Phil Benstead, Norfolk, UK

Introduction

I spent the period between 14th July and 5th August 2004 birding in Uganda on a privately organised trip with five other people. We used Herbert Byaruhanga of Uganda Bird Safaris as our ground agent and would not hesitate to recommend him to others, we had a great time. Herbert can be contacted on byaruhanga@hotmail.com. Our itinerary was designed in consultation with Herbert and worked reasonably well - possible improvements are discussed below. Herbert accompanied us throughout the trip and is a useful guy in the field and knows all the major sites and a number of great little stop-offs en route to places. Herbert was flexible during the trip and happy to make changes to the itinerary. Make sure you get Herbert to lead your trip if you use his services! Herbert has a network of local guides that he uses wherever possible and on the whole these guys are very good and definitely added value to our trip. We only had reservations about the guide at Bwindi who failed to measure up to the high standards set by the majority. Herbert charged us an all-inclusive $2780 per person (including gorilla permits) which as it was timed with a fall in the value of the US dollar worked out reasonably well.

We flew with British Airways - booking well in advance secured the best seat prices (£560). Remember to get a visa in advance - available for Uganda High Commission in London - and do check that you are up to date with all your vaccinations. We all took Doxycycline as a malaria prophylaxis.

We could not heed Sam Woods' excellent advice re timing of trips due to other commitments but can only reinforce what he says on the subject. July/August is great for seeing grassland species (eg bishops and widows) in full plumage, and the weather is benign, but it is a very hard time to be birding generally, especially during dry spells. We had little response to tapes and found things very difficult, especially at Bwindi. Consider going in April/May (during short wet season) or September (just at start of big wet) for better birding (although the roads may be tricky at this time - best to check with Herbert). African green broadbill nests are usually located in April/May and staked out at Mubwindi.

We found the people of Uganda to be very welcoming and experienced no trouble of any kind. The recent successful attacks on the Lords Republican Army by the UPDF in the Sudan are likely to signal the end of this movement and may ensure that the Foreign Office advisory against travel to and within Murchison Falls NP will soon be lifted.

Strategy and tips

We followed the itinerary outlined below:

In hindsight I would offer the following advice:

References

We used the following field-guides during the trip (mostly the first but dipping into the others of an evening or during long drives):

We used gen included within:

Acknowledgments

My thanks go to primarily to Herbert and the members of his excellent guide network who did their utmost to get us onto as many birds as possible. The dips were sadly mostly our fault! I also thank the rest of the crew - it would have been a very different trip without you guys - so thanks go to Gordon Allison, Nigel and Carol Mears and Graeme and Moira Wallace. Thanks also too to Pete, Alan, Ashley and Neil for gen and advice at Budongo and Murchison. Finally thanks to Sam Woods and Jan Vermeulen for putting their web gen out there.

Sites visited

14/7                        Mabamba

Close to Kampala we visited this site on our first morning, fresh from an overnight flight! We just sat in the boat and enjoyed the shoebill basically. Other highlights included: African pygmy-goose, purple swamphen and Weyn's weaver.

15/7                        Mpanga Forest

Just outside Kampala - we stopped here for a couple of hours en route to Lake Mburo, it was the only place we saw yellow-mantled weaver and looks like a great spot although Mabira Forest is obviously much better.

15-16/7                  Lake Mburo

This fantastic site deserves more time than we were able to give it. We stayed in the tented camp, which was great for night birding. In the morning the boat trip was great but then we had very little time to chase down the many species that just creep into Uganda in this park (eg long-tailed cisticola). Highlights included: African finfoot (boat), coqui francolin, wood sandpiper, emerald-spotted wood-dove, African scops-owl, red-faced barbet, Nubian woodpecker, green-backed woodpecker, African reed warbler, white-winged warbler (boat), red-faced crombec, marico sunbird, papyrus gonolek (boat), spectacled weaver and red-headed weaver.

16-21/7                  Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

This is the spot to chase down the Albertine Rift endemics and we had an awful time of it. Conditions were very dry and on some days bird activity was very low. Tape response was poor - although perhaps an artefact that every guide uses playback, which must be making birds tape-shy? Buhoma was very hard work generally but is a great spot. We stayed at the basic but acceptable "Bwindi View" bandas. Buhoma is the base for the famous gorilla tracking activities and we were not disappointed on this front, getting excellent views just behind our accommodation! Gorilla tracking permits cost $250 per person and must be arranged as far in advance as you can manage. We picked up Emmy as a guide here (and he stayed with us through to Mgahinga).

Ruhiza was excellent. Herbert's mobile catering unit (a chef on a moped) kicked into action and we had a very pleasant stay in the basic hostel here. We could have used another day at Ruhiza however to try and track down the African green broadbill - a monstrous dip that left us all in a sour mood.

