Calle Donostia-San Sebastián, 60 01010 Vitoria, Álava, SPAIN ( elcorralin@yahoo.es )   Photo: Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill in Bugala Island (photo: Nerea Ruiz de Azua)

General tips

Uganda, formerly the Pearl of Africa, is still a paradise for birding, but as stated by some other trip reports in http://www.birdtours.co.uk, should be visited as soon as possible. The increasing human population and related pressures on the environment may have impacts which, in the medium-long term, can take the country to an ecological impoverishment. In rural areas, few forested patches remain, and cultivated lands extent to the top of the mountains, even at step slopes, where continuous fire clearings can be seen. Besides, extensive Eucalyptus plantations are managed for timber-cutting. Natural resources are exploited to the limit by people with no other living alternatives, so national parks preserve the remnants of once a rich wildlife. This was decimated by poachers and soldiers alike during civil unrest in the eighties, but currently the country enjoys more stable times.

As for birds, Uganda presents a list of more than a thousand species, one of the richest in the world. The most representative and interesting habitats, to me, are the extensive swamp, papyrus marshes and lake shores, in this truly lake country. Grassland and savannas are not so vast as in Kenya or Tanzania, and tropical forests seem to be restricted to certain parks and reserves. But Uganda holds them all, being like a bridge for life between Eastern plains and Central African woods, with the great advantage of a landscape not still spoiled by tourism. We didn’t find large numbers of tourists there, and that was a plus in our perception of the country.

In my experience, people are absolutely nice and friendly, even in small towns and villages, where poverty reaches absolute disaster for European standards. But for birders, two main problems arise. First, it’s very difficult to walk in rural areas without getting children companion, who in turn will offer help to reach any desired or undesired destination. And second, people will ask you to let them have a look with binoculars; I made in this way my own contribution to popularization of birdwatching among cheerful Ugandans. If practical advices are to be given, I would highlight the irregular state of roads, with many bumpy, slow driving sections and lots of dust in the dry season (presumable impractical in the rainy), and the importance of ordering meals in advance at restaurants (also not many variations to order).

The beauty of birdwatching in Africa is that birds are everywhere. And for instance, campsites are excellent places to enjoy, when each new species –no matter its status or rate for twitchers- is a celebration. Everywhere in the country you may find a particular poster showing pictures of the national list of birds, and that’s a remark about the estimation Ugandans have for their bird fauna, and the hope deposited on foreign birders as a tourist driving force. My own list is a quite short one, mainly because the trip was not mented for birding. But I’m reasonable proud of it, because my point is that the fun in watching birds and their behaviour -sparrows and shoebills alike- is to discover new things and enjoy nature, rather than the ticking sportive competition.

Guide

We travelled with East African Explorers Safaris (www.explorerssafaris.jazztel.es), a company based in Uganda but also operating in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Our guide was Robert Byakutaga, and both him and the driver (David Habarugira) made a very pleasant and confident atmosphere, besides solving any inconveniences that could arise along the way. I must say this tour was not a specific birding one, but a tourist journey with general focus on wildlife. That means that national parks were to be visited, but no search for birds in particular was made. So, bird spotting was done while on game-drives, ferry boat-crossing, waterfalls visiting, canoeing, forest walking… 

Books and references

I really recommend Where to Watch Birds in Uganda, by J. Rossouw & M. Sacchi and published on behalf of the Uganda Tourist Board, for anyone planning to visit the country with the intention of doing some birding. It includes maps and even detailed trails to follow about the 15 areas covered, with useful indications. Maybe the traveller using this book would thank more practical information about travelling, accommodation or facilities as provided in the first chapter, but indeed that’s not its aim, and there are some other travel guides devoted to. Certain bird-spotting-sites and remarks proved to be astonishingly precise for me, like the reference about Cassin’s Flycatcher in Ishasha river, about Rock Pratincole in Murchison Falls and some more, while others not so much; the 10 years period since the writing of the book may well explain these.

Anyway, I think any comments on this book should be reviewed in relation to expectations and identification knowledge of the particular birder. I myself, though familiarized with every European bird groups and most species, feel somewhat defenceless in the African ornithological environment, facing unknown bird families and having no previous knowledge about African avifauna (and I’m not referring just to those LBJ’s). I cannot recognize or think off many species’ names alone, so this means that nearly every bird I come into is new and fully attractive.

