After our successful July, 2022 trip, we have made several improvements to the trip to make sure everyone, even non-birders, will get the most out of the standard itinerary, and then added additional days to the end as an extension to give more hard core birders very good coverage of the Albertine Rift endemics. Those not taking the extension will need to book very early to make sure there are flights available to Entebbe. 
Let us know if you have a preference! 

Here is the outline of the 2025 standard program and the birder’s extension. Prices and details will be ready by August 2024 at the latest.

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Program 2025

Day 1: Arrival
Arrive at Entebbe International Airport, meet &greet by your driver guide, and transfer to accommodation about 7 minutes away. Dinner and Overnight at Airport Link Guest House / Jet Villas Guest House( Full Board).

Day 2: Bird Mabamba then Drive to Kibale Forest Area.
Early breakfast and then with a packed lunch proceed to Mabamba Wetlands, get onto a motorized canoe and start looking for the mighty Shoebill and other birds like Long-tailed Cormorant, Squacco Heron, Yellow-billed Duck, Malachite Kingfisher, Long-toed Lapwing, Blue-headed Coucal, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, to mention but a few.

We will then drive south to Kibale in the Toro Kingdom birding en-route. Look out for birds like African Pied Hornbill, Blue Malkoha, Speckled Tinkerbird, Yellow-throated Tinkerbird, Honeyguide Greenbul, Yellow-throated Leaflove, Brown-backed
Scrub Robin, Green Hylia, Lowland Masked Apalis, Cassin’s Grey Flycatcher, Sooty Flycatcher, Black-and-white Shrike Flycatcher, Seimundi Sunbird, Grey-chinned Sunbird, Purple-headed Starling, Splendid Starling, Narrow-tailed Starling, White-breasted Nigrita, Black Bishop, Western Citril among others.
Dinner and overnight at Chimpanzee Forest Lodge/ Guereza Canopy Lodge (Full Board).

Day 3: Bird Kibale National Park and Chimp Tracking
Early breakfast and then proceed to bird Kibale Forest – the best place in Uganda to see Chimps and other primates. You will track the chimps in the morning and then continue birding until the afternoon.

Look out for birds like the Green-breasted Pitta, Red-chested owl, Narina Trogon, African Emerald Cuckoo, Grey Parrot, Sabine’s Spinetail, Black-billed Turaco, Yellow-billed Barbet, Red-tailed Ant-Thrush among other birds and Primates like Blue Monkey, Black and white Colobus, Grey-cheeked Mangabey, Olive Baboon, Varvet Monkey, Red tailed Monkey, and L’Hoest’s Monkey.
Dinner and overnight at Chimpanzee Forest Lodge/ Guereza Canopy Lodge(Full Board).

Day 4: Transfer to Queen Elizabeth NP ( Ishasha Sector)
After breakfast, head towards Queen Elizabeth National Park driving along the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains crossing the Equator. Game drive en-route to accommodation where you will be spending your night.

The park, which is named after Queen Elizabeth who visited it in 1954, is the second largest national park in Uganda, and ranks highest in overall diversity, with a bird species list exceeding 600.

The park has a mosaic of habitats from the moist forest at Imaramagambo to wild savannah excellent for Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Hyenas, Ugandan Kobs, Baboons, Giant Hogs, and Warthog.

Lookout for birds like White-spotted Flufftail, Yellow-billed Barbet, African Emerald Cuckoo, Black-billed Turaco, Kingfishers, Lesser Striped Swallow, Cisiticolas, Shrikes, Starlings, and Widowbirds among other birds.
Dinner and Overnight at Topi Lodge (Full Board).  
 
Day 5: Game Drive In Queen with Tree Climbing Lions then transfer to Bwindi ( Ruhija Sector).
Early breakfast and then head out to look for the tree-climbing lions and other wildlife.
As we drive along we will have views of several antelopes like Uganda Kob, Defassa waterbuck, Topi, and many more.
Look out for birds like Martial Eagle, Francolins,
Barbets, Chats, Cuckooshrikes, Sunbirds, Fork-tailed Drongo, Larks, Pipits, Weavers, and Widowbirds.

We will have Lunch and then transfer to Bwindi ( Ruhija Sector) getting there in the late evening.
Dinner and Overnight at Broadbill Camp (Full Board).
  
Day 6: Gorilla Trekking and Birding Ruhija Sector Of Bwindi
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is one of those nature’s unspoiled National Parks found in southwestern Uganda covering an area of 331 sq. km. It is home to half the world’s rare apes the Mountain Gorillas. It is the only protected area in the world where Mountain Gorillas and Chimpanzees live together. 

The time to get to these gentle giants depends on where they nested the previous night so actual hours are not known as it can take 30 minutes to a whole day of trekking.

After an early breakfast, we start the gorilla trekking at 8:00 am in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We recommend you to wear good/comfortable walking boots and carry good rain gear and enough drinking water. Trekking can be tough and challenging so we trust you are in reasonably fit condition.

