GHANA'S SPLENDID, BEAUTIFUL AND SUPERB BIRDS (8/21/03)

Much as we may use the adjectives splendid, beautiful and superb when referring to certain bird sightings, they are usually just descriptive terms we’ve chosen to describe a beautiful bird.

However, in West Africa, these are actually the first names of some of the birds, notably the sunbirds, which come close to being the Old World’s version of our hummingbirds. Incredibly colored, they buzz around tree blossoms, dazzling those who are fortunate enough to spot them.

African birds, for the most part, are truly enjoyable. There are many, though, that dart through the lower thickest foliage or remain high up in dense trees, thus defying our abilities to get good looks at them. Our latest trip to the Dark Continent was to Ghana, a country little-known to tourists. Only in Accra, the capital, is there first-class accommodation for visitors. In the country, even at the national parks, Ghana’s infrastructure is not aimed at foreigners.

Nevertheless, it is an incredibly interesting country. Although poor, its people seem far better off than those of other black countries in which we have gone birding. Ghana is 50% Christian and 25% Muslim, religions which have strict codes about premarital sex, so that Aids is not the problem it is elsewhere.

Before I get to our birding adventures, I want to tell you what makes Ghana a special place for American visitors. It is the largest area from which slaves were exported to England, Portugal and the New World, so many Black Americans journey hear to learn about their roots and to see for themselves where their ancestors left Africa for America We spent an afternoon near Accra at Cape Coast Castle that once served as the headquarters for the slave trade. The museum and plaques on the walls, to say nothing of the dungeons where slaves were held until a ship became available, tell the whole story in an unbiased manner. It was a moving and amazing experience that we gained although we’d come primarily to see Ghana’s birds.

West Africa has many birds not found elsewhere on the continent, so we knew we would be seeing many new species. Ghana is situated on the large bulge that projects into the Atlantic Ocean. It is adjacent to the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) and Burkina Faso, both French-speaking countries. It once was the leading producer of cocoa, but that title now belongs to the Ivory Coast. 

We spent our first six nights at a Botel, somewhat of a combination boat and hotel, although the boat part was merely the structures for the dining areas and bar built out over a large pond that hosted crocodiles, as well as night-roosting herons. From there, we went daily to the Kakum National Park and its surrounding areas some 12 miles away. This park has an attraction beloved by the locals and certainly a drawing card for visitors — a canopy walkway, the only such structure on the African continent.  

Although most people seem to find satisfaction just walking the 350 meters (slightly less than a quarter of a mile) between the seven platforms attached to emergent trees, each taking one ever higher into the surrounding forest, as birders we spent many hours on the one extra-large platform. From there, we could look down on birds we would never have been able to see through the intervening foliage from below, my favorite being the very tiny tit-hylia. We could watch broad open expanses above the canopy of many trees for flying and roosting birds, and, of course, we could see the sky without obstruction. We even visited the walkway at night with the good fortune of looking down on one of the rarest birds of our trip, a brown nightjar, a not too distant relative of our whippoorwill, but a very rare and little-known bird.

From the canopy walkway we also saw many varieties of hornbills, barbets, sunbirds, drongos, wood doves and cuckoos, while on the ground woodhoopoes, tinkerbirds, broadbills, greenbuls, cisticolas, fire finches, cordonbleus kept us busy. Wouldn’t you all love to see birds with names like those oh-so-African ones?

While still in this area, we experienced a most amazing sight, beating anything even similar to it anywhere else we have ever been: the nightly descent of Preuss’s swallows, similar to our cliff swallow, into a large culvert under the road where we awaited their approach. Estimating their numbers as they arrived in a swirling dense and dark cloud was nigh on to impossible.

We also visited Mole National Park. The lodge, set high on a bluff, provided splendid views of a marsh and the elephants and other mammals that visited the lake. Twice during our stay, we descended to this area, finding new birds every few minutes. From here we went north almost to the border with Burkina Faso, formerly Upper Volta. Almost as interesting as the variety of birds were the rambling mud homesteads of the local Farafara tribespeople with their conical grain storage outbuildings and pottery-making kilns.

As for mammals, there were almost no large game animals. We did, however, see interesting squirrels, large fruit bats, galagos, Western pied colobus, spot-nosed and Lowe’s monkeys, a variety of antelopes, as well as African elephants, seemingly a much more friendly breed than we’ve encountered elsewhere.

Altogether, Ghana was a country with a panoply of constantly changing scenes and experiences.

Please send your comments and anecdotes about birds to emiller@seepub.com. I regret that because of an overwhelming amount of mail, I cannot respond to each of you personally. However, I have added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to the web page with my current and past bird columns. If you can’t find the answer to your question there, try Bird Watcher’s Digest at 1-800-879-2478 or check out their FAQ at www.birdwatchersdigest.com.

GRAPHIC: Grey-headed kingfisher, courtesy of Adam Riley, South Africa