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