10 Days Best of Uganda Birding Safari
Description
Our 10 days Uganda birding safari is perfectly structured to offer you the bird-watching experience in Uganda experience in some of the finest Uganda’s birding spots. You also have a chance of undertaking a gorilla trekking adventure in Bwindi National Park, other things to experience include several wildlife species and the stunning sceneries of Uganda’s landscapes. We shall explore Mabamba Swamp which is one of the best places to catch the charismatic rare Shoebill, Lake Mburo National Park a beautiful savannah park with more than 350 bird species, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park contains mountain Gorillas and 23 Albertine Rift endemics including the endangered African Green Broadbill, Queen Elizabeth National Park, a bird watcher’s paradise with over 600 bird species accompanied by over 95 African species of mammals including the legendary tree-climbing lions, African Elephants, Cape Buffalos, Leopards, Spotted hyenas, Chimpanzees, Waterbucks, Bushbucks, Monkeys, and Giant forest hogs. Key bird species include the Northern bearded scrub-robin, Red-eyed Puffback, Yellow-throated Nictor, Grant’s bluebill, and Black-winged Oriole, Lowland akalat, the Western bronze-naped pigeon, Piping Hornbill, Rufous-sided broadbill, Yellow-throated Cuckoo, Xavier’s greenbul, Capuchin babbler, Red-billed helmet-shrike, Crested malimbe, Pale-fronted ant pecker, Yellow long bill, Blue-headed flycatcher, and Chestnut-breasted Nigrita. The park is also home to several mammal species, and like Olive Baboon, Ugandan Grey-cheeked Mangabey, Angola Colobus, Vervet, and Black-rumped Buttonquail, African Crake, Red-necked Francolin, Senegal Lapwing, Black Coucal, Southern Red Bishop, Marsh Tchagra, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Flappet, Red-capped, and White-tailed Larks, Red-faced, Carruther’s, Trilling, and Stout, Green-capped Eremomela, Golden-tailed Woodpecker, Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove, Spot-flanked Barbet, and Gray Penduline Tit, Rufous-bellied Heron, Grey Crowned Crane, Brown-chested Lapwing, Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove, Black-bellied Bustard, Red-headed Lovebird, Bateleur, Coqui Francolin, Ross’s Turaco, Brown Parrot, Green Wood-hoopoe, White-headed Barbet, Long-tailed Cisticola, Nubian Woodpecker, Common Scimitarbill, Bare-faced Go-away-bird, Red-shouldered Cuckoo-shrike, Finfoot, White-winged Tit, and Yellow-breasted Apalis and many more.
Itinerary
On arrival at Entebbe International Airport, you’ll meet by our company representative who will warmly welcome you to Uganda and transfer you to a nearby hotel in Entebbe. We’ll have an afternoon visit to the amazing landscaped Entebbe Botanical Gardens right on the shores of Lake Victoria. Our first birding here could include Orange Weaver, Palm-nut vulture, African fish eagle, Gray Parrot, Ross’s Turaco, and Great blue turaco, a perfect introduction to the safari with easy birding in an open environment.
After breakfast this morning, we’ll grab our cameras and binoculars and embark on the drive to Mabamba Swamp, the wetland is home to several pairs of the rare Shoebill species, Uganda’s most famous bird resident. This charismatic monotypic genus species is certainly among the most liked birds in Africa and shall make special efforts today to look for it by paddling through the channels by a canoe. This comes along with a good selection of classic East African water birds to spot along the way like Pink-backed Pelican, Squacco Heron, Yellow-billed Duck, Long-tailed Cormorant, Malachite Kingfisher, Long-toed Plover, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Blue-headed Coucal among others, embark on the transfer to Lake Mburo National Park arriving in the evening for dinner and overnight stay.
We have our breakfast and embark on a birding adventure in Lake Mburo National Park. We will experience the park on foot following the respective tracks in the company of an armed ranger guide to save us from attacks of wild animals. We’ll explore the Warukiri swamps, Miriti, Rubanga forest, and the salt lick. Key birding species include The Red-faced barbet, Tabora cisticola, Golden-tailed woodpecker, Green-capped eremomela, Spot-flanked barbet, and Grey penduline tit are localized species in Lake Mburo Park national park. Other species include Papyrus gonolek, Grey Crowned Cranes, White-backed night-heron, Yellow-throated longclaw, Yellow-throated leaflove, Coqui francolin, White-winged Warbler, African water rail, Black-bellied bustard, African wattled plover, Brown parrot, Red-headed lovebird, Green wood-hoopoe, Common scimitarbill, Narina trogon, Barefaced go-away-bird, Blue-naped mousebird, Nubian Woodpecker, Trilling cisticola, Northern black flycatcher, Southern red bishop, and Abyssinian ground-hornbill. You’ll also spot several of the park’s 68 mammal species including Zebra, Cape buffalo, Eland antelopes, Impala, Rothschild’s giraffe, Topi, Oribi, and Defassa waterbuck, and many more. We retire from the adventure for relaxation and lunch. In the afternoon, we transfer for a boat ride to Lake Mburo national park. This amazing boat ride will expose you to counts of Kingfishers, the elusive African finfoot African fish eagle, Hammerkops. You will also have a chance to see hippos and Nile crocodiles. Retreat from the adventure for relaxation, dinner, and overnight stay.