Highlights a plenty at Bwindi however included: mountain buzzard (Ruhiza), Ayre's hawk-eagle (Buhoma), handsome francolin (Ruhiza), black-billed turaco, barred long-tailed cuckoo (Ruhiza), African wood-owl (Ruhiza), Rwenzori nightjar (Ruhiza), scarce swift (Buhoma), bar-tailed trogon, cinnamon-chested bee-eater, black bee-eater (Buhoma), western green tinkerbird (Ruhiza), Tullberg's woodpecker, Elliot's woodpecker (Buhoma), African broadbill (Buhoma), Petit's cuckoo-shrike (Buhoma), grey cuckoo-shrike (Ruhiza), Ansorge's greenbul (Buhoma), equatorial akalat (Buhoma), red-throated alethe (Buhoma), white-bellied robin-chat (Buhoma), olive thrush (Ruhiza), white-tailed ant-thrush, Grauer's rush-warbler (Ruhiza), short-tailed warbler (Buhoma), black-faced rufous warbler, Grauer's warbler, banded prinia, black-throated apalis (Buhoma), mountain masked apalis, yellow-eyed black-flycatcher, ashy flycatcher (The Neck), dusky-blue flycatcher (Buhoma), chinspot batis (Ruhiza), Rwenzori batis, black-and-white shrike-flycatcher (Buhoma), white-bellied crested-flycatcher, mountain illadopsis (Buhoma), African hill-babbler (Ruhiza), dusky tit, blue-throated brown sunbird (Buhoma), blue-headed sunbird (Buhoma), northern double-collared sunbird (Buhoma), grey-headed sunbird (Buhoma), Mackinnon's fiscal, sooty boubou (Buhoma), pink-footed puffback (Buhoma), Doherty's bush-shrike (Ruhiza), white-naped raven (Ruhiza), montane oriole (Ruhiza), African golden oriole (Ruhiza), Stuhlmann's starling (Ruhiza), narrow-tailed starling (Buhoma), Waller's starling (Ruhiza), strange weaver (Ruhiza), brown-capped weaver, black-billed weaver, dusky crimsonwing (Ruhiza), yellow-bellied waxbill (Ruhiza), magpie mannikin (Buhoma), yellow-crowned canary (Buhoma), thick-billed seedeater, streaky seedeater (Ruhiza) and oriole finch (Buhoma).

21/7 and 23/7      Lake Bunyoni

Quick stops here produced some entertaining birding (plus great views of spot-necked otter). Highlights included: little rush warbler and northern masked weaver (the latter apparently expanding its range in Africa).

21/7                        wetland near Kisoro

We visited this spot at the end of a day largely spent in the minibus. A pleasant wetland site. Highlights included: little grebe, lanner and "Jackson's pipit" (race of grassland pipit).

22/7                        Mgahinga

We elected to visit this site in order to have a chance of Rwenzori turaco, which are very easy here. We walked to the gorge and back but would have liked to have gone round the loop trail (too far according to Herbert). Other highlights included: dusky turtle dove, Cape robin-chat, Kivu ground-thrush, white-tailed crested-flycatcher and Rwenzori double-collared sunbird.

23/7                        Echuya Forest

Great stop en route to Mgahinga. Try an do it early in the morning though as the road is dusty and once the traffic starts up it gets pretty unpleasant. We saw a lot of birds here during a short space of time including our best views of white-browed crombec and my only olive woodpecker.

23-26/7                  Queen Elizabeth NP

We spent two nights at the hostel at Mweya and one night at the delightful Jacana Lodge on the outskirts of the park. Game drives from Mweya were poor on the whole, although we did see giant hog around the HQ area and in the park and kob are plentiful throughout. Birding here was also rather disappointing on the whole. We only had a short amount of time in the Maramagembo Forest (close to Jacana Lodge), which would have repaid more work I suspect. Highlights included: great white pelican, little egret, yellow-billed stork, glossy ibis, blue quail, African crake, collared pratincole, crowned lapwing, Kittlitz's plover, common greenshank, African skimmer, alpine swift, Narina trogon (Maramagembo Forest), least honeyguide (Maramagembo Forest), rufous-naped lark, red-capped lark, little grey greenbul (Maramagembo Forest), brown-chested alethe (Maramagembo Forest), red-capped robin-chat, brown-backed scrub-robin, stout cisticola, yellow-bellied wattle-eye (Maramagembo Forest and my bird of the trip!), purple-headed starling, lesser masked weaver, little weaver, compact weaver, red bishop and common waxbill.

26-28/7                  Semliki NP

To do this site justice you need to give it a few more days and camp along the Kirumia trail but we did not regret our quick snapshot at the avifauna. We stayed in a basic hotel in Bundibugyo, which was at least an hour away from the park and meant that we never got into the field very early. We spent one day along the Kirumia trail with the splendid Godfrey (easily the best birder out of our many guides during the trip. The next day was spent along the Hot Springs trail where despite Godfrey's absence we managed to see a number of great birds bit it was generally quieter. What you really need is at least three whole days camping up the Kirumia trail. Highlights here included: piping hornbill, red-billed dwarf hornbill, white-crested hornbill, black-casqued wattled hornbill, red-rumped tinkerbird, rufous-sided broadbill, icterine greenbul, swamp palm bulbul, crested malimbe and blue-billed malimbe.

