Overview
Madagascar’s birding is deservedly famous. What it lacks in numbers (just over 300 species) it more than makes up for in endemism. Almost 120 species are only found on the Red Island, four times its closest rival on the continent (Tanzania with 29). Included are four whole families that are not represented anywhere else: the mesites, ground rollers, asities and Madagascan warblers. Only one of the 16 vangas occurs on nearby Comoros, as does the Cuckoo Roller, a single-species family. It’s not just the numbers that impress; many of the birds are impossibly beautiful. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Amazon or Indonesia was a lot closer!
I hoped to come away with a dozen or two magazine-worthy photographs of some of the island’s forest jewels. I opted to spend about a week at each of three different areas: Ankarafantsika National Park in the northwest, Masoala National Park (northeast) and the national parks and community reserves around Andasibe (east of the capital).
After much deliberation (like switching from slides to digital many years ago), I decided to purchase a mirrorless camera, Nikon’s Z8. I was going to need all the help I could get trying to focus on tiny hopping shadows in the forest undergrowth. I brought my trusty D500, fitted with a 70-200mm lens, but rarely used it. If we happened upon lemurs or chameleons I’d switch to full frame on the Z8 and use the wider end of my 200-500mm.
Closed shoes worked best in the dry forest and in the eastern rainforest but I would have used river shoes in Masoala, where we often crossed slippery streams and estuaries, and trudged through swamps and the edges of rice paddies. A second pair of shoes was handy for consecutive days while the previous day’s pair was rinsed and drying. Long light pants and a light long-sleeved shirt keep the mozzies bearable and the leeches away for an extra minute or two. Neither were irritatingly abundant but don’t forget the bug spray.
Black-crowned Night Heron
Antananarivo
If you have an unplanned half-day in the capital, it is worthwhile visiting the twin lakes at Tsarasaotra Park. I was able to capture White-throated Rail and Madagascar Swamp Warbler (neither of which I saw again), Malagasy Kingfisher and Mannikin and a confiding Black-crowned Night Heron, which are more elusive back home. Numerous Red-billed Teal and White-faced Whistling Duck bob on the lakes, with various egrets and herons in the reeds on the fringes. It is a good spot for the Madagascar Pond Heron. Don’t get too close to the edge – it’s like quicksand.
Betsiboka River Delta and Ankarafantsika National Park (ANP)
Madagascar’s roads are painfully slow. Potholes, trucks, livestock and villages reduce average per-kilometre speeds to the twenties. Thirties if you’re lucky. The 570 kms to Mahajanga – the third-largest and closest city to ANP – currently takes 14 hours to drive. Take the one-hour flight instead. It’s then a four-hour drive to the park.
I spent the next four days with guides Olga and Justin, who often work together, complementing each other’s skills and making the experience an absolute delight. The city lies at the mouth of the Betsiboka River, a delta that is home to some endemic rarities. It is worth exploring the waterways and mangrove-forested edges, especially at low tide, for a few hours for Madagascan Sacred Ibis, Bernier’s Teal and Sakalava Rail. The river’s source is close to Tana, many hundreds of kilometres away, and the reddish soil-carrying waters explain the country’s moniker.
I came away with photos of the teal, Chabert Vanga, Madagascan Wagtail and Crab-plover. We didn’t see the ibis or rail. The latter requires a concerted effort. We did see Eurasian Whimbrel, Lesser Flamingo, and Dimorphic Egret, amongst others. After the sunrise boat ride, we drove to the national park and I stayed at the nearby Tia Asity Lodge. Simple chalets, great local food, Crested Coua, Sakalava Weaver, Red Fody, Sioumanga Sunbird and a flash of Grey-headed Lovebirds.
ANP is one of the island’s premier birding destinations with over 180 species including sought-after locals like Van Dam’s Vanga, White-breasted Mesite and Schlegel’s Asity. The asities are adorned with colourful facial skin. The areas I planned to visit hosted all four asities (including two sunbird-asities) and I had high hopes of capturing at least one of them.
The vegetation is dense dry deciduous forest. There is more light which makes birding photography a little easier. There is still much clutter and the trees are tall. Forest birds are famously shy and there were few exceptions here. Many are also ground dwellers, and scurry across the open path, when you do happen upon a clearer encounter. It is challenging, but rewarding, and a good guide makes all the difference.
The first morning was spent focused on the asity. A juvenile male had us scrambling up and down thick brush slopes for a clear view. I waited patiently for a trio of mesites to cross the path but inevitably when they reached it they would race across at breakneck speeds, looking the other way. Red-capped Coua were similarly camera shy. Three days in the park did eventually produce good sightings and pictures of these birds, but only one of each. You’ll need time and patience.
