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Greetings from Tanzania! (1 Viewer)

H

HinzundKunz

Active member
Tanzania
Hello from Tanzania.

We started a regenerative farm east of Dodoma about six years ago. Over time, the number of birds and the variety of bird species skyrocketed, so I started to wonder what bird we actually have on our farm. That's how I got into birdwatching.
Right now I have counted over 80 species of birds on our farm, but there's a lot of the smaller birds that I don't have a clue what they are, as they all look very similar. If anybody has any hints on how to develop the skills to id those, I'd appreciate it very much!

Regards, Martin
 
Hi Martin and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators. Your new farm sounds very interesting and it's wonderful you've attracted so many birds to it already. Here's a link to some birds we have in our Gallery that can be found in Tanzania (but this covers the whole country). Search results for query: Tanzania

There are other sources you could try for a list, perhaps that could be more specific to your area, such as Avibase and eBird.

If you can get descriptions of any, or better still some pictures, our ID forum would love to help you identify them.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.
 
Thank you! Right now I use ebird for keeping track of my observations, and Merlin and birdnet for helping me with identification.
I try to learn bird sounds as well, as many birds here are rather shy ( they are hunted and eaten around here, although we don't allow that on our farm).
I don't have good gear yet, just small canon 10x25 binoculars and a Sony Cybershot with 10x zoom (bad). We also have a canon eos 2000d with a 75-300mm zoom, but that is mainly used by our son.
I don't have much money to spare for better equipment, but I thought I might get a spectacle with a cell phone adapter. Maybe that will allow me to take better pictures. The pictures I take right now aren't really worthy to be put anywhere else but on inaturalist... 😉
 
HinzundKunz said:
The pictures I take right now aren't really worthy to be put anywhere else but on inaturalist... 😉
Click to expand...
The guys in our ID forum are very clever and they can very often work out what things are maybe not always to actual species but usually to the family.
 
I'm back again Martin... before you spend any money on more equipment I'd have a word with our members in the equipment forums.

This is the link to find the Binoculars and Telescopes: Binoculars & Spotting Scopes

And this for the cameras: Photography, Digiscoping & Art

They would need to know what your budget is.

They're towards the bottom of the front page. After 10 posts and 5 days, you will no longer be classed as a "new member" and the restrictions on what you can do will be lifted; then you will be able to post in the For Sale and Wanted forums. You can often pick up very good used equipment from our members.

Hope this helps.
 
HinzundKunz said:
Hello from Tanzania.

We started a regenerative farm east of Dodoma about six years ago. Over time, the number of birds and the variety of bird species skyrocketed, so I started to wonder what bird we actually have on our farm. That's how I got into birdwatching.
Right now I have counted over 80 species of birds on our farm, but there's a lot of the smaller birds that I don't have a clue what they are, as they all look very similar. If anybody has any hints on how to develop the skills to id those, I'd appreciate it very much!

Regards, Martin
Click to expand...
Hi Martin,
Welcome to the forum. The old fashioned way of learning birds is, I think, the best - get a physical field guide (ie a book) and a notebook. When out in the field write notes about the appearance, behaviour and calls, and make quick sketches of the main features if you can. Then flick through the field guide trying to identify what you saw.
Cameras are great, but I know plenty of photographers who never learn to identify what they are photographing, and spend too much time trying to get a shot that they don't bother looking at the bird.
 
Hi, welcome to the forum. I think you will find us a friendly and helpful group.
 
DMW said:
Hi Martin,
Welcome to the forum. The old fashioned way of learning birds is, I think, the best - get a physical field guide (ie a book) and a notebook. When out in the field write notes about the appearance, behaviour and calls, and make quick sketches of the main features if you can. Then flick through the field guide trying to identify what you saw.
Cameras are great, but I know plenty of photographers who never learn to identify what they are photographing, and spend too much time trying to get a shot that they don't bother looking at the bird.
Click to expand...
Thank you! Right now I use Merlin for identifying. It has worked pretty well for the more easily recognizable birds. I also use birdnet for helping with recognizing bird sounds. But I still find birds that I don't know every day. Yesterday for example I could identify 23 birds in about an hour, but saw at least 3 species I don't know. Often I don't really, see, but only hear them.
But it's still absolutely amazing to walk on our farm and be surrounded by hundreds of birds and bird sounds! I enjoy it every day. And it's also very satisfying to get to see a new bird.
 
HinzundKunz said:
Thank you! Right now I use Merlin for identifying. It has worked pretty well for the more easily recognizable birds. I also use birdnet for helping with recognizing bird sounds. But I still find birds that I don't know every day. Yesterday for example I could identify 23 birds in about an hour, but saw at least 3 species I don't know. Often I don't really, see, but only hear them.
But it's still absolutely amazing to walk on our farm and be surrounded by hundreds of birds and bird sounds! I enjoy it every day. And it's also very satisfying to get to see a new bird.
Click to expand...
Merlin is an excellent resource, but (in my opinion) nothing beats being able to flick through a paper field guide when you are in the learning phase, and fortunately there's a very good field guide for East Africa.
 

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