My main help in the hard task of identifying has been Birds of Africa South of the Sahara, by I. Sinclair and Peter Ryan. This is a most valuable and comprehensive book, which I presume being an editorial success among non-African birders, as is the only bird guide that can be found at every bookshop in airports. If your interest is, like mine, just identification, here you’ll find all you need; but hints on natural history would have been impossible to include in a manageable volume. I can only say that illustrations are not equally accurate across families and some range maps not completely precise, but these drawbacks are common even in European guides. If you’re only intending to visit Eastern Africa, the Birds of East Africa by T. Stevenson & J. Fanshawe is a sound election, because it shows complete descriptions, more plumages featuring females and juveniles, and more accurate maps.

Journey

Our route started in the Entebbe-Kampala area, to the north shore of great Lake Victoria. Apart from chaotic but really “african” Kampala, the Entebbe Wildlife Education Centre is worth visiting (and supporting its conservation goals in this country). First step was Murchison Falls National Park, where we spent one and a half days including a game-drive through Borassus palm savanna and Nile delta, a boat cruise and a trekking to the top of the falls. The road to Murchison Falls NP passes by Budongo Forest Reserve but unfortunately we didn’t stop there. Next birding stage was Semuliki National Park and its superb rainforest, western tip of the vast Congo Basin forests that stretches from the very Atlantic. We reached there by the winding road that holds the Rwenzori slopes from Fort Portal. Next, Queen Elizabeth National Park, where we made game-drives through Mweya and Kasenyi open grasslands, and the advisable launch trip in Kazinga Channel. We spent two days at Mweya, and next destination was the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth NP, a three hours drive on a bumpy dirt road. Here, nearly every birding was done in game-drives. Although we entered Rwanda via Kisoro to make a gorilla-trekking in Parc National des Virungas, I couldn’t manage to do any birding and concentrate all my energy on primates. After entering Uganda again, we visited Lake Bunyoni near Kabale, and then crossed Lake Victoria to the main Sesse Island (Bugala), with a tropical forested landscape and paradise-like beaches. The last place we visited was Jinja, the second Ugandan city, with the source of the Nile finally discovered to westerners by Speke.

Placemarks for our birdings sites in Uganda.

