By Cole Watkins
Cole is the Director of Marketing & Advertising of Aggressor Adventures, and in this post, describes his experiences in joining a tour on the Nile Queen II run by his company.
The Nile is known as the river of Egypt’s past, but it is also very much alive in the present. On a recent six-day trip from Luxor to Aswan, I spent as much time with binoculars as I did with guidebooks, watching the riverbanks and skies for birds that make this valley their home.
Large waterbirds were a constant presence. Egyptian Geese often stood watch on the banks, their dark eye patches easy to pick out. Sacred Ibises foraged in the shallows, common here despite their ancient reputation. Both Great White and Pink-backed Pelicans appeared from time to time, wheeling above the river or resting on sandbars.
Egyptian Goose
Not all the birds were so conspicuous. The small but brilliant Nile Valley Sunbird was a highlight — males flashing blue and yellow as they darted among flowering shrubs. Another surprise was a Greater Painted-snipe slipping quietly through reeds. With the female more brightly marked than the male, and the male taking the role of incubator, this bird’s behavior is as unusual as its appearance.
Nile Valley Sunbird
The habitats along the Nile are varied: reedbeds and papyrus stands shelter warblers and kingfishers; open fields and canals draw in plovers, wagtails, and sandpipers. Raptors also use the river valley as a natural flyway, and on good days, kites and eagles can be seen circling on the thermals.
Black Kite
Birding on the Nile often happens against the backdrop of temples and tombs. At Kom Ombo, Pied Kingfishers hovered over the water as visitors explored the ruins. In the Valley of the Kings, swifts screamed overhead. The mix of human and natural history is hard to ignore, and it makes birding here distinctive.
Selected Birds Observed (some from a floating hide used to get closer to the birds)
- Egyptian Goose
- Sacred Ibis
- Nile Valley Sunbird
- Greater Painted-snipe
- Pelicans (Great White and Pink-backed)
- Egrets (Little and Cattle)
- Pied Kingfisher
- Sandpipers and plovers
- Migratory raptors
By the time the boat reached Aswan, my notes held not just lists of species but sketches of behavior and places. The Nile may be most famous for its monuments, but for a birder, the river offers another kind of record — one written in wings and migrations.
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