The Rufous-tailed Weaver is another one of the easier Tanzanian endemic birds. Our previous blog concerned finding the Grey-breasted Spurfowl.
It should be said that, fairly recently, a few pairs of these weavers were found breeding in the southernmost Maasai Mara just across the border in Kenya.
Once again the "best option"; that is the shortest-journey-time/least-cost-lodge-locality; for "tallying" this endemic is to spend at least one night at the birder-friendly Ndutu Safari Lodge. This excellent lodge, in an exceptional location, is nestled in mature, yet heavily grazed, acacia woodland within the ecotone which forms the boundary between the dry-and-short grass steppe of the westernmost NCA (i.e. the Ngorongoro Conservation Area) and the moister-and-short grass plains of the easternmost part of the Serengeti National Park. It straddles the border in fact.
Ndutu is only an hour and a half west on a rough road from Olduvai Gorge, which is three hours by Toyote Mandcruiser from Arusha airport. Oldupai, as it should be called, is (one of) the "cradle(s) of mankind". Oldupai - that's pai - sounds far closer to the sound of the word the Maasi use when referring to the lance-leaved wild sisal or mother-in-laws's tongue: Sansevieria ehrenbergiana after which the gorge is named.
So, Ndutu is about three hours, at a 'relatively comfortable' pace, west from the Ngorongoro Crater ascent road. Remember that at Ngorongoro Crater it's one road to go down and another one to get up, up, and out. If, on your safari you can only manage to get as far west as the Crater then the weaver 'is extremely easy' at the main picnic site. Easy?
In fact, they will perch on your car, especially if you are a messy eater. However, do remember that to deliberately feed the wildlife is a henous crime - and that it will set you back another $50 in the form of an on-the-spot fine - apparently feeding birds makes the wild animals dependent upon hand-outs!
Watch-out for the Yellow-billed Kites though, on my first visit to the picnic site I really 'connected'! I was holding a piece of chicken leg against the car, whilst inexplicably throwing a piece .... Anyway one cool kite, flew through the narrow gap between myself and the vehicle, slid a razor-sharp hind talon under my thumb nail, took the chicken and next moment was 100m into the sky. Nevertheless not exactly the kind of intimate embrace with nature that I had in mind.
Amongst the huge variety of 'extremely good birds' around Ndutu Safari Lodge the charming, if garrulous, Fischer's Lovebird is absolutely abundant. In the dry, dry season they can be seen watched coming to drink in hordes right outside the restaurant.
And the somewhat contentiously-split Usambiro Barbet is what one might call - tolerably common.
When it's dry the birds will concentrate at any fresh water. And if there are tourists in their droves eating a picnic somewhere, then food will be spilled and, as if by magic birds will appear. TANAPA are sometimes forced to send someone outside to scare-off the wildlife, when too much of it is making a multi-phylum bee-line for the picnic site at Seronera!
Nice things like the 'rare barbet' pictured below, so expertly "captured" by MPG.
It's all part of Nature's Great Event. Whatever, I guess that's what we've all become - the animal show business - the A-S-B. Still, it could be worse.
