BIRDING IN UGANDA

There can be few destinations on earth where one can expect to find almost 612 avian species in one park alone Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park. 451 species have been recorded in the Murchison Falls National Park. These two parks alone are among the richest protected areas to be found any where on Earth. Uganda is the richest country for birds in Africa. And this immense volume and diversity occurs miraculously in a space, which keen birders can cover in a relatively short visit. Bwindi is believed to hold the richest faunal community in East Africa including over 346 species of forest bird species. In order to have lifetime birding safari holiday at least you need to visit Uganda and explore its adventure birding vacations

 

Lake Mburo swamp, northern western and southern areas are fringed with dense stands of the giant sedge cyperus papyrus. This seemingly monotonous habitat in fact harbors an amazing number of bird species and there are in fact six birds here that live only in such swamps the so-called papyrus endemics. The papyrus gonolek is one such bird .It has a yellow nape and crown black wings and red breast and long toes to allow it to grip the thick papyrus stalks.

 

These parks recorded species of shoebill , papyrus yellow warbler,African finifoot, saddle billed stork, brown chested wattled plover, Carruther’s cisticola, Tabora cisticola, great snipe, Abyssinian ground hornbill many more. Birding tours in Uganda will yield much .

 

However you are more likely to hear its mellow plaintive calls than to see it.

Over all the mountains contain at least 89 species of forest bird 27% of the country’s total.

 

By Fred Bukenya