Best Of Birding In Ethiopia

Ethiopia ranks among the most ecologically diverse countries in Africa.

- Philip Briggs

It is dominated by the central highlands, which lie almost entirely above the 1500-metre contour, extend over roughly two-thirds of an area comparable to that of South Africa and support a rich mosaic of grassland, forest, Afro-alpine moorland and cultivation. Wildly scenic and climatically temperate, the highlands are bisected by a lower-lying, lake-studded stretch of the RiftValley, while the eastern escarpment gives way to the arid badlands of Somalia and Afar, and the west drops towards the lush Nile Valley.

Ethiopia’s habitat diversity is reflected in a rich avifauna that comprises almost 900 species and includes an alluring array of endemics and near endemics. Indeed, depending on who does the lumping and splitting, Ethiopia’s list of national endemics currently stands somewhere between 15 and 25 species, possibly more. This is supplemented by about 14 ‘former endemics’ whose range only otherwise extends into Eritrea (a separate country since 1993) and another couple of dozen species shared only with inaccessible and/ or unsafe corners of northern Kenya, Somalia or South Sudan.

Best day trip from Addis Ababa

Menagesha National Forest