrike, Kenrick’s,

Grey Cuckoo Shrike

Sharpe & Abbott’s Starlings, Chestnut &Grey throated Apalises,  Yellow whiskered, Slender-billed,& Cabanis’s Greenbuls, Cinnamon Bracken Warbler, Brown Woodland Warbler, Abyssinian ground Thrush, Thick-billed Seed-eater.

Accommodation Options:

Camping near the Kenya Forest service quarters the grounds are fine, there are bathrooms but no hot showers 

Alternatively Embu town Izaak Walton inn is a suitable hotel 30km from the forest

3 Days Forest Birding

Cycads "Living fossil"

The Cycads are primitive woody plants which flourished over 200 million years ago,Among the oldest plants still living on the planet sometimes called the living fossils now widely scattered throughout the world.mostly in dry areas.Growing extremely slowly some are  hundred of years old,considered,There are five indigenous Encephalartos in Kenya but only Encephalartos hildebrandtii is common,widely distributed along the Kenya coastal forests.The rest are inland,restricted to drier areas

Leaves are compound to 2.5m long,in whorls from stem:about 80 pairs of leaflets stiff and tough,often with spiny teeth at the tip and 1 -9 along each margin and parallel veins

Cones ripen brown and are pollinated by insects probably  flying beetles,seeds have a soft outer layer,the inner nut to 3cm long

The hard seed is boiled and ground to flour by  the Boni people in Lamu ,during famine season,the starchy stem centre can be chopped,fermented then dried to make uji porridge or ugali,seeds and suckerd may be used for propagation

African Premier Adventures Ltd

  The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great

Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands,
Belgium, and France. It connects to the ocean through the English
Channel in the south and the Norwegian
Sea in the north. It is more than 970 kilometres
(600 mi) long and 580 kilometres (360 miles) wide, with an area of
around 570,000 square kilometres (220,000 sq miles)