Meet Crammy Wanyama, a passionate birder born and raised in Uganda. His childhood attachment to birds haunted him to adulthood amidst his adventurous character. His business administration transcripts and spending days in a squared building offering IT solutions did impress him more than being out interacting with nature.

At the end of 2010, he went for an introduction to guiding training arranged by the Uganda Safari guides association (USAGA). On the third evening of field practice, Crammy locked eyes with a duetting pair of Black-headed Gonoleks patched less than meters from him; this was the turning point.

Anxious about the details of these birds, he came to realise that their kind of habitat is what his family and neighbours had wiped out in the name of agriculture and better human settlement! From this experience, he set 2011 as a change of life year; he continuously read and attended a few conservation pieces of training to understand what he unknowingly would later share with his home people and birding clients.

In his conservation efforts, he tagged friends to come along on his practising and scouting adventures and engaged the curious kids and adults he met in the bushes while practising birds.

Also, for the guiding interests, he related the bird calls he heard in the field to music tunes that played several nights in the music production studio, where he spent plenty of time with his musician friends. He attached most calls to specific familiar musical instruments that he had encountered. Although he appreciated colourful birds, his connections to musical instruments dragged him into paying much attention to strict African families like Alaudidae (Larks) and Cisticolidae, which are very vocal birds. This solo practice got his birdcall identification to 80% by call even before he started leading tours. This is a much easier way to find forest birds.

Crammy Wanyama started Avian Safaris to speed up his conservation (with a significant focus on habitat restoration) funding efforts. He has teamed up with local local birding communities to participate in several birding and nature excursions. He has voluntarily served on the local Bird Guides Clubs and Uganda Safari Guides Association. USAGA on different occasions, has voted Crammy as the year’s Best Birding Guide and also the Best Guide in Uganda.

He leads several tours in the East African region (Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo) for Avian Safaris, served as the head guide at Bird Uganda Safaris and has been to other destinations like Namibia with his friends of Batis Birding Safaris, Madagascar, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatin, Republic of South Africa, Angola and the USA with Tropical Birding Tours.

This fanatical naturalist loves spending time with his beautiful family when not doing tours, just like he enjoys showing people birds in the field.

A couple of Trip Reports by Crammy Wanyama