The Indian house crow, widely regarded as one of the world’s most destructive invasive bird species, has long posed a threat along Kenya’s coast.
Now, conservationists say the species has been spotted in Nairobi, raising fears that the capital could face a similar invasion if swift action is not taken.
The sighting was reported in the City Stadium area, where a resident noticed birds that appeared out of place, chased them away and took photographs. The images were later shared with conservationists, who confirmed the birds were Indian house crows, signalling what experts warn could be the beginning of the species’ spread into Nairobi.
This isn’t a new bird to Kenya. It’s a new location. The Indian house crow was brought to Zanzibar in the 1890s, imported deliberately to help clean up food waste. Within decades it had spread to the Kenyan coast, first recorded in Mombasa by the late 1940s. Since then it’s become one of the coast’s most persistent conservation headaches: raiding native birds’ nests for eggs and chicks, dominating garbage sites, and multiplying fast, with few natural predators to hold it back.
Moving from the coast to Nairobi would once have meant flying over hundreds of kilometres of habitat that didn’t suit it. But that’s changed. Conservationists believe the crows likely travelled the easy way, along transport corridors like Mombasa Road or the SGR line, hitching a ride on the same routes that move people and goods into the capital.
The concern isn’t just about one noisy, aggressive bird. Nairobi National Park sits inside the city limits, one of the only parks of its kind anywhere in the world. wildlife biologists have raised concerns that an established house crow population there could threaten native birdlife, and that growing numbers close to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Wilson Airport could raise the risk of bird strikes. Neither of those outcomes has happened yet and a team from the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Wildlife service have been conducting surveillance to determine exactly how many birds have arrived in the city and where they are.
The small population sighted is still confined to the Shauri Moyo-Burma Market area with no sightings anywhere else.