After breakfast, we’ll embark on a drive to Bwindi impenetrable national park in the Ruhija sector. We’ll go through the flourishing landscapes of southwestern Uganda and the towns of Mbarara and Kabale town before arriving in the park for lunch and some relaxation. The amazing Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to half of the world’s Mountain Gorillas and 120 mammal species. The park hosts 350 bird species of which 23 are endemic to the Albertine rift ecosystem and 14 are not recorded anywhere in East Africa. After relaxation, we’ll embark on an evening birding exploration in the fragile hilly landscapes of Ruhija. Special birds here include the Lagden’s bush-shrike, Shelley’s Crimsonwing, Mountain oriole, Strange weaver and Oriole finch Red-faced Crimsonwing, Mountain Buzzard, Red-throated Alethe, Grauer’s warbler, Pink-footed puff back, Cinnamon-chested bee-eater, Handsome francolin, Dusky Tit, Red-Faced Woodland Warbler, Stripe Breasted Tit Dusky Crimsonwing, Rwenzori batis, Rwenzori Apalis, Chestnut-throated Apalis, Banded Prinia, Yellow-eyed black flycatcher, Mountain masked Apalis, Black-throated Apalis, Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle, Cassin’s Hawk-Eagle, Augur Buzzard, Red-chested flufftail, Black-billed turaco, Barred long-tailed cuckoo, Dwarf honeyguide, Grey cuckoo-shrike, Olive-breasted greenbul, White-headed wood-hoopoe, Olive woodpecker, White-starred robin, Archer’s ground-robin, Mountain illadopsis, Rwenzori hill-babbler, Yellow-streaked greenbul, Abyssinian thrush, Mountain sooty boubou. As the sun sets, Ruhija offers your an African wood owl, the rare Fraser’s eagle-owl and best-bet Rwenzori Nightjar.
We will have our breakfast and we embark on the birding adventure to Mubwindi swamp, which is the top birding walk in Bwindi impenetrable national. Look out for the rare Grauer’s broadbill or African Green Broadbill, Carruthers’s cisticola, Grauer’s Rush Warbler, Neumann’s Warbler, Cinnamon-chested bee-eater and Chubb’s cisticola Yellow-eyed black flycatcher, Regal Sunbird, Rwenzori double-collared sunbird, Chapin’s flycatcher, Blue-headed Sunbird, Purple breasted sunbird, Dusky Crimsonwing, Red-Faced Woodland Warbler, Mountain Greenbul, Red-chested flufftail, Grey Cuckooshrike, Mountain Illadopsis, plus much more.
After breakfast, we’ll embark on a drive to Bwindi impenetrable national park in the Ruhija sector. We’ll go through the flourishing landscapes of southwestern Uganda and the towns of Mbarara and Kabale town before arriving in the park for lunch and some relaxation. The amazing Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to half of the world’s Mountain Gorillas and 120 mammal species. The park hosts 350 bird species of which 23 are endemic to the Albertine rift ecosystem and 14 are not recorded anywhere in East Africa. After relaxation, we’ll embark on an evening birding exploration in the fragile hilly landscapes of Ruhija. Special birds here include the Lagden’s bush-shrike, Shelley’s Crimsonwing, Mountain oriole, Strange weaver and Oriole finch Red-faced Crimsonwing, Mountain Buzzard, Red-throated Alethe, Grauer’s warbler, Pink-footed puff back, Cinnamon-chested bee-eater, Handsome francolin, Dusky Tit, Red-Faced Woodland Warbler, Stripe Breasted Tit Dusky Crimsonwing, Rwenzori batis, Rwenzori Apalis, Chestnut-throated Apalis, Banded Prinia, Yellow-eyed black flycatcher, Mountain masked Apalis, Black-throated Apalis, Ayres’s Hawk-Eagle, Cassin’s Hawk-Eagle, Augur Buzzard, Red-chested flufftail, Black-billed turaco, Barred long-tailed cuckoo, Dwarf honeyguide, Grey cuckoo-shrike, Olive-breasted greenbul, White-headed wood-hoopoe, Olive woodpecker, White-starred robin, Archer’s ground-robin, Mountain illadopsis, Rwenzori hill-babbler, Yellow-streaked greenbul, Abyssinian thrush, Mountain sooty boubou. As the sun sets, Ruhija offers your an African wood owl, the rare Fraser’s eagle-owl and best-bet Rwenzori Nightjar.
