BIRD WATCHING IN MURCHISON FALLS AND BUDONGO FOREST – 5 days, 4 nights
DAY 01
En route to MFNP, coming through drier and extensive palm savanna, it provides with our best chance of seeing Puvel’s Illadopsis, which was first discovered here in 1995.
Birds to be seen would include:
Brown-rumped Bunting, Northern Carmine Bee-eater, White-fronted Chat, Black-backed Cisticola, Martial Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Red-necked Falcon, Bar-breasted Firefinch, Heuglin’s Francolin, Red-throated Bee-eater, Little Bittern, Blue-headed Coucal, Black Crakek, Nob-billed Duck, Great & yellow-billed Egret, Swamp Flycatcher, Egyptian & Spur-winged Geese, Goliath, Grey, and Purple Herons, Triated and Green-backed Herons, Bathawk, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Harlequin Quail, African Quailfinch, Abyssinian Roller, Secretary Bird, Black-chested Snake Eagle, Rufous Sparrow, Ovambo Sparrow Hawk, Speckle-fronted Weaver, African Jacana, Malachite Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, African Marsh Harrier, Long-toed & Spur-winged Plover, Rock Pratincole, Saddle-billed Stork, Senegal Thick-knee, African Pied Wagtail, Lesser Swamp Warbler, White-faced Whistling Duck, Long-tailed Night Jar, Pennant-winged Nightjar.
DAY 02
The white Nile drops over the spectacular Murchison Falls on its way to Lake Albert, forced thru a gap barely more than 10 metres wide! Boat trips to the base of of the falls will be the highlight of the stay here and gives our very good chance of seeing the rare and bizarre Shoebill Stork.
In the dry woodlands and savannas, we will look for:
Black-billed Barbet,Blue-breasted, Bee-eaterMadagascar Bee-eaterswallow-tailed Bee-eater,black, Black-winged Bishop, Northern, Red, & Red Bishops,Sulphur-Breasted Bush- Shrike, Grey-backed Camaroptera, Yellow-fronted Canary, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Sooty Chat, Senegal & White-browed Coucal, Black-and-white Cuckoos, Diederik & Levaillant’s Cuckoos, Mourning Dove, Flappert Lark, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, African green Pigeon, Tawny-flanked Priniac, Cardinal & Red-billed Queleas, Broad-billed Roller, Common Scimitarbill, Shikra, Silverbird, Little Sparrowhawk, Ruppell’s long-tailed Starling, Angola & wire-tailed Swallow, Little Swift, White-rumped Swift, Marsh Tchagra, Yellow-mantled Widowbird, Black-billed Wood Dove, Vinaceous Dove, Crested Francolin, Moustached Grass- Warbler, Helmeted Guineafowl, Greater Honeyguide, Blue-spotted Wood Dove, Cardinal Woodpecker.
The scrub and gallery forest overlooking the Nile holds the:
Yellow-breasted Apalis, Brown Babbler, Double-toothed Barbet, Black-headed Batis, Cabanis’ Bunting, Croaking, siffling, Singing, Whistling, Winding & Zitting Cisticolas, Red-faced Crombec, Black-bellied & Red-billed, Firefinch, African Paradise Flycatcher, Pale Flycatcher, Black-headed & Common Fiscal Gonolek, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Yellow-throated Leaflove, Spotted Morning Thrush, Blue-napped Mousebird, Green-winged Pytilia, Red-headed Quelea, Snowy-headed Robin, Chatwhite-browed Scrub Robin, White-rumped Seed-eater, Lesser blue-eared Starling, Violet-backed Starling, Beautiful Sunbird, Olive-bellied Sunbird, Red-chested Sunbird, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Black-crowned Tchagra, Broad-tailed Warbler, Buff-bellied Warbler, Grey-capped Warbler, Red-winged grey Warbler, Common Wattle-Eye, Black-rumped Waxbill, Common Waxbill, Fawn-breasted Waxbill, Compact, Slender-billed, Yellow-backed Weaver, Pin-tailed Whydah and Nubian Woodpecker.
DAY 03
After some final birding in MFNP we will drive past Lake Albert en route to Masindi. We will ascend the steep slope of the escarpment which affords magnificent over the lake towards the blue mountains of Congo. Here we will explore the scrubby vegetation for:
Spot-flanked Barbet, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Foxy & Rattling Cisticola, Northern Crombec, Red-shouldered Cuckoo- Shrike, Green-backed Eremomela, Black Scimitarbill, Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver, Western violet-backed Sunbird, African Penduline & White-shouldered Black Tit, Black-faced Waxbill and Little Weaver.
Roadside stops in areas of marsh and scrub near Masindi may produce:
Tropical Boubou, Carruther’s Cisticola, Red-faced Cisticola, Grey Crowned Crane, African Firefinch, Papyrus Gonolek, Red-headed Lovebird, Olive-backblack-headed Oriole, White-browed Robin-Chat, Rufous-chested Swallow, Ross’ & White-crested Turacos, Brown Twinspot, Greater Swamp & White-winged Warbler, Black-crowned Waxbill, Grosbeak & Vieillot’s Black Weaver, Red-collared Widowbird, Grey Woodpecker.
DAY 04
The forests of Uganda are most important for wildlife on the African continent. Not far from Masindi, the magnificent Budongo Forest gives our first opportunity to see the birds of this special region. Access to the forest is easy and much of the best birding here is to be foung around the 'Royal Mile' a broad entrance thru level forest where the canopy towers far overhead.
Birds to be seen would include:
African Shrike, Grey-throated Shrike, Sooty African Shrike, Red-tailed Ant-Thrush, Black-capped Apalis, Black-throated Apalis, Yellow-billed Barbet, Yellow-spotted Barbet, White-throated Bee-eater, Red-breasted Bluebill, Red-tailed Bristlebill, Olive-green Camaroptera, Yellow-browed Camaroptera, Green & lemon-bellied Crombec, African Emerald, Dusky, Klaas’, Long-tailed & Red-chested Cuckoos, Tambourine Dove, Brown-crowned Eremomela, White-spotted Flufftail, Chestnut-capped Flycatcher, Nahan’s Francolin, Cameroun Somber, Slender-billed, Spotted, White-throated & Yellow-whiskered, Greenbuls, Crested Guineafowl, Cassin’s Flycathcer, Hawk Eagle, White-thighed Hornbill, Green Hylia, Brown, Pale-breasted Illapdopsis, Scaly-breasted Illapdopsis, African dwarf, Blue-breasted & Chocolate-backed Kingfisher, Yellow Longbill, Crested Malimbe,
White-breasted Negro Finch, Western Nicator, Western black-headed Oriole, Forest Robin, Great Sparrow Hawk, Cassin’s & Sabine’s Spinetails, Blue-throated, Brown, Green, Grey-headed & Little-Green Sunbirds, Rufous Thrush, Dusky Tit, Uganda Woodland Warbler, Jameson’s Wattle-eye, Yellow-mantled Weaver, Buff-spotted Woodpecker, Yellow-crested Woodpecker and Yellowbill.
DAY 05
We return to Kampala
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