Birding highlights

• Marabou Storks form a very remarkable aspect of Kampala landscape. Lots can be seen constantly flying over the city or standing on roofs, but they’re present in every Ugandan town (Fort Portal, Mbarara…) feeding on street rubbish, completely unaware of people (a reciprocal feeling). I must confess the only Hooded Vultures of the journey were observed in Kampala. Local variety of Grey-headed Sparrow, which is the only commensal sparrow (or even the only sparrow) in towns and human settlements, seems to lack white throat and rufous tinge on back extends towards head, not as shown on general guides.
• Apart from our first pair of Crowned Cranes, Ugandan national bird, at Murchison Falls NP I would point out the noticeable and common Pin-tailed whydah, a beautiful bird with disgusting habits as brood parasite, and above all the incredible Pennant-winged Nightjar, spotted at night from the car while arriving to the camp site. The Victoria Nile, riverine forests and swamp areas around delta and Lake Albert shore offer very good opportunities for herons and egrets, ducks (only spot of Comb Duck here), storks, plovers, kingfishers, martins and swallows, including the White-headed Saw-wing, with impressive flock feeding by de Falls. Red-throated and Norther-carmine bee-eaters both have colonies not far from Paraa Lodge. As for grasslands, most spectacular birds were Denham’s and Black-bellied bustards, but above all Northern Ground-hornbill. But the most sought after, Shoebill and Pel’s fishing Owl -that according to references could rarely be spotted from the boat upstream to the Falls- were missed.
• The Red Chilli Campsite offers good opportunities for birding, as placed on a natural environment near the riverine thicket. The most remarkable species there were Silverbird, a beautiful flycatcher endemic from East-central Africa, and not less amazing Black-headed Gonolek.
• We definitely wanted to visit Semuliki NP, despite its remoteness, because it was going to be the only opportunity for birding in a tropical rainforest, part of a continuum that connects with the Congo Ituri forest. The ability to recognize birds by sound is very important in this dark, difficult environment, so a skilfull guide will help a lot. We arranged a day walk at the Sempaya Park office. We were lucky to spot the complete hornbills, like Red-billed dwarf, African pied, Black-and-white casqued, White-thighed and the magnificent Black-casqued wattled. Semuliki is the only location for the latter in Uganda, and an eastern limit for many birds whose main range lies in Western and Central African tropical woodland.
• Common and especially Grey-backed fiscals are among the most notorious birds in Queen Elizabeth NP grasslands and wooded savannas, adding Sooty Chat, Wattled Lapwing, Yellow-throated Longclaw, White-browed Coucal, Red-necked Spurfowl and both Ugandan Mousebirds. There good opportunities for vultures and other raptors in this favourable open areas, like the White-backed and the White-headed vultures, constantly searching for ungulate carcasses. At Mweya it would be very difficult to miss two East African endemics but common Ugandan species: Golden-backed Weaver and Red-chested Sunbird, which frequent the facilities around the visitor’s centre and Institute of Ecology.
• The Kazinga Channel boat trip must not be lost, because it offers extraordinary and scenic water-bird views. There were incredible numbers of Pied Kingfishers, Fish Eagles, Hamerkops, White-breasted Cormorants and Angola Swallows on the river, but I have to confess that few species were going to be unique in my journey –like African Skimmer, Common Greenshank and Black-winged Stilt-, and the fact that we were apparently out of season for migration could influence this. Anyway, the boat guide was really keen on birding and I thanked that a lot her priorities. To the complete surprise of the average tourist, she used hipos, buffalos and elephants as a mere reference to locate birds: “See the huge heron on the river bank, just beside the group of hipos, that’s a Goliath Heron, the biggest in the world”.
• Undisputed star at Isasha was the Shoebill. We had already lost our faith in spotting this magnificent bird, because we had failed at Murchison Falls NP and didn’t visit the best place at Queen Elizabeth National Park (Lake Kikorongo as stated by Rossouw & Sacchi). But, unexpectedly, during a game-drive we stopped at a swamp area and scanned it, to make the happy finding of three separate shoebills standing still on the water line, waiting for fish or frogs to capture. Cheers and laughter for this prehistoric-looking bird. We bet there are no many places in Uganda were a triplet can be seen at a time! Feeling comfort and in success, let’s mention also the confident White-rumped Swifts nesting inside Isasha restaurant and Park Office.
• About Lake Bunyony i and neighbouring farmland, I would point out as remarkable observations those of Cassin’s Flycatcher and Purple-breasted Sunbird, an Albertine endemic. On a short walk around lake’s shore I made the only sightings of some species in this Ugandan tour, though I presume they are not so scarce throughout the country: Mackinnon’s Fiscal, Augur Buzzard, White-necked Raven, African golden Oriole and White-throated Greenbul among them. Unfortunately, we didn’t explore the promising swamp areas by the lake, which lied beside the road from Kabale to Bunyonyi.
• The Bukakata ferry is a true “african” experience, especially if you’re trying to get in rush hour and dislike boats carrying vehicles and people exceeding reasonable weight; not recommended for the heart fainted. Anyway, it’s great for birding and lots of Openbills, Saddle-billed and Yellow-billed Storks, Great-white and Pink-backed Pelicans, Black-headed Herons, Little and Great white Egrets can be seen either soaring or feeding in shallow waters.
• Kalangala district in Bugala Island still preserves some interesting forest patches, even though the extension of timber cutting was also noticeable. The number of Yellow-billed kites was astonishingly high, higher than any other place in Uganda for this widespread raptor. There were plenty of them in a palm-nut tree old plantation, and it’s only now that I’ve been convinced about these kites eating palm-nut fruits (after reading correspondent volume of HBW), which I considered to be a legend when told by the local guide. Ross’s Turacos and Black-and-white-casqued Hornbills are conspicuous and noisy, flying over tree canopy. I also spotted African yellow White-eye. Surprisingly, this is the only White-eye species in Uganda, while the year before in Southern Africa I could see two others (Cape and Orange river) in latitudinal succession. It was just the same case for the bulbuls, only the Dark-capped occupies Uganda. But the best sight was the male African Paradise-flycatcher, with its incredible undulating white tail.
• Along river Nile islands in Jinja there are several heronries, including colonies of White-breasted and tiny Reed Cormorants, Openbills, Cattle Egrets and African Darters. A boat trip to visit some of these island is worth doing, to enjoy the spectacular vision of dozens of chicks and parents standing in the crowded trees. Anyway, it’s remarkable the relative scarcity of darters in relation to cormorants, quite the opposite as observed in Southern Africa.
• A single walk through Jinja streets and gardens proved to be rewarding. The small Lizzard Buzzard and some colourful birds, like Double-toothed Barbet, Broad-billed Roller, Red-shouldered Cukooshrike and Black-winged Bishop contributed to a pleasant morning. The East African endemic Red-faced Barbet perching on a wire was our last bird sight in Uganda.

Full list of birds seen in Uganda