São Tomé and Principé are two islands off the coast of Western Africa. Together they form the second-smallest and second-least populous African sovereign state. (The least populous being the Seychelles.) The capital city, São Tomé, boasts a population of 53,300, one of Africa’s smaller capital cities. Although ST&P are beautiful islands in the Gulf of Guinea, with soft, sandy beaches, friendly people, and producers of some of the finest coffees and chocolates in the entire world, they aren’t much of a major tourist attraction. It also rains quite heavily and the extended rainy season produces a rainfall average of over 6 feet or around 2,000mm per year. (!!!)
These unique islands are home to heaps of endemic species and as far as islands go, they offer some of the most unique birds in the world and we were very excited to visit. Between the two islands there are 28 endemic birds (and likely a few more after further genetic research upgrades several endemic subspecies to full species status.) Not to compares apples to oranges or anything, but to put that level of endemism into perspective, the Galapagos, known for its unique flora and fauna, has approximately 22 endemic birds in 13 islands covering 8,000 km2. São Tomé and Principé are two islands totaling a land area of 1,000 km2, aka 1/8th the size, and they have 28 endemic bird species! Who said size matters?
Not only do these small islands have a bunch of endemics, they have some really weird endemics… for lack of a better word. Giant Sunbird, the largest sunbird in the world; Giant Weaver, the largest weaver in the world; São Tomé Grosbeak, the largest seedeater in the world; On average, and for whatever reason, the birds on these two islands are just bigger. These islands are oceanic, never linked to the mainland, and isolated by waters over 3,000m deep, which probably explains a bit of why these birds are so different and why their size, on average, became so large. Oh, but then there is Dwarf Ibis, the smallest Ibis in the world — the exception to the rule. Like I said, the birds here are weird.
There are endemic species and then, endemic subspecies. Not to complicate things too much, but there’s a subspecies of Principé Seedeater found on both islands. The subspecies of Principé Seedeater on São Tomé is genetically more similar to São Tomé Grosbeak, a completely different bird, than it is with the other “subspecies” of the seedeater on Principé! I can only assume that someday, a few more species splits are likely to occur.
We arrived on São Tomé and immediately went up into the mountains of Monte Carmo. Ross, in his efforts to plan, initially contacted a man named Antonio, whom others had referenced in their reports because it didn’t seem many guide options were in place and taking a guide up into the mountains appeared to be obligatory. Although, after reading one man’s report, apparently Antonio lost the trail just before dark and told the man he was “guiding” to wait for him while he searched for it. Except the sun set and Antonio never came back, leaving the man to sleep on a bed of ferns, alone, in the middle of the forest until the next morning. It didn’t seem like one would get great service with this man but it didn’t seem like we had any other choice. Ross contacted Antonio via WhatsApp and explained to him that we wanted to go into the mountains for two days. Antonio then quoted us 500 euros PER PERSON (!!!) for two days of camping and eating nothing more simple meals. FIVE HUNDRED EUROS?!? Per person?! For two days?! Immediately we knew this wouldn’t work. Ross explained it was too much money and thus declined his services. We could figure something else out. Antonio then began sending an array of messages, going so far as to call Ross greedy and then threatening to show up at the airport anyway to negotiate. (He knew our flight and said he would come to the airport to meet us.) Truth be told I was a bit afraid to land. Ross asked him to stop harassing us and in the end we arrived without any trouble. Thankfully, through the help of Philippe Verbelen and Ricardo Lima, Ross had found another guide, Mitu, who had accompanied them in the past. Mitu charges 40 euros per day regardless of if it’s one person or three.
Dwarf Ibis
Mitu was an excellent local guide. He was simple, efficient, friendly, hard working, easy going and downright excellent at navigating the overgrown trails. He also knew all of the bird calls and could identify the birds from afar, even though he didn’t have binoculars. We met him at his house at the edge of the palm plantation and started up the trail.
Our plan was to go up into the forest for two days in search of the rarest birds of the island. We hoped that the rain wouldn’t impact our visit too much because we didn’t have much time. Due to flight constraints for visiting neighboring island Principé, we could only spend two days on Monte Carmo before needing to fly out, so we hoped to at least tick off all of the birds best found in this location to avoid having to come back. It was clear skies the afternoon that we walked up and as we were walking we flushed a pair of Dwarf Ibises from the ground and then got to watch them as they sat right on a limb in plain view. The hike isn’t terribly hard and in 2-3 hours time we had reached the area where we would be camping (although Ross and I are in excellent hiking shape and this was nothing compared to some of the hikes we did in Tanzania so perhaps don’t take my word for it being “easy.” Jason, a friend who joined us for this portion of the trip might have said differently.)
Remember how I said it rains a lot in São Tomé and Principé? Well, after that initial hike in where it was blue skies and sunny, the skies opened up and the rain ensued. It rained all night long and well into the morning. Our entire campsite was flooded. Everything we owned was wet. We delayed getting out of our tent in hopes it would stop, but eventually we just succumbed to walking in the rain. After a certain point a rain jacket and boots do nothing to protect you from becoming completely soaked. The trails were wet and muddy and we were wet and muddy, but we trudged on anyway. We climbed further up the mountain because São Tomé Fiscal, one of the trickier endemics, seemingly prefers higher elevation. On our first full morning the rain rarely paused and never for longer than 15-20 minute increments. Thankfully during one cessation of rain we came upon our main target, São Tomé Fiscal! Whenever the rain stopped the bird activity increased. We had views of Giant Weaver, São Tomé Weaver, Newton’s Sunbird, Giant Sunbird, and São Tomé Oriole. Unfortunately we never connected with São Tomé Grosbeak and thus would have to climb Monte Carmo again when we returned! It rained almost the entire time we were on Monte Carmo so we at least hoped for better weather next time around! We hurried on down the mountain to catch our flight to Principé.
I don’t typically include logistics in my blog posts (we like to keep the nitty gritty to the trip reports), but I know it’s helpful for some so here’s a few tidbits:
** To anyone wondering, no it does not make sense to fly to São Tomé for two days, fly to Principé for 3 days, and then fly back to São Tomé for a few more days, but due to one of the flights being completely booked, this was the only flight option we had. We were very concerned that we would miss multiple important birds as a result of this flight schedule. Our shortened schedule was made even shorter still because we needed to factor in COVID testing to go between the islands. We certainly could have stayed in the mountains of Monte Carmo longer had we not had to come down to get a COVID test at a certain time.
*** Mitu is a simple man who lives at the base of the palm plantations so getting ahold of him and planning ahead can be difficult because he doesn’t have wifi or WhatsApp. The best way to contact him is to land and call him on arrival and simply hope he is available to guide on the days you need to enter the forest. (Which is what we did after the Antonio fiasco. Mitu likely will be available considering this is his main source of income.) Thankfully Mitu was available for the dates we needed. But since writing this Mitu has bought a smart phone, possibly with the money we paid him on our first excursion out with him, and now can be found on Facebook! He showed us his Facebook but despite multiple attempts we were unable to find him. His name on FB is Mitu Mitu (a surprisingly common name apparently.) If you can find him, planning ahead can be done — just be sure to use Google translate because he doesn’t speak English!