A wonderful portrait of a male 'Western Lowland' Gorilla at Mondika in the adjacent Republic of Congo by Sjef Ollers.
- Gorilla
- Agile Mangabey, and Crowned, De Brazza’s, Moustached and Putty-nosed Monkeys
- And other mammals including African (Forest) Elephant, African (Forest) Buffalo and Red River Hog
- Some of Africa’s and the world’s most spectacular birds including Grey-necked Rockfowl, Grey Parrot, Great Blue Turaco, Bare-cheeked Trogon, Black Bee-eater and hornbills
- And some of Africa’s and the world’s most spectacular localized birds such as Plumed Guineafowl and Lyre-tailed Honeyguide
- All in some superb lowland rainforest with
wet, open areas known as bais
- In January 2020 the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office continued to advise against all travel to virtually the whole of the Central African Republic. This has been the situation more or less since a coup d'état on 23rd March 2013 so please check with the relevant consulate/embassy/foreign office and travel company/companies before travelling, and/or check out the facebook page and/or website of Sangha Lodge.
- Lowland Gorillas may be less famous than Mountain Gorillas but they are no less magnificent. They are harder to habituate to humans though, possibly because they are hunted for bushmeat and they forage over much wider areas and currently the only habituated Lowland Gorillas in the world are those in the contiguous national parks of Dzanga-Sangha in the Central African Republic and Nouabale-Ndoki in the Republic of Congo (where they can be seen at Mondika and Mbeli). Both these parks are accessible from Cameroon and, in the case of Dzanga-Sangha, also via a one and half hour charter flight from Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (when charter aircraft are not available it is necessary to drive and this may take between ten and twelve hours!). From the comfortable rustic lodges in Dzanga-Sangha it is one to two hours by 4WD to Bai Hokou, a beautiful wet clearing in the Congo rainforest where the gorillas may be foraging, although they are more likely to be in the surrounding forest. Ba’Aka pygmy park rangers keep track of where the gorillas sleep and forage and with their help it usually takes one to two (but sometimes as many as eight) hours to catch up with the animals. An encounter is by no means guaranteed but the success rate is about 75%. If located, visitors are allowed to spend an hour with the gorillas, arguably the greatest hour it is possible to spend in one's life.
- Bai Hokou is also home to a habituated troop of over 200 Agile Mangabeys and regularly visited by ‘Forest’ Elephants, ‘Forest’ Buffalos and Sitatungas. The other major attraction at Dzanga-Sangha is Dzanga Bai which is a one to two hour drive and half an hour walk from Sangha Lodge, and a great place for ‘Forest’ Elephants, up to a hundred or more of which often visit the bai to eat the medicinal mineral salts deep in the soil. These otherwise elusive animals can be watched from viewing platforms, from which it is also possible to see ‘Forest’ Buffalos and Sitatungas, while at both bais rarer visitors include Bongo (most likely during dry season), Giant Forest Hog and Red River Hog.
Best Birds and other wildlife in the Central African Republic
Birds
Near-endemics
Central African Republic (CAR), Cameroon and Gabon 1 Dja River Swamp-warbler.
CAR, Cameroon, Angola, Republic of the Congo (RC) and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 1 Bob-tailed Weaver.
CAR, Gabon, RC, DRC and Angola 1 African River Martin.
CAR, RC, DRC and Uganda 1 Grey-capped Capuchin Babbler.
CAR, DRC, Chad and South Sudan 1 Niam-niam Parrot.
DRC Area 3 Eastern Little (Black Dwarf) Hornbill, Sladen’s Barbet and Congo Sunbird.
Other specialities
Plumed Guineafowl, Hartlaub's Duck, Congo Serpent-eagle, Forbes's Plover, Blue-headed Bee-eater, Lyre-tailed Honeyguide and Grey-necked Rockfowl
(Red-headed Picathartes) (at colony, usually easiest to observe in October).
Others
African Darter, Hamerkop, Palm-nut Vulture, African Harrier-hawk, Crowned Eagle, Bat Hawk, African Finfoot, African Jacana, Guinea Turaco, cuckoos
including Yellow-throated, Chattering Yellowbill, Fraser’s Eagle-owl, spinetails, Grey Parrot, Bare-cheeked Trogon, Great Blue Turaco, kingfishers
including Blue-breasted, Chocolate-backed, Giant and Shining-blue, Black Bee-eater, Blue-throated Roller, African Pied, Black-casqued, Black Dwarf,
Red-billed Dwarf, Piping, White-crested and White-thighed Hornbills, barbets, tinkerbirds, Rufous-sided Broadbill, Chestnut Wattle-eye, Gabon Batis,
Blue Cuckooshrike, Western Oriole, drongos, Blue-headed Crested-flycatcher, Red-bellied Paradise-flycatcher, White-throated Blue Swallow, many greenbuls
including Sjostedt’s, Buff-throated and Gosling’s Apalises, Banded Prinia, Grey Longbill, Green Hylia, Yellow-browed Camaroptera, Green and Lemon-bellied
Crombecs, Violet-backed Hyliota, Fire-crested Alethe, (Sangha) Forest Robin, sunbirds including Superb, weavers and malimbes. Also a chance of
Spot-breasted Ibis, Egyptian Plover, Grey-throated and Nkulengu Rails, and White-spotted Flufftail.
