Discover Birds at the Pugu Hills Forest Reserve

Discovering Nature in a Bustling City

Pugu Hills Forest Reserve is located only an hour’s drive from the city center of Dar es Salaam, provided that you drive fearlessly on chaotic and severely potholed roads, of course. Although my wife and I typically leave home for a birding excursion well before dawn, we still encountered some ridiculously congested traffic during a recent trip there while on route to our destination. Public transport clogged the roads as people poured into the city from the rural outskirts; overburdened trucks crashed through potholes and over misshapen speed bumps; pedestrians weaved through moving traffic creating a tapestry as dense as a Persian rug; and streams of men on bicycles commanded valuable space on the tarmac with their teetering loads of charcoal, tomatoes, and eggs. Indeed, leaving downtown by car on a Saturday morning is not for the timid.”

We were on our way to Pugu Hills, where a few hundred hectares of coastal scrub and woodland still remain, more or less in its natural state. Originally, I was hoping to visit the larger public reserve, but after investigating the practicality of both options, I figured it was easiest to book a visit to Pugu Hills, a small private reserve that is adjacent to the stateprotected land. Ultimately, this proved to be a good course of action, as the habitat at Pugu Hills was varied and teeming with birds

and the infrastructure for visiting birders was more than adequate, with several trails for walking as well as a variety of delicious options for lunch. Our host, Kik van den Heuvel, later confirmed our decision as she showed us some disappointing beforeand-after photos portraying the environmental destruction of the public reserve in recent years, principally due to illegal charcoal production.

Arriving at the entrance gate around 7am, we first encountered a family group of Crowned Hornbills in a tall and sparsely leafed tree. This transitional habitat between cultivated land and woodland would prove particularly fruitful on this sunny morning, as we found Speckled Mousebird, Cardinal Woodpecker, Green-Winged Pytilia, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, and Red-Billed Fire finch all in the vicinity. We also briefly witnessed a magnificent raptor on the wing, flying low to the ground as it glided through the trees in search of prey. There are a bewildering number of species of hawks, eagles, and kites in this region, though, and I didn’t get a good enough look to identify this raptor. After ambling around the

entrance road and picking up a few more neat birds, including Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, we checked in with the host and hit the nature trails.

The highlight of our morning was no doubt encountering a good-sized mixed flock that we followed for an hour as it moved slowly through the dense brush along one of the secluded trails. Although each new bird species observed in the flock was a delightful surprise for us, several new birds in general were simply stunning. The Black-Throated Wattle-Eye took us aback with its ant bird-like qualities, a diverse and cryptic family of birds found in the neotropics. However instead of having a red-colored eye ring, this bird had red skin flaps raised around its eyes. This pair of smart black and white birds foraged slowly, making a unique clicking noise as it moved along. A pair of vigilant Narina Trogons was also a nice find, although I’ve never been very enthralled by this phlegmatic family of birds. The Red-Capped Robin-Chat also enchanted us, as it swooped in at close range in the undergrowth and proceeded to flick through the leaf litter almost at our feet.

Afterwards Aimee and I climbed the hill to get a better perspective of the greater area, walking along the firebreak between Pugu Hills and the state-protected reserve. As it was near midday at this point, there wasn’t much to see in terms of birds, except for two huge raptors perched in the distance (I had left my birding scope in the car, which is where it always seems to be when I most need it). We decided to make one last circuit of the nature trail before lunch. This time we found a marvelous male Green-Winged Pytilia, one of the region’s several intricately patterned waxbills. A pair of Cardinal Woodpeckers also caught our attention, but the most unusual bird of the excursion was the Eastern Nicator that appeared briefly from dense cover. The field guide describes this species as being vocal but reclusive, and we were no doubt lucky just to get a look at the bird, much less a photograph of it.

Before leaving for the day, and the harrowing drive home, we made sure to check out the accommodations for a possible future visit, noting that the rooms were made out of canvas and selfcontained like a yurt, complete with traditional Tanzanian four-post beds. In front of the bandas were rows of flowering shrubs at which a noisy group of sunbirds was busy feeding. Miniscule but lovely Collared Sunbirds seemed to be everywhere around us, but I was struck by a larger and dull-colored species, the Olive Sunbird, that has a small, orange stripe at the base of its bill. Considering the rest of its brilliantly colored family, this humble-looking bird is truly one of a kind and capped off a fine day of birding in Dar es Salaam.

: Speckled Mousebird, Narina Trogon, Crowned Hornbill, YellowRumped Tinkerbird, Cardinal Woodpecker, Black Cuckoo- Collared Sunbird, Green-