Ghana - Birds, Rare Mammals & Butterflies

On arrival off your international flight into Kotoka International Airport, you'll be welcomed and transferred to your hotel for an overnight stay.

Today's focus will be the Shai Hills Reserve and Kakum National Park. After breakfast, your private, experienced, professional, wildlife expert guide and your private driver will meet you at your hotel. Set off in your private, air-conditioned four-wheel-drive vehicle for the open grassland savannah of Shai Hills Reserve, where birdlife is prolific. Sightings may include the likes of yellow-fronted tinkerbird; snowy-crowned robin-chat; African pygmy kingfisher; Vieillot's and double-toothed barbets; white-crowned cliff chat; red-shouldered cuckoo-shrike; violet turaco; Senegal parrot; Senegal batis; blue-bellied roller; swallow-tailed bee-eater; oriole warbler; black-capped and brown babblers; copper and splendid sunbirds; African thrush; red-necked and lizard buzzards; and the iconic little stone partridge. Butterflies we hope to see include mocker swallowtail; narrow-banded green swallowtail; white lady; scarlet tip; common dotted boarder and African joker. Mammals we should see include Egyptian tomb bat, which has been recorded in the cave network. Time will be spent seeking bats, rodents and other resident mammals such as olive baboon, red-fronted duiker, kob and bushbuck. Shai Hills has an interesting local history. You can see the many traditional shrines near the bat caves and learn the history of the Shai people, who moved here to escape the slave raiders during the colonial period. After a wonderful morning in Shai Hills, continue to Kakum National Park, stopping for a late lunch along the way. Your accommodation, the Rainforest Lodge, is fairly close to Kakum and arrival should be in the early evening.

Enjoy seeking birds, rare mammals and butterflies in Kakum National Park during morning and evening visits to the canopy walkway and trails. After an early breakfast, set off for the canopy walkway at Kakum National Park, which is an approximate 15-minute drive from your lodge. The aim will be to reach Kakum at first light, so as to benefit from the busiest bird activity period while 40 meters above the forest floor on the canopy walkway, in which seven platforms are large enough to support telescopes. The 360 km² Kakum National Park protects secondary and some primary Upper Guinea semi deciduous tropical rainforest. Chief target species during your time on the canopy walkway include violet-backed hyliota; Sharpe's apalis; massive brown-cheeked hornbills as well as copper-tailed glossy starling; Bioko batis; the lovely blue cuckoo-shrike; little green woodpecker and the weird white-crested hornbill. Other birds often seen here include blue-throated brown, green, collared, Johanna’s and the beautiful buff-throated sunbirds; both red-headed and crested malimbes; rosy bee-eater; white-breasted and grey-crowned nigritas; red-fronted and African grey Parrots; western, black-headed and black winged orioles; rare Preuss's and yellow-mantled weavers; green hylia; yellow-billed turaco; emerald cuckoo; blue-throated roller; hairy-breasted and naked-faced barbets; Cassin's honeybird and African pied hornbill. Kakum is an excellent forest area for butterflies, and you may see the likes of Kakum fairy hairstreak; western kakumia and Kakum diopetes, which were named after the park. Nine swallowtail species are expected to be seen here, and Kakum is home to a wide range of pashas, including giant charaxes and the enigmatic black-bordered charaxes. Another specialty in Kakum is Augerger’s glider - a rare endemic, known only from Kakum and two or three sites in Ivory Coast. The magnificent giant African skipper is fairly common in the forest. Your guide will be keeping their eyes peeled for the incredible and highly sought-after long-tailed pangolin, as Ghana offers the best opportunities to see this wonderful mammal. Among the resident squirrels, you may spot African giant forest; Gambian, red-legged, green, fire-footed rope and slender-tailed squirrels in addition to other species. After a wonderful morning, return to your lodge to freshen up and enjoy lunch. During the heat of mid-afternoon, you'll have the option of birding around your lodges, grounds, resting in your air-conditioned rooms, relaxing around the swimming pool and bar or even going on a cultural excursion to Cape Coast Castle. Re-visit the canopy walk in the later afternoon/evening, when your main targets will be the endangered olive colobus, Lowe's mona monkey, Geoffrey’s pied colobus and lesser spot-nosed monkeys. Your guide will try again for a pangolin sighting, as well as the remarkable Lord Derby’s and Pel's anomalures, which are large, nocturnal 'scaly tailed' squirrels. Bats are present in good numbers. Please do be aware though, that in West African rainforests, mammal-watching is unpredictable - species tend to be present in low densities, and in difficult terrain. Furthermore, mammals are mostly skittish due to illegal hunting for the bushmeat trade.