August 2021, Days Uganda Birding Trip Report

AUGUST 2021 18-DAY UGANDA BIRDING AND NATURE TRIP REPORT

Dates: July 31 to August 17, 2021

Trip Report and all photos by Crammy Wanyama

Puvel’s Illadopsis

2021 Uganda Birding Report – Half of the participants on this tour had done a Ugandan tour two years back. On the previous trip, we focused on the westerly circuit. Therefore, this time being an avid and well-traveled birding team, our primary focus was on the east and northeast to find specialties of the Somali-Masai biome but with interest in the west to catch up with a few toughies that eluded us on the previous tour. The group was happy to look at every bird and loved focusing on life birds and subspecies that were potential splits; therefore, our focus was not on numbers, although we managed to encounter 560 bird species and 58 mammals.

Day 1 – July 31, 2021: Birding Mabira Forest

Having arrived a day earlier, Stephen and I drove straight up to Mabira Forest, a central forest reserve between two significant cities, Kampala and Jinja. We stayed at a very serenely located lodge in the forest. Yet, the most pressure that threatens the habitat comes from the surrounding communities that use the forest as a primary source of firewood for domestic consumption and illegal cutting of trees for timber to earn an extra income to take care of their families.

We started with the search for the Forest Robin, just by the parking lot on arrival.

African Dwarf Kingfisher

This is a gorgeous nearly-orange breast with very lovely headlights. Around the same place, we had a couple of adults and a freshly fledged Yellow-lored and Red-tailed Bristlebill. Inside this lovely forest, we also saw Black-headed Paradise Flycatcher, Buff-throated Apalis, Grey and Yellow Longbills, African Pygmy and the locally uncommon White-bellied Kingfishers, Purple-throated Cuckoo-shrike, Cassin’s Hawk-eagle, Black-billed Turaco, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Olive Green Camaroptera, White-throated, Little, Gray, Slender-billed and Toro Olive Greenbuls, Least Honeyguide, the aerial Sabines and Cassin’s Spinetails, Read more