29/7                        Kithingama Swamp

We overnighted at Fort Portal en route to Budongo and this allowed us a morning at this site just outside town. Habitat here consists of a swamp surrounded by low, scrubby secondary forest and cultivation. It is a good site for a number of birds that are hard to find elsewhere and we scored with speckle-breasted woodpecker, Cabanis's greenbul and joyful greenbul (all of which we failed to find at other sites).

29/7 - 1/8 and 4/8              Budongo

Splendid forest birding here and the surrounding cultivation is good too. We stayed three nights in a basic hostel near the Royal Mile whilst birding the Royal Mile itself as well as the great forest in the Busingiro section. On our last day we drove to Murchison via the Butiaba escarpment - a very enjoyable day's birding. We elected to bird the outlying Kanio Pabidi section later on the drive between Murchison and Kampala and this worked well. Whilst at the Royal Mile we used the excellent Vincent as a guide and he put us onto to a lot of great birds. Highlights included: crested guineafowl (Kanio Pabidi), Nahan's francolin (Busingiro section), red-headed lovebird, Madagascar lesser cuckoo, black cuckoo, mottled swift, Eurasian swift, mottled spinetail, Cassin's spinetail, shining-blue kingfisher, white-thighed hornbill, Cameroon sombre greenbul,  spotted greenbul, Uganda woodland warbler, lemon-bellied crombec, yellow longbill, grey longbill, rufous-crowned eromomela, whistling cisticola, black-capped apalis, forest flycatcher, chestnut-capped flycatcher, brown illadopsis, Puvel's illadopsis (Kanio Pabidi), superb sunbird, grey-headed oliveback, brown twinspot and Cabanis's bunting. Two of us scored with chimp at Kanio Pabidi.

1-4/8                      Murchison Falls NP

Fantastic park. We stayed in the comfortable Red Chilli Lodge on the south side of the Nile. North of the Nile the game numbers are more like you would expect from an east African savannah and there are plenty of birds to keep you occupied on both sides. Make sure you do a drive to the falls for dusk (bathawk) and the drive back is good for nightjars. The boat ride to the delta was excellent for shoebill. Highlights included: little bittern, Madagascar pond-heron (one in small roadside pool after dropping off the Butiaba escarpment en route to park), black-crowned night-heron, intermediate egret, osprey, shoebill (3-4), white-headed vulture, Eurasian marsh harrier, eastern chanting-goshawk, dark chanting-goshawk, bat hawk, Heuglin's francolin, harlequin quail, Senegal thick-knee, rock pratincole, vinaceous dove, Namaqua dove, spotted eagle-owl, long-tailed nightjar, swamp nightjar, horus swift, giant kingfisher, swallow-tailed bee-eater, red-throated bee-eater, northern carmine bee-eater, black scimitarbill, Abyssinian ground-hornbill, white-headed barbet (Butiaba escarpment), black-billed barbet (Butiaba escarpment), spotted mourning-thrush, northern crombec (Butiaba escarpment), rattling cisticola, singing cisticola (Butiaba escarpment), red-faced cisticola (Butiaba escarpment), foxy cisticola, red-winged grey warbler, silverbird, brown babbler (Butiaba escarpment), beautiful sunbird, grey-headed bush-shrike (Butiaba escarpment), lesser blue-eared starling, rufous sparrow, speckle-fronted weaver, white-browed sparrow-weaver, chestnut-crowned sparrow-weaver, vitelline weaver, cardinal quelea, northern red bishop, black-winged red bishop, red-winged pytilia, bar-breasted firefinch, black-rumped waxbill, black-faced waxbill, cinnamon-breasted rock bunting (Butiaba escarpment) and brown-rumped bunting.

5/8                          Mabira Forest

This was our last site and we were more than a little tired, nevertheless a morning here allowed us to fill a few gaps in the list - most notably I caught up with Jameson's wattle-eye after failing to see it at Semliki. We used Ibrahim as our guide and he took us some distance from the HQ in the van to a track leading off the main road. The birding here was fantastic. Highlights included: forest wood-hoopoe, buff-spotted woodpecker, purple-throated cuckoo-shrike, blue-shouldered robin-chat, Jameson's wattle-eye and red-headed bluebill.

Birds recorded in Uganda between 14th July and 5th August 2004

Sites visited: Mabamba (MB) 14/7; Mpanga Forest (MP) 15/7; Lake Mburo (LM) 15-16/7; Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Buhoma (BH) and Ruhiza (RZ) 16-21/7; Lake Bunyoni (LB) 21/7 and 23/7; wetland near Kisoro (KW) 23/7; Mgahinga (MG) 22/7; Echuya Forest (EF) 23/7; Queen Elizabeth NP (QE) 23-26/7; Semliki (SM) 26-28/7; Kithingama Swamp (KS) 29/7; Budongo (B) 29/7 - 1/8 and 4/8; Murchison Falls NP (MU) 1-4/8; and Mabira Forest (MF) 5/8.

Birds we missed and where you might see them

Phil Benstead is a freelance birder based in the UK and is available to lead tours to Uganda.