Tanzania - Safari and the Birds, Part 3

The Big Birds

The first two bird posts covered most of the small birds that we encountered.  Of course, there are plenty of large birds in Tanzania too.

Disney and Hemingway spoiled the Tanzanian flamingos for me.  I can't find a YouTube link to a huge flock of flamingos going airborne on a 1950s episode of Wide World of Disney for you, but we can go back to Green Hills of Africa for a word-picture:

... we could look down and see the plain, the heavy forest below the wall, and the long, dried-up edged shine of Lake Manyara rose-colored at one end with a half million tiny dots that were flamingoes.

... That night after dinner we heard the flamingoes flighting in the dark. It was like the sound the wings of ducks make as they go over before it is light, but slower, with a steady beat, and multiplied a thousand times.

Of course, Hemingway wasn't taking pictures.  He was hunting the nearby geese:

... at the shot you see the cloud of flamingoes rise in the sun, making the whole horizon of the lake pink. Then they settle. But after that each time after you shoot you turn and look out into the sun on the water and see that quick rise of the unbelievable cloud and then the slow settling.

Hemingway, Ernest (2002-07-25). Green Hills of Africa (p. 124). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Disney, by the way, is still filming and selling Flamingos.


Our flamingos were a bit too sparse to turn the horizon pink, but still pretty.  Timing your visit seems important to see the flamingos.  (By the way, did you notice how the "e" has disappeared from the plural spelling since the 1930s?)





Some larger birds are out in the open and easy to identify like the Ostrich.


But others, like this owl, can be hard to spot.  Our driver spotted this one and stopped.  I don't think I ever did see it except in the photo.


This Black-breasted Snake Eagle was much more visible.


This appears to be a Kori Bustard.  We heard some suggestions that it was a Secretary Bird but that doesn't seem right.



The Grey Crowned Crane is probably the prettiest of the large birds.  They were especially plentiful on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater.