Site Report: Parque Natural Obo do Principe, Sao Tome and Principe

Visits

• 2026-10-31: After an off-day due to the late-night owl search, we got an early start to visit Obo Natural Park in search of the Principe Thrush. We reached the trailhead, and there was a very angry guy there who I thought was not letting us into the forest for some reason, it was difficult to figure out what was going on, but eventually, we started the hike. There was a lot of hiking through mud, and after climbing up a bunch of vines in high humidity without finding the thrush, I was ready to give up birding for good. We were still not seeing the thrush when it became time to start heading back. We reached a point in the trail that was probably the last possible chance to find the thrush, and to my surprise, I saw a flash of a brown bird with yellow legs. It was the thrush, and it stopped for a long pose just behind a tree on the trail. After returning to the boat, we found out that we were giving the angry guy a ride back to town. I guess that he was mad because he had been expecting us to pick him up the day before. On arrival back at the hotel, there was some confusion about who we were supposed to pay. The boatman demanded a 30 euro payment, which in the end, may have been a demand for a tip. The payment situation got a bit uncomfortable, and we ended up having to wire an extra 30 euro payment to pay for the guide. Of course, it took like a week for the transfer to clear, which made the guide even more unhappy...

Species Seen

Lifelists

• Africa
• World

Trips