Birds of a Feather

During my short stay in Nairobi, I had the good fortune of seeing quite a number of beautiful birds. The garden surrounding the Fairview Hotel is large and green, with lots of feeding stations for various species. My experience was also greatly enhanced by reading the lovely book “A Guide to the Birds of East Africa” by Nicholas Drayson.

This book had caught the eye of Charlie, a keen bird watcher and blogger, who wrote a review recommending it although at the same time criticising it for being inaccurate in some places. Although Drayson has studied zoology and has a PhD in 19th century Australian natural history writing, he is apparently more of a platypus expert. However, he did a very good job defending his rights as a fiction writer when interviewed by Charlie, who was very impressed by his kindness.

Although I love my little camera, it is not especially well suited for taking pictures of birds (as you can see from the photos). However, there are plenty of much better photographers who have made an excellent job of catching the little creatures on film and there is lots of information on how to go on bird watching tours in Kenya. If you want to know what to look for, Wikipedia has an excellent list of all the indigenous species.

I was lucky to get some wooden birds from the Birds Paradise Souvenir Shop though. Don’t miss it!