4 Days Birding Safari
4 Days
Overview
This is a 4 Days Birding Trip to Murchison Falls National Park, one of Uganda’s most popoular parks for both game viewing and birding. Bird through this amazing park on game drives, launch trips along the nile and on nature walks. This will offer you an opportunity to come across distinct birdlife .
Over 650 bird species have been recorded to be existing in the conservation area classified in broader categories of Savannah forest birds, water birds and Albertine endemic. The commonest of the large birds found in the plains include the marabou storks, ground horn bills, secretary birds, black-bellied bustards, Open-billed storks, Widow birds, wheatears, bishops and weavers among others.
Closer to the river where there are more thickets and woodlands, the commonest bird varieties include the black bee- eater, swallow tailed bee-eater, red-throated bee- eater, woodland king fisher, francolins, hornbills, grey heron, hamerkop, doves, mousebirds, shrikes, flycatchers, cuckoos, coucals, woodpeckers, crombecsand warblers. The area close to the river is also home to ducks, geese, stilts and plovers.
Itinerary
Early transfer to Mabamba Swamp, 50 kms west of Kampala. Look out for many different birds on our way to the swamp like the Papyrus Gonolek, White Shouldered Tit, Red Cap, Western Banded Snake Eagle, White Winged Warbler and Weyns Weaver. This Swamp is one of the best places to spot the exceptional Shoebill Stork.
But also many other species can be found here, like the Allen’s and Purple Gallinule, Grey herons, Jacanas, Rufous Bellied Heron, Squaco, Purple and Goliath Heron, the Globally threatened Pallid Harrier and Blue Swallow a migrant species, a variety of egrets, ducks etc. we later drive backwards to Kampala then transfer to Masindi where we shall spend our night via the Luwero triangle passing through undulating grasslands and mosaic woodland where we drive looking out for the White-crested Turaco, Bronze-tailed Starling, lesser Blue and Great Blue Eared Starlings, Black, Yellow Mantled and Black Winged Bishops, White Headed Barbet, Cardinal and Nubian Woodpecker, Lesser and Greater Honeyguide, Grey Capped Warbler, White Shouldered Tit, Brown Throated Wattle Eye, Brown Twin-spot, Eastern and Dark Chanting Goshawk, Banbed Snake Eagle, Broad Billed Roller, Lizard Buzzard, Shikra, Wahlberg’s Eagle, Grey Kestrel, Lesser Striped, Angola and Barn Swallow, Village and Black Headed Weaver, Red Throated Bee-eater, Sooty Chat, Black Headed Batis among others.
A highlight of the visit will undoubtedly be the boat trips to the bottom of the falls and on the game drive as we make it to the delta, on lucky days we have great views of the Shoebill Stork. There will be other birds including the Red-throated and Northern Carmine Bee-eater mammals such as Rothschild’s Giraffe, Cape Buffalo, Elephant, Waterbuck and many others will be viewed. Other birds to look out for include the Saddle-billed, Yellow Billed and African Open Billed Stork, Hauglins Francolin, Senegal Thick-knee, Rock Pratincole, Giant, Woodland, Grey Headed, Malchite, Pygmy and striped Kingfishers.
On the game drive we look out for Heuglin’s Francolins, Black Billed Barbet, Northern and Red Faced Barbet, Swallow-tailed, Little Bee-eaters, Abyssinian Rollers, the giant Abyssinian Ground Hornbills, Black Winged and Northern Red Bishops, Chestnut Crowned and the White Browed Sparrow Weaver, Northern Crombec,Namaqua, African Morning, Ring Necked, Red Eyed dove among others . The Patas Monkey will be the primate to look out for on this day. A night drive today is very advisable looking out for nocturnal mammals and birds.