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Uganda has remarkable avian diversity. Country has 1004 species recorded on eBird and get the 4th place in Africa and 18th globally. Fox’s Weaver (Ploceus spekeoides) is the only endemic bird but if we consider to take East Africa, nearly 150 species to be found only in Uganda. Also, the Migrant birds are present from November to April.
In general, Uganda is very wet tropical country. The best season for birding is from June to August and December to February which calls “Dry Season”. Uganda was always in our list but we needed some tipping point to think it about seriously. I thought that it’s checklist of “Golden Naped-Weaver” which was the second record globally. Curiosity leads me to contact with Mark Bankunda and everything starts.
Mark introduced me to the Herbert and received an offer the route which was prepared by Ali Atahan. Atahan studied the Uganda many years ago and well know its potential. We only made some minor adjustments and postpone the Semuliki Park to our next trip. In conclusion we decided to Mabamba Swamp, Budongo Forest, Murchison Falls, Kibale NP and Bigodi Swamp.
For comparison purposes we received many offers and agreed with the Bird Uganda Safaris. Herbert prepared the most suitable offer for us according to our plan. Our Tour Operator appointed as Mark Bankunda, well known birder in the Uganda.
Till the trip, we studied a lot the potentials of the areas and prepared many identification cards by family wise and by Hotspot wise. Also we looked each checklist like a financial guys looking the chart of the stocks.
20th January – Flight to Entebbe
We met at the Adana Airport for our first flight to Istanbul. Not always things happens as our expectation. We didn’t make online check-in to not get random seats and decided to do all together at the airport. First time we experienced that upon check-in, system didn’t give us a seat for Uganda! THY team told us the flight is overbooked and at Istanbul, team will help us. Of course it makes us very nervous. After departures to Istanbul, THY team told that 9 standbys and we have to wait near the gate to hope that 5 people free us their places. Therefore, always make your online check-in earlier as possible!
We got really so nervous. Asked too many person the possiblity to change their flight to lets us go. On a last call, there was 16 places waits their passengers and last minutes a family with 5 person runs to the gate and thats all. Time is up and the ground team allowed us to the plane !!! That moment was like a having a child makes us happy.
Our flight to Entebbe has a stopover on Kigali. It’s also our first experience. Cabin crew was very friendly and flight was quieter nice even we had too many turbulences.
Day 1 : 21th Jan – Arrival and birding in Mabamba Swamp
After an arrival to Uganda, our eSim automatically activated, thanks to Airalo. Visa procedures takes not long time. First impression is very important. All the Ugandan smiling and very friendly. Love them a lot and believed that everything will be better than our expectations.
Mark met us at the exit and we started our birding trip with searching of the “Northern White-faced owl” but unfortunately couldn’t find him. Without loosing any time, we remain him at the end of our trip to search ones more.
As per our itinerary, we drives through the Mabamba Swamp.
Mabamba Swamp (MS) is located on the edge of Lake Victoria and northwest of the Entebbe. MS is a Ramsar site and Important Birding Area(IBA) covering more than 2400ha area with thick marshes of papyrus, water lilies and other wetland grasses. MS has 493 species recorded on eBird and its famous for the Shoebill! MS also hosts huge flocks of Palearctic migrants from October to March.
Weather : Partly cloudy and little foggy
Day Count : 85 species
On the road we stopped several times for a short birding. Of course first excitement, we loss ourselves sometimes. We gained lots of lifers before MS. Great Blue Turaco, Eastern Plantain Eater, White-browed Coucal, Palm-nut Vulture, Lizard Buzzard, Meyer’s Parrot, Green-backed Camaroptera (Gray-backed) and etc. How we amazed when “Shikra” flight over us so closely.
After a many lifer we met the local guide “Wilson” to find a Shoebill and Lesser Jakana. There are too many song birds and weavers on the entrance to the Swamp. Such a beautiful area!
African Jakanas are everywhere and we took very nice photos. Nearly all our targets and also many more, we saw at the swamp. Lesser Jakana was very shy but we photographed well.
Of course the best part of day was finding the “Shoebill”. We asked too many locals but no one saw him, expect the moment that we found! Wilson helped us to get him closer even far from the 3 meters! We amazed with his beauty!
