Mabamba Swamps

Mabamba Wetland Shoebill Tour, One Day Uganda Birding

The wetlands boost of a 260 bird species record, with seven of the 12 Lake Victoria Basin biome species that occur in Uganda being available.

The notable ones after the recent years’ surveys include the elusive Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) which also breeds from the region, the Papyrus Gonolek, House Sparrow which is Vagrant, Mosque Swallow (monteiri race), Weyn’s Weaver, White-shouldered Tit, Sand Martin, Brown Snake-Eagle, Eurasian Hobby, Grosbeak Weaver, Blue-headed Coucal, Fork-tailed Drongo, Feral Pigeon, Flappet Lark, Long-Crested Eagle, Stripped Kingfisher, Common Stonechat, Common Greenshank, Little bee-eater, Whinchat, Grey Wagtail, Great Blue Turaco, Grassland Pipit, Orange Weaver, Northern Brown-throated Weaver, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Black-headed weaver, Slender-billed Weaver, Yellow-backed Weaver, Black Headed Gonolek, Ruppell’s Long-tailed Sterling, Grey-Headed Sparrow, Spur-winged Lapwing, Yellow Wagtail, African Pied Wagtail, Pied King Fisher, Grey-headed Kingfisher, Yellow Billed Stork, Olivaceous Warbler, Tawny Eagle, Carruther’s Cisticola, Ross’s Turaco, Fan-tailed Widowbird, Ashy Flycatcher, Rufous-napped Lark, Yellow-throated Greenbul, Common Squacco Heron, White-faced Whistling-duck, Fulvous Whistling-duck, Goliath Heron, Slender-billed Gull, Spur-winged Goose, Long-toed Lapwing, African Marsh Harrier, White-browed Coucal, Violet-backed Sterling, name it.

Mabamba has become one of the strongholds for the migrant Blue Swallow with over 100 individuals recorded every year.

Like many papyrus swamps adjacent to Lake Victoria, Mabamba is home to the Sitatunga, a swamp antelope which is commonly hunted by local people.

It is also a habitat to rare plant species like Sandboxes species