Overview
In this trip we will mainly focus on western,central and northern eastern uganda.The trip will start and ends in Entebbe
Area visited:Kidepo valley national park, Lake Busina,Entebbe botanical garden, Mabamba swamp, Lake mburo National Park , Bwindi impenetrable forest, Queen Elizabeth national park, Kibale national park, Semuliki forest national park, Murchison’s falls national park, Budongo and Mabira forest
Your Itinerary
Day 1 Arrival
You will be picked by our expert guides or company representative at the airport and transferred to a lodge or hotel in Entebbe and depending on your time of arrival do a bird walk at Entebbe botanical garden or Mutembe bay
Day 2 Mabamba swamp to Lake Mburo National Park
After an early breakfast in Entebbe we will drive to Mabamba swamp on the fringes of Lake Victoria which has a checklist of 260 birds but our main target here is the highly prized shoebill ,the rare weyn’s weaver and birds restricted to the lake Victoria basin biome.Some of the good birds here includes blue swallow, papyrus and black headed gonoleks, papyrus canary,papyrus yellow warbler, carruther’s cisticola, swamp flycatcher, viellot’s black weaver, yellow billed duck, white-winged warbler, red chested sunbird, great reed warbler, slender billed and little weavers, blue headed coucal,palmnut vulture, eastern grey plantain eaters, pallid and marsh harriers, pygmy goose, lesser Jacana and many more.Lake we will drive to lake mburo national park for a late game drive
Day 3 Lake Mburo National park
This park is slightly a mix habitat of dense Savannah,swamps,dry hills and rocky outcrops with over 320 recorded bird species.Birding in Warukiri and Rwongo swamp could be more rewarding than any other part of the park .We will bird here for brown parrot,black billed and red faced barbets, blue-naped mousebirds, african finfoot, african water rail, tabora ,winding, carruther’s and chubb’s cisticolas, green capped eremomela, golden tailed woodpecker, yellow-throated leaf love, Coqui francolin, hartlaub’s bustard, red headed love bird, northern black flycatcher, broad billed roller, swamp and pennant winged nightjars, brown chested plovers and marsh owls
Day 4-6 Bwindi impenetrable Forest National Park
when you set foot and bird here you will tend to agree with some of the people who term this place as, “the heart and soul of Ugandan birding’ The species here are a variety with Albertine endemics and other rare birds .There are 76 out of 144 Guinea-Congo biome species recorded here.With a checklist of 305 bird species 23 of 24 albertine endemics are found here .We will mainly bird the Ruhiija ,Mubwindi and Buhoma areas bird for two days in each section of the forest and staying at different camps/lodges.We will penetrate the impenetrable looking for birds such as grauer’s swamp warbler, grauer’s broadbill, purple breasted and regal sunbird, recently describe d Willard’s boubou, olive breasted and yellow streaked greenbuls, thick billed ,wilcocks and dwarf honeguides, archer’s ground robin, olive and barred longtailed cuckoo, chapin’s flycatcher, Neumann’s warbler, handsome francolin, white bellied robinchat, equitorial akalat, grey chested kakamega, Jameson’s antpecker, sooty boubou,sooty flycatcher,white-chinned and black faced prinia, pink footed puffback, brown capped weaver, dusky twinspot, black faced rufous warbler, white bellied crested flycatcher, white browed crombec,black beeeater, dusky and stripe breasted tit, kivu ground thrush, western citril, rwenzori hill babbler, mountain sooty boubou, lagden’s bushshrike, strange weaver, blue-headed sunbird, redfaced and Shelley’s crimson wing, rwenzori nightjar and fraser’s eagle owl.Night in a camp or lodge
Day 7-8 Queen Elizabeth national park
This is the most diverse national park in Uganda with over 600 recorded bird species.Habitat ranges from savannah ,dense forest ,lakes and swamps.We will bird the isasha and mweya peninsula for birds such as african crake , vanga flycatcher, blue-throatef roller, flappet lark, mustached grass warbler, red chested sunbird, slender billed weavers and many more.in the kazinga channel area we will bag birds such as hairy breasted barbet, african skimmer, gull billed tern, grey headed and black headed gulls, green crombec,brinzy sunbird, fan tailed widowbird,black bishop and many more.Large herds of big game will be seen here as well as tree climbing lions especially at the isasha area. Night in a camp or lodge
Day 9 -10 Kibale national park
On this day we will drive to the east usambara mountains with birding stops on the way for birds such as eastern golden weaver,coastal cisticola, Zanzibar and southern red bishops before having a lunch break at the Zigi lowland forest for Endemic such as usambara hyliota, Tanzanian illadopsis, banded green sunbirds. others here includes little yellow flycatcher, lowlnd tiny greenbul,red tailed antthrush, Fischer’s greenbul,mombasa woodpecker,plain backed sunbird and others
Day 9 -10 Kibale national park
After an early breakfast we will drive to kibale Np which is also one of the top bird’s haven in Uganda with a checklist of 375 recorded species including 6 albertine endemics.The typical habitat here ranges from wet to dry tropical forest, woodlands and Savannah.The highly sought out green breasted pitta is almost guaranteed here,others include brown and scally breasted illadopses, joyful and toro olive greenbuls, black bellied seedcracker, speckled breasted woodpeckers, brown eared and abyssinian ground thrush, afeb and white naped pigeons, bocage’s bushshrike, snow crowned robinchat,green white eye, western nicator, white winged warbler, blue-shouldered robinchat, Sabine’s spinetail, chestnut wattle eyes, red chested owlet, speckled tinkerbird, black beeeater, blue throated rollers, collared and black capped apalises, grey throated, yellow spotted and yellow billed barbets.Night in a lodge
Day 11-13 Semuliki National park
Day 14 and 15 Budongo forest
Just slightly south of Murchison falls national park we will bird the Royale miles,kaniyo pabidi and busigiro areas .we will bird by boat and walking.More than 360 birds have been recorded here and the only best place for Nahan’s francolin, others are cassin’s spine tail, chestnut caped flycatcher, chocolate backed ,blue breasted and dwarf kingfishers, white thighed hornbills, black beeeater, black collared lovebird, ituri batis, black capped apalis, white breasted nigrita, greyheaded oliveback, red headed bluebill, green and little green sunbird, spotted, Xavier’s, white throated,redtailed and honeyguide greenbuls, fraser’s flycatcher thrush, rufous thrush, scally and brown illadopses, uganda woodland warbler,red tailed bristle bill and many more.Night in a lodge
Day 16-17 Murchison falls national park
Day 18-21 Kidepo valley national park
Here we will look for the endemic winifreds warbler,another chance for the Endemic loveridge and uluguru greenbul, Livingstone’s turaco,white chested alethe,angolan swallow,the near endemic bertram’s weaver, endemic uluguru race of bar throated apalis and others.Night in Morogoro town
Day 22 Lake Bisina
Day 23-24 Mabira Forest
Day 25 Mabira Forest to drop off point
We will continue birding mabira forest till mid day so what we might have missed the previous days then after lunch drive to Entebbe for drop off