BirdWatching: Birdwatching tourism ready for take-off in Eritrea

By Ed Harris.

ADI KE, Eritrea (Reuters) - High above a rocky cliff top south of Eritrea's capital, Asmara, an Augur Buzzard glides overhead, its broad white wings outstretched.

Down on the ground, Ken Harte, 70, an American tourist and passionate birdwatcher treads past a narrow valley's candelabra trees and prickly pear, hoping for a rare glimpse of a species not yet recorded in the Horn of Africa country.

"The holy grail would be the Blue-Winged Goose," he said, adjusting the cameras hanging from his body. "There are vague reports of it being found in Eritrea, but as far as I know no reliable records."

Eritrea's diversity of forest, desert, mountain, and beach -- lying between 1,396 miles of Red Sea coastline and mountains thousands of feet high -- provide a rich variety for birdlife, experts say.

"Ethiopia-Eritrea are one of Africa's birding hotspots possessing 861 species, including the 30 species endemic (to the two countries)," Jose Luis Vivero Pol wrote in his 2001 book, "A Guide to Endemic Birds of Ethiopia and Eritrea."

Of these 30 species found nowhere else, some 13 have been recorded in Eritrea, attracting birdwatchers keen to expand the lists of rare species they have seen.

"(Thirteen) is a tremendous number for a country this small," said Harte, grinning through his thick beard and boasting that in just two weeks, he has seen 10 of the 13 endemic species.
Harte suspects there were another two species not yet recorded -- the Blue-Winged Goose and the Abyssinian Long-Claw -- though their sightings have not been confirmed.

...this is excellent news for all birders and birdwatchers...