15 days Albertine Rift Endemics Birding safari will take us to 4 National Parks and game reserves for the best spotting.
Upon arrival in Uganda at Entebbe International Airport, located on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Victoria, Africa’s biggest fresh water lake, you will be welcomed and greeted by your driver/guide. He will be standing at the Arrivals Hall holding a placard with your name so you will not miss him. You will then be transferred to the hotel/ guest house you have chosen and check-in for dinner and overnight stay. Your driver/ guide will brief you about your safari at some stage (either before dinner or first thing after breakfast the next day).
For those that arrive early in the day – there are optional activities around Entebbe especially if you intend to stay active and not rest after long overseas flights. You can go birding in the Entebbe Botanical Gardens. Look out for the Orange Weavers that build intricate nests, Vieillot’s Black Weaver, Red-chested sunbirds, the rare Verreeaux’s Eagle-Owl, Black-headed Herons and a lot more. Or, your guide will be on hand to take you to the local markets or one of the malls to shop for some essentials.
You are up early and have breakfast. After your breakfast, with packed lunch in your carry-on bag, head to Mabamba Bay. The word ‘Mabamba’ is a Luganda word translated as “a place of Lung Fish” in the local dialect. Declared a Ramsar Site in 2007, Mabamba Bay is a birding hotspot that stretches into Lake Victoria. It is one of the best places to see the rare Shoebill Stork! Among the 300 bird species recorded in Mabamba are the Blue Swallow, White-winged Tern, Gull-billed Tern in the migratory category. Papyrus endemics include Papyrus Gonolek, Papyrus Yellow Warbler among others. The Marshy Swamp is also a haven to spur-winged geese, yellow-billed ducks, and malachite kingfishers, African Jacana, Purple Heron and Squacco Heron, Weyn’s Weaver, Lesser Moorhen among others. On this visit, you employ a motorized canoe and navigate the narrow waterways and lagoons in the marshes in search for the prolific birdlife that this swamp has become very famous for. From Mabamba bay, continue to Lake Mburo National Park – birding en-route close to the road. This park is sprawling savannah and woodlands, measuring 260 square miles. It’s the only park that contains an entire lake – the one it is named after. The park also consists of 4 other smaller lakes. It will be our stop today for an overnight before continuing to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park tomorrow.
After breakfast, check-out and commence the drive to Kisoro – birding on a few stops. Notable among the stops is the Echuya forest reserve as you get to Kisoro town, which is located close to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. You can make stops if the opportunity presents itself to try for some special birds at Echuya forest and on the advice of your driver/guide. There are 152 bird species recorded at Echuya where you get a first taste of the Albertine endemic birds like the Regal and Blue-headed Sunbird, Strange Weaver, Rwenzori Batis, Rwenzori Apalis, Mountain-masked Apalis and other high altitude bird species including the Doherty’s Bush-shrike, Grey Cuckoo-shrike, Barred-long-tailed Cuckoo, Mountain Yellow Warbler, Rwenzori Hill Burbler and many more. You arrive and check-in for overnight stay at the lodge you have chosen.
After breakfast, set off and take the gorge trail that loops half way up Mt. Sabinyo, through a variety of montane habitats, harboring the Dusky Turtle Dove, Rwenzori Turaco, Cape Robin-Chat, Kivu Ground Thrush, White-eyed Slaty and White Tailed Blue Flycatcher, Olive Wood-pecker, White-starred Robin, Mountain Yellow Warbler, White-napped Raven, Lagden’s Bush-Shrike, Yellow-crowned Canary, Streaky and Thick Billed Seedeater. Today, there will be a big focus on finding the much-sought-after Shelly’s Crimson-wing among other birds.
You are up as the sun rises. After breakfast, you take different birding trails as instructed by your bird guide and still look out for the following birds; White-necked raven, Black kite, Pin-tailed whydah, Double-collared sunbird, Speckled mouse bird, Paradise flycatcher, Ibis, Whydah, Speckled Mouse birds, Fire Finch Stonechat, Grey Capped Warbler, Waxbills, Yellow-Vented Bulbul, Alpine chat, Archer’s robin-chat, Blue-headed Coucal, Dusky crimson wing, Kivu ground-thrush, Olive pigeon, Olive woodpecker and many more. At the end of the day, return to the lodge for rest ahead of the next day’s start to Ruhija, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
Optional Activity: Trek to see Golden Monkeys
After breakfast, you start today’s birding in the Rift Valley area. You will make a stopover in a nearby Swamp towards Echuya forest mostly to look out for the Little Rush Warbler plus the Grauer’s Rush Warbler – one of the rare Bradypterus Warblers within the Albertine rift zones. You continue birding to Ruhija with numerous stopovers expecting birds like the Augur and Mountain Buzzard, Yellow Bellied Waxbill, Dusky Crimsonwing, Dusky Twinspot, Common Stonechat among others birds. Towards the camp headquarters, you look out for the Handsome Francolin, Olive Pigeon, Western Green Tinkerbird, Archer’s Robin-Chat, Chestnut Throated Apalis, White-browed Crombec, Stripe-breasted and Dusky Tit, Rwenzori Batis, Doherty’s Bush-shrike, Black-headed Waxbil among others.