Mammals
(Western Lowland) Gorilla, Agile Mangabey, Grey-cheeked Mangabey, Crowned, De Brazza’s, Moustached and
Putty-nosed Monkeys, African (Forest) Elephant, African (Forest) Buffalo, Sitatunga, Lord Derby's Anomalure, Demidoff's Dwarf, Elegant Needle-clawed,
Gabon Squirrel and Thomas's Galagos, (Milne-Edwards's) Potto and a world-record 17 species of shrew around Sangha Lodge. Also a chance of Bongo, Giant
Forest Hog and Red River Hog, and an outside chance of Black-bellied and White-bellied Pangolins. (In September 2019 a Black-bellied Pangolin at Sangha
Lodge was being followed around the clock by Ba’Aka trackers.)
Best Sites for Birds and other wildlife in the Central African Republic
- Dzanga-Sangha NP See the lists above.
Best Times for Birds and other wildlife in the Central African Republic
The best times to visit the Central African Republic are the first half of April and mid-August to mid-September.
Recommended Bird Books etc. for the Central African Republic
The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals by J Kingdon. Bloomsbury, 2015 (Second Revised Edition).
The Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals by J Kingdon. Bloomsbury, 2016 (Second Edition).
Birds of Western Africa by N Borrow and R Demey. Helm, 2014 (Second Edition).
Birds of Africa south of the Sahara by I Sinclair and P Ryan. C Struik, 2011 (Second Edition).
Apps etc.
The Kingdon Guide to African Mammals.
Where to watch birds in Africa by N Wheatley. Helm, 1995.
Don’t know which country/countries to visit in Africa? Then it may be worth considering taking a look at this book, written by this website’s author. It is many years old of course but it still provides a starting point, an overview and a guiding light to the best birds and the best places to look for them on the continent, and could save hours of searching for similar information on the internet. However, it is important to check more up-to-date sources for sites which have been opened up, sites and species which have been discovered, lodges that have been built etc. since the book was published.
Birding and Wildlife Trip Reports for the Central African Republic
Many trip reports, some for the Central African Republic, are posted on the websites listed here. On some of these websites some reports are independent and some are posted by tour companies who organize tours to the Central African Republic. These tour companies and others also post their own reports on their websites, which are listed under 'Some Organized Tours to the Central African Republic' below.
- The best website for trip reports is CloudBirders
- but these are also worth a look
- Birdtours
- Fatbirder
- Jon Hornbuckle
- Mammal Watching
Local bird and wildlife guides in the Central African Republic
The costs of organized tours partly reflect the quality of the tour leaders. Some leaders are certainly better than others and many companies claim their leaders are the best but even the best rely at least to some extent on the exceptional skills of the local guides they employ. If you are travelling independently, employing such local guides will greatly increase your chances of seeing the wildlife you wish to see.
Accommodation for birders in the Central African Republic
Some Organized Tours for birds and other wildlife to the Central African Republic
There are many tour companies who organize tours to see mammals, birds, other wildlife and other natural wonders. The cost of these tours vary considerably according to such variables as the airlines used, the number of days the tours last, the number of sites visited, the number of people in the group (an important consideration if you wish to see such wildlife as rainforest mammals and birds), the number of tour leaders, the standard of accommodation and transport, and the percentage profit the company hopes to make. Generally, where the number of days tours last and the number of sites visited are similar, the cheapest tours are those that use the cheapest airlines, accommodation and local transport, that have the largest groups with the least number of leaders, and that make the least amount of profit. The most expensive tours tend to be those which are exceptionally long, use the most expensive accommodation (ridiculously lavish in some cases, even for single nights) and which make the most profit. Some tour costs partly reflect the quality of the tour leaders. Some leaders are certainly better than others and many companies claim their leaders are the best but even the best rely at least to some extent on the exceptional skills of the local guides they employ.
While tour companies organize tours with set itineraries many also organize custom tours for individuals and private groups who instead of taking a tour with a set itinerary want to follow their own itinerary to suit their own personal tastes, whether it be mammals, birds, other wildlife, other natural wonders or even man-made attractions, or a mixture of them all. Many organized tours with set itineraries are also fast-paced and target as many species as possible, whether they are mammals, birds or other wildlife or everything, which usually leaves little time to enjoy the best sites and individual species, but on a custom tour those taking part can specify the pace and the sites and species they wish to concentrate on. Custom tours also suit people who like to travel with people they already know, rather than with a group of strangers, and people with partners with different interests. Individuals and small groups will almost certainly have to pay more than the price of an organized tour with a set itinerary but a large group of friends may be able to travel for less than the price quoted for a set tour.
Tour companies who are running organized tours to the Central African Republic in the next couple of years include the following. Many of these also offer custom tours.
