Birding Safaris Uganda - The Birders’ Paradise

Uganda is endowed with over 1000 bird species. This puts Uganda in a premier position over other countries in Africa. The vegetation ranging from savannahs, semi-desert, montane rain forests, wetlands and Afro-Alpine zone to thick impenetrable rain forests is a rich habitat for the most sought-after birds in the world.

West and Central African bird species are only resident in Uganda in the whole of East Africa. The Albertine Rift Endemics (ARE) with a checklist of over 25 species is also resident in Bwindi Impenetrable Forests and the Mgahinga National Parks.

Wetlands

  • Uganda has 30,000 square kilometers of wetland.
  • 210 species from the Shoebill and African Skimmer to the endemic Fox’s Weaver.
  • 4 Papyrus endemics; Papyrus Gonolek, Papyrus Canary, White-winged Warbler and Papyrus Yellow Warbler.
  • A White-winged Black Tern roost of 2-3 million birds in the Entebbe area.

Savannahs vary from the remote, semi-dessert, dry thorn-scrub region of Karamoja in the Northeast, to the richer fertile savannahs of the western Rift valley. Queen Elizabeth National Park has a bird list of 604 species the highest for any protected area in Africa.

Some of the dry thorn-scrub birds:

  • Swallow-tailed Kite
  • Pygmy Falcon
  • Fox Kestrel
  • Quail Plover
  • Black-headed Plover
  • Lichtenstein’s and Four-banded Sandgrouse
  • Kori, White-bellied and Hartlaub’s Bustards
  • White-crested TuracoShoebill in Uganda
  • White-bellied Go-away bird
  • Piapiac
  • Bristle-crowned Starling
  • Abyssinian Roller
  • Abyssinian Ground Hornbill
  • Karamoja Apalis
  • Yellow-billed Shrike
  • Pygmy Sunbird
  • Brown-rumped Bunting-
  • The Shoebill

Kampala and Entebbe

  • Over 550 species for the region.
  • A suburban garden list of 206 species.
  • 212 species listed in 12hrs by 3 people.
  • One of the largest urban breeding colony of Marabou Storks.
  • Great Blue and Ross’s Turacos are common city birds.

Within The Kampala region are two major forest reserves less than an hours drive from the city which hold a variety of very special birds including;

  • Nahan’s Francolin
  • Cassin’s Hawk Eagle
  • Crowned Eagle
  • Blue-breasted and White-bellied Kingfishers
  • Blue-throated Roller
  • Purple-throated Cuckoo-shrike
  • Tit-Hylia
  • Brown Twinspot
  • Grey-rumped and Blue Swallows
  • Emerald, Red-chested and Black Cuckoos
  • Weyn’s Weaver.

Some common urban Birds;

  • Open-billed Stork
  • Grey-crowned Crane
  • Wahlberg’s Eagle
  • Palm-nut Vulture
  • Black and White Casqued, Crowned and Pied Hornbills
  • Cuckoo Hawk
  • Bat Hawk
  • White-faced Scops Owl
  • African Grey and Brown Parrots
  • Red-faced Lovebird
  • Black-headed Gonolek

Uganda’s 10 most commonly sought after Birds.

African Jacana in Uganda - Shoebill
- African Green Broadbill
- Green-breasted Pitta
- Nahan’s Francolin
- Brown-chested Plover
- Karamoja Apalis
- Black Bee-eater
- Ruwenzori Turaco
- Red-fronted Antpecker
- Purvell’s Illadopsis
- The African Jacana

Migration

  • Uganda is situated in a major flyway between the Albertine and Great rift Valleys.
  • Of Uganda’s 1008 species, 137 are Palearctic migrants.
  • At times of peak Spring passage, Waders congregate at all the muddy lagoons around the Entebbe peninsular with mixed flocks of thousands of birds.
  • Thousands of Steppe Buzzards and migrant Black Kites head south with smaller numbers of Honey Buzzard, Steppe and Booted Eagles each October.
  • Flocks of European Hobbies moving through join their African counterparts to feed at dusk in flocks of upto 30 or more around the hills of Kampala.
  • Barn Swallow and Sandmartins congregate in the millions feeding on the even larger swarms of Lake Flies.
  • The Yellow Wagtail overwinters with an estimated 1 million birds roosting in the reedbeds along the Kazinga Channel in QENP.

Conclusion

 

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