Uganda’s Top Bird Species To Look Out For on a Uganda Birding Watching Safaris

These are the top 10 bird species that many birders are interested in while on their birding safari in Uganda.

1. The Shoebill: This is found in Murchison Falls or Mabamba Island, one of the few indefinable and uncommon bird species sited. It is a large bird with a whale-head and can mostly be seen in marshy areas. The adult’s feathers are medium blue-grey in color, while the juveniles are a bit browner.
2. The Great Blue Turaco: They are large birds often hunted for their meat and feathers. They are also poor at flying and thus end up soaring for shorter distances.
3. Shelley’s Crimson-wing: These are rarely sighted. Their bills are bright red. The females have olive heads and red mantle, while the males have their backs, face, and crown all covered in bright red.
4. The Standard-winged Nightjar: They are usually identified with flying foxes (fruit bats). They keep hidden away during resting or daytime by using their brown mottled plumage. Their feathers can stretch 38cm long, and they often soar at sundown into the late evenings.
5. The Short-tailed Warbler: Often identified as the Neumann’s Warbler. A little bird with a large head with a unique striped outline and a very short tail has a broad arch of hair above each greyish-brown eye and, while the front of its eye is a dull green and white.
6. The African Green Broadbill: It’s an endangered species globally and is often identified as the Grauer’s Broadbill. It lives mostly in tropical forests. They have a light green shade to their feathers, a blue throat with a small bill.
7. The Green-breasted Pitta: They are hard to spot but are found in the tropical forests’ soggy lowlands. Its throat is encircled with a black line, and its breast is green in color.
8. The Doherty’s Bushshrike: They can be heard but never seen. They are green with a cheerful red throat and forehead, a light yellow and lemon-like middle with a black tail, and a broad black-breasted band. The younger birds have a pale green color and striped green and yellow underparts.
9. The Bar-tailed Trogon: They live in forests. They have yellow feet and a bill and a far-reaching long tail. Females have brown heads and light cinnamon throat and breast, while the males have blue-black heads, two orange and or yellow patches below the eyes that are of bare skin, and luminous colors of green-blue and violet on their upper breast.
10. The Black-breasted Barbet: They have big heads and a hefty bill that is fringed with hackles. They are solitary birds that classically shell in tree openings. They feed on fruit, insects, and small reptiles. The female lays about 2 to 4 eggs, and both birds then incubate them for a period of 13-15 days.

Some birds can only be found in some areas; however, Uganda is blessed with many birding spots where bird lovers can enjoy a birding trip and look out for these beautiful species. A skilled bird watcher can identify more than 100 species in just a single day. Starting early offers the finest opportunity of finding remarkable, beautiful species.