Today, you spend the day in the Mubwindi Swamp. After breakfast, start the hike to this famous swamp in pursuit of the toughest endemics of this marsh. Mubwindi swamp is well known for being Africa’s number one birding spot according to the African Birding Club. Objectives include; Handsome Francolin, Barred Long-tailed Cuckoo, Cassin’s HE, Dwarf Honeyguide, Thick-billed Honeyguide, Grauer’s Broadbill, Rwenzori Batis, Lagden’s Bushrike, Albertine Sooty Boubou, Dohertys Bushrike, Stripe-breasted Tit and the Grauer’s Swamp (Rush)Warbler. Up in the trees and through the undergrowth, look out for Grey-chested Illadopsis, Mountain Illadopsis, Oriole Finch, African Hill Babbler, Chestnut-throated Apalis, African Yellow-white-eye, African Water Rail, Red-chested Flufftail, Carruthers Cisticola, Equatorial Akalat and a lot more birds. Spending the day in Mubwindi is certainly one of the highlights of any birding trips to Uganda. The walk to get to Mubwindi is physically demanding but, taken slowly it is quite manageable and the rewards are bountiful in terms of your bird checklist.
After breakfast, with your packed lunch, lots of water in your rucksack, your guide will take you to the park HQ before 8:00am for registration and briefing by Uganda Wildlife Authority staff. Once the formalities of what to do and not to do while tracking the gentle giants are communicated, you will head to the trail-head of the gorilla family you have been allocated. At the trail-head, you will commence the trek, pushing your way through the undergrowth, to track the gorillas. (the trek can last from half an hour to 8 hours – a reasonable degree of fitness is required as well as a sturdy pair of walking shoes). When you finally locate the family that you are tracking, take in everything as you watch the gorillas go about their day – feeding on the green leaves, bamboo shoots, wild celery, stinging nettle and wild fruit. If there are juvenile gorillas, enjoy them play about and take it all in. Take lots of pictures (and a selfie if you happen to have a gorilla in your selfie frame) and video as the one-hour will be over before you know it. It is an extraordinary feeling being in the presence of these majestic apes, sitting/standing in the dense rainforest with the knowledge that you are in the presence of the few remaining wild mountain gorillas. After the mandatory one hour is up, the rangers will lead you back to the starting point/trail-head where you will find your driver/guide. Once back at the trail-head, continue to Buhoma birding through “the Neck”. You should be on the look out for the Black-billed Turaco, African Black Duck, Mountain Wagtail, Chin-spot Batis, Fine-banded Woodpecker, Bronze-napped Pigeon, Red-tailed Greenbul and many more.
Today you explore the Bwindi, Buhoma area – following the main trail where birders can spot species including the Handsome Francolin, African Emarald Cuckoo, White-tailed Blue Fly-cather, Pink-footed Puffbuck, Yellow Billed Barbet, Bocage’s Bush-Shrike, Bar-tailed Trogon, Black Bee-Eater, Cassin’s and Scaly throated Honey Guide, White-headed Wood-hoopoe, Western Green Tinkerbird, Short Tailed Warbler, African Broadbill, White-bellied Robin-Chat, Red-throated Alethe, Mountain Illadopsis, Red Faced Woodland Warbler, Equatorial Akalat, Chapin’s Flycatcher, Black Faced Rufous Warbler, Mountain Masked Apalis, Dusky Tit. Others are Luhder’s Bush-shrike, Black Billed Turaco, Petit’s Cuckooshrike, Blue Throated Brown, Blue-headed, Northern Double Collard and Green Sunbird, Black-billed Weaver, Red-fronted Antpecker, Magpie Mannikin among others.
