BIRDING IN ZIMBABWE

Eastern Highlands

Birding areas in the Eastern Highlands

Aberfoyle
Cecil Kop
Chimanimani National Park
Chirinda Forest
Haroni-Rusitu
Nyanga
Vumba

Welcome to birding in Eastern Highlands

The Eastern Highlands is a very special area with a 260km long mountain chain running north-south along the Mozambican border. Rainforests clad the eastern slopes and receive orographic rainfall and moisture from the sea. Nyanga in the north leads to Mutare, the Vumba highlands are then broken to the south by the Burma valley and the mountains continue through the Chimanimani National Park to dramatically plummet down to the Haroni-Rusitu junction with its lowland forests. The Chipinge area further south has the unique upland ‘island’ of Mount Selinda. Just east of the Nyanga highlands lies the Honde Valley which runs into Mozambique and shares some lowland specials. These montane forest and grasslands, mountain peaks, gorges and waterfalls support 23 Afrotropical Highland biome species – and again a completely different set of restricted range birds like Chirinda Apalis and Roberts’s Warbler – and many more. See below for places to stay.