Kumbira forest: the Gabela endemics at dawn
Gabela akalat, Gabela bushshrike, Monteiro's bushshrike, Pulitzer's longbill, red-crested turaco, Gabela helmetshrike (rare), yellow-bellied wattle-eye, Hartert's camaroptera. Kumbira forest, Conda/Gabela, Cuanza Sul escarpment, Angola.
Best time: 1 Jun – 30 Sep (June to September). Where: Kumbira forest – Conda, Gabela – town and surrounding forest patches (Angola). Time of day: From first light to about 09:30 in the escarpment forest.
- Partly on your own
- Low cost
- Binoculars helpful
- Sound 4/5
Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.
When is the best time?
Peak: 1 Jun – 30 Sep. June to September (dry season, when the birding tours run and the tracks are open); song increases again with the first rains in October–November
Active from 1 May to 30 Nov (May to November) in a typical year.
Time of day
From first light to about 09:30 in the escarpment forest; a shorter afternoon song period from 16:00
- Dawn chorus: first light → 09:30
- Afternoon song: 16:00 → sunset
What will you hear?
Red-crested turacos croaking through the coffee-forest canopy, the loud, ringing calls of Monteiro's and Gabela bushshrikes, the akalat's thin song in the understorey — a set of species found nowhere else on earth — with farm cocks, goats and the Conda road in the background.
Binoculars?
Binoculars helpful. Turacos and bushshrikes in coffee-forest canopy at close range; binoculars help pick out the akalat in the understorey.
Where to go
- Kumbira forest – Conda — Escarpment forest above the old coffee plantations; reached from Conda village on foot or 4x4 tracks. Map
- Gabela – town and surrounding forest patches — The type locality of the endemics; farmed forest edges along the roads. Map
How to go on your own, and what it costs
Shared transport from Sumbe or Gabela to Conda; walk the tracks into the forest from the village. A local guide (a few thousand kwanzas) is customary and the way to find the endemics, but the tracks are public.
Cost: Free on the tracks; local guide by negotiation, check current prices.
Free or no-guide alternative: The road and coffee-farm edges between Conda and Gabela are public: turacos, bushshrikes and the escarpment chorus at dawn cost nothing.
Field-recording notes
No protected-area status: this is village and former plantation land, so access is a matter of courtesy and a local guide from Conda (customary, and needed to find the paths and the birds). The forest is being cleared for farming and the endemics are Endangered — no playback. Cacimbo mornings are misty and cool; rains bring leeches and mud from November. The Angola Field Group knows the current guides.
Sources
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More: all spectacles in Angola · dawn choruses · Angola in June · Angola in July · Angola in August · Angola in September