Schlegel’s Asity
Bernier’s Teal
Madagascan Fish Eagle
Torotoroka Scops Owl
A circumnavigation of Lake Raveloba takes an hour or two and is a must. There is a resident Madagascan Fish Eagle, one of perhaps fewer than 100 in the wild. We were lucky to find him on the bank. We also had tremendous views of Purple Heron and Olive Bee-eater.
More difficult was Van Dam’s Vanga, back in the forest. We spent three days listening and looking and eventually found a very mobile pair, digging for grubs at the top of the canopy, on the last day. These birds only occur in a couple of forests in the northwest of the island.
We spent one morning driving a further 40km to a lily-pad wetland in search of Madagascan Jacana and Humblot’s Heron. The former gave me a sporting chance, as I tentatively waded into waist-high muddy water, but the latter kept its distance.
After three days I was also able to add reasonably clear photos of other mouth-watering locals: Hook-billed Vanga, Madagascan Buzzard, Long-billed Bernieria, Lesser Vasa Parrot, Frances’s Sparrowhawk, the onomatopoeic Torotoroka Scops Owl, the striking Blue Vanga, Coquerel’s Coua, an obliging Madagascan Pygmy Kingfisher and a Malagasy Brush Warbler, a rare sighting in the west.
Masoala National Park (MNP)
The national airline’s reputation is better than its roads. But only just. I don’t think they’ve ever departed on time. They have the uncanny habit of moving flights forward with little warning!
An hour-long flight gets you to the town of Maroantsetra in the northeast, and a speed boat across the Antongil Bay delivers you to a vast lush seaside mountainous forest on the Masoala Peninsula, mostly unchanged in millenia. I was collected by my local guide Jean Émile, who’d assembled a boat, a captain, a cook and an assistant for the six days we would spend in the national park.
Unfavourable conditions meant that we could only cross the bay the next morning, so the afternoon and evening were spent boating through the maze of waterways to the Farankaraina Forest Reserve in search of aye-ayes that foraged for the fruits of the Canarium madagascariense. While the mosquitos feasted on us, we would listen for the plops of the discarded fruits that the aye-ayes were feasting on, revealing their lofty hideouts.
Accommodation in MNP is limited – it’s either the plush Forest Lodge or something a lot more basic. I stayed at Hippocampe Lodge – simple chalets and a kitchen to prepare your own meals – on the shore in the park. It was perfectly located between the various trails that one can explore. The landscape is thick, dark, wet and steep. You’ll want comfortable wading shoes for the long days.
The red-ruffed lemur route presented an obliging Short-legged Ground Roller in the first hour. My hopes raised, expectations recalibrated, and a reasonable shot in the bag, we continued. I think we saw a handful of birds over the next day and a half, and I was lucky if I captured another two. I was swiftly reminded of how difficult forest birding photography was.
The best time of year to visit Madagascar’s eastern forests is between September and December. It’s the beginning of the rainy season, before the heavy downpours start, and it’s also when many of the sought-after species start breeding and calling. This is when the iconic and incomparable – you have to see it to believe it – Helmet Vanga nests. Villagers and guides will know where to find them. And it’s when the enigmatic ground rollers call, revealing their locations. A raincoat and waterproof bag are helpful, although the rains don’t usually last long. Take a break under some tree cover.
I brought my 300mm 2.8 lens and it proved useful in the low light of the jungle-like vegetation. A camera with good high ISO handling and in-built image stabilisation is essential. I was handholding the Z8 at 1/100th, 3.5 and ISO 6,400 – not common bird-photographing settings. Thank goodness for denoising software.
Blou Coua
Madagascan Green Pigeon
Scaly Ground Roller
Helmet Vanga
The list was growing, but slowly: Nelicourvi Weaver, Bernier’s Vanga, Malagasy Turtle Dove, Spectacled Tetraka. We heard but couldn’t see the Brown Mesite, had good views of the elegant arboreal Blou Coua, and less so, the Red-breasted Coua. Madagascan Wood Rails were common but virtually impossible to photograph. They raced across any open ground, keeping to thick cover. The Madagascan (Crested) Ibis was equally elusive. By the fourth day I was resigned to possibly leaving without a glimpse of the Helmet Vanga or the coveted Scaly Ground Roller, when we decided to change tack and try exploring the area south of the Forest Lodge.