You rise with the rising sun and enjoy your breakfast. After, commence the transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park via the Ishasha sector. Today’s drive takes you through the savannah and so you will pick-up some savannah and woodland species including the Grassland and Plain-backed Pipits, African Cuckoo Hawk, Flapped and Rufous Napped Lark, Black Cuckoo, Yellow-throated Longclaw, White-winged Tit, Ovambo Sparrow Hawk, Black Coucal, Blue-napped Mousebird, White-headed Barbet, Southern Red Bishop, Western Banded and Black-chested Snake Eagle, Martial Eagle, Bateleur and many more birds. Mammals may include the tree-climbing lions that are a big draw if you are in luck, several antelope species, African elephants and buffalos and more.
On the boat, look out for the African Skimmer, Malachite and Pied Kingfishers, White-winged Terns, Swamp Fly-catchers, Grey-capped Warbler, Grey-headed Kingfisher, African Jacana, Common Squacco Heron, African Skimmer, African Fish Eagle, Egyptian Goose, Papyrus Canary, Great White and pink-backed Pelicans, just to mention a few. After the boat cruise, return to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
At day break, you will depart your accommodation at Queen Elizabeth National Park and make the short drive to Rwenzori Mountain National Park. You head straight to Nyakalengija – the park HQ as you will bird trails on the foothills of Mountain Rwenzori. Today, you bird these trails and later transfer to Fort Portal town. You are on the lookout for a number of rare and highly localized birds among them the African Long-eared Owl, sometimes considered nonspecific with the Holarctic Long-eared Owl. This is one of only two sites in East Africa (the other being Mt. Kenya) where this bird has been recorded. Similarly the Greater Double-collared Sunbird (sometimes considered a separate species, Stuhlmann’s Double-collared Sunbird) is endemic to the Rwenzori Mountains and is reportedly fairly common in areas of bamboo and heath. Other species you will likely add on your list or be lucky to find here include the Dusky Crimsonwing, Archer’s Robin-chat, Red-faced Woodland Warbler, Regal Sunbird, Rwenzori Turaco, Rwenzori Nightjar, Rwenzori Batis, Kivu Ground-thrush, Neumann’s Warbler, Strange Weavers, and Shelly’s Crimsonwing among others. There are recent sight records of the rare Grauer’s Cuckoo-shrike we keep fingers crossed for these amazing species.
After an early breakfast, bird to Semliki National Park getting there in time to bird the trails around the hot springs on your first day in Semuliki. This gives you a great introduction to the Semliki birds like the Hornbills, Chestnut Breasted Negro Finch, Black Bellied Seed Cracker and others. The area around the Sempaya hotsprings can produce Afep, Olive and White-napped Pigeon, the extra-ordinary Long-tailed Hawk, Fire-crested Alethe, Forest Robin, Orange-cheeked Waxbill, Black-bellied Seedcracker, Western Bronze-napped Pigeon and many others. On day 2, you will spend it birding the Kirumia trail and other adjoining trails. Depending on the weather condition today we have some of the best birding within the East African region as many species are of West African Origin. Look out for birds like the Congo Serpent Eagle, Long-tailed Hawk, Red-billed Dwarf, White crested and Black Dwarf Hornbill, Lyre-tailed and Zenker’s Honeyguide, Lowland Akalat, Black-winged Oriole, Yellow-throated Green Cuckoo, Red-eyed Puffback, Rufaous Sided Broadbill. Further on twards the ox-bow lakes, you stand a chance of adding the Yellow-throated Nicator, Western Nicator, Green-breasted Pitta, Blue Billed and Crested Malimbe, Blue-headed Crested-flycatcher, Blue-throated Roller, Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Jameson’s and Yellow-bellied Wattle-eye and Swamp palm Bulbul. The rarely seen species are the Capuchin Babbler and African Piculet and the Lyre Tailed Honey Guides among other birds.
This will be the Final Day of our amazing trip we shall go birding on our way back to Entebbe. Back in Entebbe, a day room will have been booked for you if you are not checking-in for your onward flight home early in the evening. In case you are checking-in when you arrive in Entebbe, you are dropped-off at the airport in time for you to check-in for your onward flight home. If your check-in is much later, you are taken to a guest house where you refresh and repack. At the appropriate time, you are taken to the airport in time for you to check-in for your onward flight.
15 days Albertine Rift Endemics Birding safari will take us to 4 National Parks and game reserves for the best spotting. This trip is one of the most interesting ones for our kin twitchers as most of locations are Ecological Hotspots and relatively within the wealthy Abertine rift valley. The trip is a mix of tropical rain forests, open savannah and woodlands as well as marshes.