Birding at Koroi Forest Camp

You don’t expect a forest camp on the slopes of Mount Meru to feel like several countries in one. But that’s the thing about Koroi — step off the veranda and the birding changes faster than almost anywhere else in East Africa.

The atlas square that holds Koroi, Arusha National Park and Meru’s full altitudinal range has produced around 700 species. That number matters less for what it says than for what it implies: within a few days’ driving and walking, you can move through lower and upper montane forest, riverine woodland, open woodland, moist grassland, alkaline lakes and the bare high shoulders of a 4,500-meter volcano — and, with one excursion beyond the park boundary, add short-grass plains and dry Somali-Masai bushland on top. Few birding bases anywhere let you cross that many biomes without changing hotels.