And that made all the difference. Within a few kilometres I’d added White-headed and Tylas Vanga and the oh-so-pretty Madagascan Pratincole against a Monet-like canvas background. A Scaly Ground Roller left the camouflaged darkness of the forest floor and treated us to a breathtaking minute on an eye-level branch. At the end of our penultimate day, returning through a swampy wetland, a pair of impossibly-plumaged Helmet Vangas rewarded our efforts by leading us to the nest they were building. I was ecstatic. Returning the next day added Madagascan Green and Blue Pigeons and a great view of the local black-bellied race of the Madagascan Magpie-Robin.
The peninsula is also home to lemurs endemic to this region, including the red-ruffed lemur, Western lesser bamboo lemur and others.
An overnight stop at Nosy Mangabe on the way back to town is worthwhile. It is an unspoilt island sanctuary for lemurs, encompassed in the national park, with a rich history. A pair of Madagascan Paradise Flycatchers were nesting on the path to a nearby beach, quite unperturbed by passersby.
Andasibe
The most visited parks are just 140km east of Tana but this can take between three and four hours to drive. Roadworks will hopefully reduce that time soon. Most tourists come for the Eighth Continent’s enigmatic indri – the largest of over 100 lemur species. My incredible guide, Maurice, suggested we spend a day in each of the parks and community reserves nearby, hoping to photograph some of the birds absent from my list. I was looking forward to five varied days in these spectacular wild places.
We started in Mantadia National Park, a good hour away on rough roads and soon had photos of Madagascar Rail, Wedge-tailed Jery and Madagascan Grebe. We saw the endemic spinetail, cuckoo-hawk, Forest Fody and White-throated Oxylabes. They were tougher to capture. The highlight of this day was following the call of a Pitta-like Ground Roller – a bird whose picture I’d been mesmerised by but couldn’t imagine ever finding – in the rain, through swamps, and slippery steep slopes to find a tiny tunnel through thick foliage to get an acceptable image of this enchanting bird.
The next day was spent in the closer Analamazaotra National Park where we had two magnificent encounters. Tracing the call of a very vocal Hents’s Goshawk to find it atop a tall dead tree; and, after two failed attempts elsewhere, a captured glimpse of the Madagascan Flufftail, my first ever sighting of a member of this family. I couldn’t believe just how tiny, fast, and undergrowth-loving it was.
Pitta-like Ground Roller
Madagascan Pygmy Kingfisher
Common Sunbird-Asity
Rufous-headed Ground Roller
On day three we visited the community-run Antavolobe Iaroka Forest Reserve accompanied by an additional local guide. A challenging 4×4 trail gets you high into the mountainous forest from where you can walk down to a track leading into a valley into the indigenous rainforest. A beautiful trail adorned with orchids and views. The birding was outstanding. I returned on a cloud struggling to believe that I was still able to add phenomenal birds to my photographic collection a few days from the end of my three-week trip. These included Forest Rock Thrush and Dark Newtonia. What had me spellbound were excellent views of the Rufous-headed Ground Roller, the fourth of the four ground rollers in the areas I visited; the Common Sunbird-Asity, which thankfully paused for a few seconds in its dartlike dashing back and forth; and a male Velvet Asity in full facial skin regalia.
I should add that during my stay at a local hotel – many to choose from here – I was able to add Mascarene Martin, and the island’s endemic cisticola and stonechat. A Western Barn Owl that evening made for an interesting click.
The last two days were spent hiking other community reserves and parks – Maromizaha and VOIMMA – and here my good luck continued with Madagascan Cuckoo, Common Newtonia (finally!), Red-tailed Vanga, Malagasy (Green) Sunbird and, perhaps the hardest coua of all, Red-fronted.
I left with over 75 birds reasonably photographed and listed seeing 120.
There are many other areas to explore and include in a birding itinerary, including the rainforest at Ranomafana and the drier Isalo and Kirindy Matea national parks. Further south are reserves hosting localised endemics such as Appert’s Tetraka, Subdesert Mesite and the Long-tailed Ground Roller. For extreme tickers there is the recently rediscovered Madagascan Pochard at a lake in the north and the elusive Red Owl and Madagascan Serpent Eagle. There are so many reasons to return.
Perhaps most importantly, time spent in these remaining unspoilt refuges contributes to keeping them wild. Our tourist dollars help the reserves, community-staffed lodges, and guides keep the conservation flame alive, sustaining the biodiversity that the endangered wildlife on the island critically depends on. Get there if you can. It is well worth the visit.