After a tired day, we drived to the Masindi with a small break at the Kampala-Masindi Rd.–Kibangya hotspot. Lot of Marabous was walking around and piapiacs, Cardinal Woodpecker, Gray-headed Kingfisher, Pink-backed Pelikan,etc
Herbert is an amazing person and chose the very best accommodations for us. We had been stay 2 days at the oldest Hotel in Uganda calls Masindi Hotel which was built in 1923. Staff was amazingly welcoming. Dinner was very delicious.
Day 2 : 22th Jan – Budongo Forest
The Budongo Forest (BF) is located on the way to Murchison Falls and not far from the Masindi Hotel. The forest covers 82530 hectares area and an exceptionally large mahogany tree which has 80 meters tall and 20 meters in circumference found here.
BF has more than 400 species recorded in eBird for last 5 years. Chimpanzee tracking also popular activities in BF. After Semuliki National Park, the forest is the second most important in Uganda for species of the Guinea-Congo forest region.
Weather : Clear
Day Count : 92 species
We started the day fresh and slept well. Breakfast was very delicious. We drove to take local guides Raymond and Emma and started firstly at the Nyabyeya Agricultural Fields. Field was very productive for birding and we enjoyed a lot. We gained again lots of lifers under one hour.
Second hotspot is our main hotspot of the day – Budongo Forest : Royal Mile.
Raymond has an amazing skill of finding birds even without using binoculars! He is also singing like a birds. I never see such a skill.
Budongo is a difficult place because of the big trees, lots of bushes. Therefore we just heard some of our targets, like Nahan’s Partridge and Blue-breasted Kingfisher but gained lots of lifers such as Chocolate-backed Kingfisher, Pygym Kingfisher and some sunbirds/flycatchers.
Third places was very enjoyable. It’s also the part of the Budongo, calls Fish Pond. We celebrated the 1500th birds of the Ali Atahan with Cassin’s Spinetail! After this amazing milestone, he included to his lifelist nearly 10 more birds.
With a celebrating emotions, we returned to the Masindi Hotel and made small birding at the garden. +3 lifer for all of us!
Day 3 : 23th Jan – Murchison Falls
Day started at 5 in the morning. We had a good breakfast and prepared for the next location, Murchison Falls!
Murchison Falls National Park (MF) is the one of the best place for birding, not because it has the widest bird selection, but because it has a unique bird selection. MF has a special distribution, full of different ecosystems such as the savannah grass and woodlands, rain forests, riverine vegetation which are home for a lot of bird species. And, this is possibly the reason for the varied categories of avian life, like the water birds and open land birds, that support the birding safaris in MF.
MF has over 650 bird species recorded on eBird (with all its subareas), some of which are endemic to the albertine region only, and others are special birds and endangered. Other birds are the common birds of east Africa that can be found every in every protected area in Uganda.
Weather : Sunny and clear
Day Count : 85 species
On the road we saw Crowned Hornbill and Gray-backed fiscal which was the lifer for us.
Babuns welcomed us at the gate of Murchison and we started another checklist till the Boat Trip. Black-billed barbet, northern carmine bee-eaters, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Bateleur, Goliath Heron and many more are new lifers. We made the forth record for the “Southern Carmine Bee-Eater” in Uganda!
The boat trip was amazing. We drive through the end of the falls and saw 45 species. 3 Giant Kingfisher became the king of the day. We took several good photos. Skimmers, Gray Kestrel, African Darter and goose and ducks are the nice lifers. Additionally, many mammals around the Nile.
Actually, boat tour was not for the purpose of birding. It’s a touristic tour to show the beauty of the waterfalls and nature. Mark told our targets to the staff. We admired them a lot that they really did their best to show us a Giant Kingfishers and Skimmers. Never saw such a friendly approach in nowhere.
Red Chili Hideaway our two days accomodations with no wi-fi and limited electricity. It was an interesting experience for us. Staff was also warned us to not leave the room at night because of the potential dangers of mammals.
Day 4 : 24th Jan – Murchison Falls
Weather : Hot and clear
Day Count : 106 birds and many mammols
Day started at the 6 in the morning. We took our packed breakfast and lunch than start for birding. Our initial plan was birding from Nile to Swamp area, 2 hours short rest at the nile than with alternative routes to Swamp Area, night birding.
Till lunch we saw many mammals includes Leopard, Elephants, Giraffe, etc.
Nearly we found all our main target birds and adds some more. Gray Crowned Crane (Icon of the Uganda) Wattled and Black Headed Lapwings, Caspian Plover, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Spurfolws, etc.