After breakfast, we’ll embark on a lookout for the birdlife of the Buhoma sector, following the waterfall trail. However, you can opt for the mountain gorillas trekking adventure and we can highly recommend that you choose this option on this trip. For this unique adventure, we will have our breakfast very early in the morning and then transfer to the Buhoma visitor’s center to get briefed by the excellent park warden. From there we’ll embark on the search for these gentle giants of the dense forest. The gorilla trek takes about 2-8 hours including the one hour you are allowed to stay closer to them. It is relatively physically challenging as the forest can be quite wet and going steadily steep. But trust us, the bit of exercise will be very well rewarded by meeting, watching, spending time closer to them photographing these incredible great primates of Africa. After one hour with gorillas, you will enjoy your picnic lunch and descend to the starting point where you’ll be rewarded with a gorilla trekking certificate. Also, after this life-changing gorilla trekking adventure, you can enjoy more birding looking out for species like Bar-tailed trogon, Rwenzori turaco, Mountain Illadopsis, Equatorial Akalat, Magpie Mannikin, Black-billed Turaco, Rwenzori Apalis, Elliot’s and Tullberg’s Woodpecker, Cabanis’s Greenbul, Strange Weaver, Little Sparrowhawk, Banded Prinia, Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, Crowned Hornbill and many others. We’ll then drive back to our lodge for a relaxing dinner and overnight stay.
We’ll have our breakfast, and then we’ll embark on a drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We will go through the landscapes of the Ishasha sector with chances to encounter the tree-climbing lions that dwell in the fig trees. Arrive at Mweya for lunch after which you will embark on a 2 hours boat ride along the Kazinga channel which intersects Lakes Edward and George. Then we are likely to spot African buffalo, Cape Elephants, Hippos, and Nile Crocodiles. We’ll spot several fantastic waterbirds like the African Open-billed, African spoonbill, Glossy Ibis, Yellow-billed, and Marabou Storks, Saddle-billed, Wattled Lapwing, Water Thick-knee, and Pelicans. We’ll return to the lodge for a relaxing dinner and overnight stay.
Today, we will have a whole day encounter with birds in the wide ecosystems of Queen Elizabeth National Park. The birding watching can be done in Mweya peninsular, environs of Lake Kikorongo, Katunguru bridge Area, Maramagambo forest, savannah plains of Kasenyi, among other areas. Special bird species to look for include the Temminck’s Courser, Ruppell’s Griffon, Martial Eagle, Lappet Faced Vulture, Hooded vulture, White-Headed Vultures, Blue Quail, Harlequin Quail, African Crake, African Skimmer, Small (Common) Buttonquail, Red-throated wryneck, African Moustached warbler, Red-throated wryneck, African Moustached warbler, Black Headed Gonolek, Ovambo Sparrowhawk, Chestnut wattle-eye, Snowy-headed Greater and Lesser Flamingos, Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl, Amur Falcon Grey-crowned crane, Flappet lark, Long-crested Eagle, Black-bellied bustard, Sitting cisticola, White-winged tern, Pied Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Red-throated spurfowl, Yellow-throated longclaw, Grey-backed fiscal, White-napped pigeon, robin chart, Scaly-breasted illadopsis, Brown illadopsis, African emerald cuckoo, White-breasted Nigro finch, Chestnut wattle eye, Marsh tchagra, Sulphur –breasted bush shrike, Black bishop, Papyrus gonolek, and White-winged warbler and others. The sights of mammals including the Lions, African Elephants, Cape Buffaloes, Uganda Kobs, Waterbucks, Topis, Warthogs, bushbucks, monkeys, and much more may not be missed.
After breakfast, we’ll take a short birding walk around the Maramagambo forest before we embark on the journey to Kampala or Entebbe. Maramagambo rainforest harbors a variety of forest birds. Key bird species to look out for in including White-napped pigeon, Snowy-headed robin chart, Scaly-breasted illadopsis, Chestnut wattle-eye, African emerald cuckoo, Red-throated wryneck, Brown illadopsis, Forest greenbuls, Rwenzori turaco, Forest flycatchers, African Moustached warbler among others
Includes & Excludes
- Transport in a 4WD minivan with pop-up roof for excellent safari view
- English speaking Ugandan driver/guide
- Accommodation as listed in the program
- All meals as per the itinerary
- Park-entrance fees according to the program
- All activities described in the itinerary
- International air fares and entry visa Uganda
- Meals that are not part of your accommodation
- Personal (medical/travel) insurance
- Tips and gratuities to rangers, driver/guide, porter, hotel staff, etc
- All expenses of personal nature (e.g. drinks, laundry, optional activities, souvenirs etc.)