A paradise of birds
At about 45km from Lake Langano, going in the direction of Addis Ababa Capital, it is possible to stop in the small town of Zua which is an excellent starting point for visiting Lake Ziway.
Zua is a tiny, fervent town of humanity and although the primary goal is to visit Lake Ziway it can also be interesting to spend some time observing the frenetic activity of the population intent on daily activities.
It is possible to visit the lake by boat, rented by one of the many fishermen who will be happy to take you around in exchange for an appropriate fee, but for those who did not have too much time and wanted to see the largest number of endemic species the advice is to take a walk through one of Zua's piers.
With a short walk you can see many species of birds that frequent the pier or its surroundings, looking for food. The first, and the one with the greatest impact, is certainly the African Marabou, a large bird belonging to the Ciconiidae family, which, however, has very little of the beauty of its most famous cousins, the white storks. The Marabou has, more or less, the same size of the stork but the similarities end there: the beak is definitely larger and less graceful and the head looks like a bald head on which grows a disordered tuft of hair. In addition to being unattractive, Marabou also has a "questionable" diet, feeding, mostly, corpses. On the other hand brilliantly fulfills his role as a sweeper for which it is tolerated and is not bothered by the natives.
In addition to the Marabou it is possible to see small groups of Pelicans, who are often attracted by the fishermen in the port who throw fish scraps, the Alopochen aegyptiaca, more commonly known as "Egyptian goose", of the friendly Scopus Umbretta, small hammer-headed birds and , finally, of the beautiful Martin Pescatori.
Passing an hour on the pier you can see many species but if you want to deepen the visit, with a motor boat and a few hours available, you can enjoy a relaxing trip with which to observe many species of birds.