After a short cold drink break, we started for the night birding. We found one of our targets, Black Bellied Bustard and Pied Cuckoo before sunset. Enjoyable part of the day started at night with Nightjars! We found 10 nightjars, 1 long-tailed, 2 plain, 1 Pennath-wigned and 5 undefined. We never saw before such a big number of nightjars in a short time.
We came back to our lodge nearly at 21 and rest for our long drive to Fort Portal.
Day 5 : 25th Jan – Road to Fort Portal
Weather : Clear
Day Count : 57 species
Today was a road birding day! From Murchison to Fort Portal is too far to drive so we only spotted for the new birds. Striped Kingfisher and Beaudouin’s Snake Eagles are our lifers!
On the road from Kyenjejo to Fort Portal, we saw hundreds of people walking for Uganda Martyrs. Sad religious history.
Herbert suprised us and change the Hotel from Home Bliss to Chimpanzee Forest Lodge! Words are not enough to describe how beautiful here it is. After check-in, we go for birding and got 46 species and many lifers.
Day 6 : 26th Jan – Kibale NP – Bigodi Swamp
Weather : Starts clear, than rainy and sunny
Day Count : 87 species and many mammals including chimpanzees.
Day started at 05:30! After a good breakfast, we directly drive to check-in for Chimpanzees Tracking thank started searching for the Pittas! For the emergency purposes Mark remains at the car and Davis joined us.
Kibale National Park (KN) is a national park in western Uganda, protecting moist evergreen rainforest. It is 766 square kilometres in size. Despite encompassing primarily moist evergreen forest, it contains a diverse array of landscapes. Kibale is one of the last remaining expanses to contain both lowland and montane forests. In eastern Africa, it sustains the last significant expanse of pre-montane forest.
KN is the most accessible of Uganda’s major rainforests which recorded more than 600 species on eBird. But the forest also hard for birding! We heard lots of birds and couldn’t catch them. Narina Trogon called many times but he’s kidding with Ali , I think, didn’t showed his faced. Today also not for Pittas unfortunately. Then started rains and we leave the area and started chimpanzees tracking with Ali and Utku. Our guide Milka assisted us under the rain and we found chimpanzees and got our certificates.
Our next location is one of our best, Bigodi Swamp! As a part of the KB, Bigodi Swamp(BS) has 4.5km birding road which includes hundreds of species.
Wilson and Davis assisted us for our trip. We amazed with the beauty of this place a lot. Maybe the best for our trip. We got many lifer includes Green Crombec and Black-Bellied Seedcracker. Also clearly saw the White-spotted Flufftail which we heard before at the Budongo. Our guides are very professional on their own.
On the road to the Lodge, we saw with Mark a Black-Bee Eather but couldn’t get photos. On the lodges some of us continued birding and some rested. We tried traditional drinks calls “Waragi”. Smells nice, taste good. William and Roger also joined us from another company. We celebrated our trip once more and had fun.
Day 6 : 27th Jan – Entebbe Botanical Garden
Weather : Clear
Day Count : 82 species
Our final day started with a good breakfast. We searched on the road for Black Bee-Eather and Green Pigeon. We stopped for a small birding at the Fort Portal wetlands and Kibale NP-North End. We got nearly ten lifers from there including the Green Pigeon, Cassin’s Flycatcher, Mountain Wagtail and Highland Rush Warbler.
When we came to Entebbe, we checked again the Northern White-faced Owl and Bat Hawk at the Guest House but unfortunately couldn’t find them. So without losing any time, we went to Entebbe Botanic Garden for more birding. Entebbe Botanical Garden was established in 1901 and strategically located on the shores of Africa’s greatest Lake, Victoria, just 34 km’s from Kampala. The gardens are an attractively laid-out mix of indigenous forest, cultivation, and horticulture, and a highly attractive destination to birdwatchers.We gained 7 lifers! Dideric Cuckoo, Hooded Volture, Northern Black and Black headed paradise Flycatcher, Golden-Back and Slender-billed and Tawny flanked prinia.
Herbert again surprised us! He arranged a Hotel before our departure at 6:00 AM. It was never in our planned and really amazed with the hospitality of him. After a small shopping, we take our beer to celebrate our trip at the Entebbe Traveler’s Hotel.
Conclusion
We really not expected such an amazing trip. Ugandan people are always smiling, helpful and very positive. Foods are delicious. Hospitality is the top. One week of a trip, we saw 321 species! Incredible number.
We strongly recommend you to visit Uganda and strongly suggesting to contact with Bird Uganda Safaris. They are doing best!