You will carry a picnic lunch with you into the forest and you will be thrilled to have seen these rare primates and the return journey could be easier. We will then head back to the lodge to rest and then later go for evening birding if you are up to it.

If you return early, you can either rest or head out for a bird walk and look out for species like Western Bronze-naped Pigeons and Olive Long-tailed Cuckoos call from the dense canopy, sedate Bar-tailed Trogons sit quietly overhead and weird-looking Grey-throated Barbets inspect dead trunks and boughs, but the real prizes of this forest skulk in the undergrowth and we will need patience to get views
of the highly elusive Grey-chested Babbler (formerly Grey-chested Illadopsis but now reclassified as a member of a small bird family consisting of this species, Dapple-
throat and Spot-throat).

Other great undergrowth birds here include Red-throated Alethe (which often attends ant swarms), Equatorial Akalat, White-bellied Robin-Chat, Black-faced Rufous-Warbler, the unique Neumann’s (or Short-tailed) Warbler, and Willard’s Sooty Boubou.

Fruiting trees often attract an interesting selection of starlings including Slender-billed, Waller’s, Narrow-tailed and Stuhlmann’s, to mention but a few.    
Dinner and Overnight at Broadbill Camp (Full Board).

Day 7: Fly to Entebbe from Kihihi just in time to catch your departure flight home.

2022 program

For your information below follows the 10-day itinerary from July, 2022, which you can follow in the trip report below.
The big difference in 2025 is reversing the itinerary and adding stops at Queen Elizabeth National Park, the possibility to fly back to make a truly short Uganda trip for anyone with limited time and principally targeting the best of Uganda.

For the birder who has the necessary time to stay for the full 12 days to get most of the Albertine Rift endemics, we allow ample time in two sectors of the Bwindi Impenetrable forest as well as Mgahinga National Park during the extension. This will be more traditional birdwatching with a focus on getting a very long list of the special birds of the region..

Day 1: July 21, 2022. Arrival

Transfer to Entebbe hotel near Botanical gardens. 

Day 2:  July 22, 2022.  Birding to Mabamba Wetlands. Shoebill. 
Early breakfast, then out to nearby Mabamba Wetlands on the shores of Lake Victoria. This is one of the few remaining swamps in the country protected by the local communities – an extensive papyrus swamp with its labyrinth of channels and lagoons, classified as an Important Bird Area, and home to several pairs of Shoebills, Uganda’s most famous avian resident. This charismatic monotypic species is certainly amongst the most sought-after birds in Africa, and we’ll make special efforts today to find it by paddling through the channels by boat.

There will of course be a good selection of classic East African water birds, including Pink-backed Pelican, Long-tailed Cormorant, Goliath Heron, African Open-billed, Saddle-billed, and Marabou Storks, Hammerkop, White-faced Whistling-Duck, Yellow-billed Duck, African Fish-Eagle, African Marsh-Harrier, African Water Rail, Purple Swamphen, Allen’s Gallinule, African Jacana, Long-toed and Spur-winged Plovers. Apart from the numerous water birds, we are likely to see a nice variety of open country and water edge species, perhaps including Speckled Pigeon, African Green Pigeon, Eastern Plantain-eater, Malachite, Giant, and Pied Kingfishers, Blue-headed Coucal, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Crowned Hornbill, Angola and Rufous-chested Swallows, Winding Cisticola, Greater and Lesser Swamp-Warblers, Swamp Flycatcher, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Papyrus Gonolek, Slender-billed, Northern Brown-throated, and Golden-backed Weavers, and Papyrus Canary.

In the afternoon we shall drive to Lake Mburo. Stay at Rwakobo Rock Lodge.

Day 3. July 2, 2022. Mburo to Mgahinga.
We shall check out the rich wetland for waterbirds and many classical raptors including African Fish-Eagle and Lappet-faced Vulture. Additionally, a good chance to see the uncommon Red-faced Barbet.
Mid-morning we continue to drive to Mgahinga.
This is Uganda’s smallest and probably most scenic national park situated in the extreme south- western corner of the country on the slopes of the Virunga Volcanoes which rise up to 4000 m in elevation. To the south of the park is Rwanda, and to the west is the Democratic Republic of Congo. The park has a nice variety of Albertine rift endemics

Day 4: July 24, 2022. Mgahinga to Bwindi.

We shall explore the treasures of this park along the excellent Gorge trail, which loops halfway up Mt. Sabinyo, traversing a variety of montane habitats. One trail winds up through former farmland where regenerating vegetation has a semi-natural heath character. Here we’ll look for Dusky Turtle- Dove, Cape Robin-chat, Brown-Crowned Tchagra, Bronze Sunbird, Rwenzori Turaco, Shelly’s Crimson-wing, Kivu Ground Thrush, Black-headed Waxbill, and Streaky Seedeater, all of which favor the scrubby early successional habitat in this area. As we climb and enter the bamboo belt at about 2500m, we may encounter the Handsome Francolin, Kivu Ground Thrush, and Cinnamon Bracken Warbler. The flowering Red-hot Pokers attract Malachite, Scarlet-tufted, and Ruwenzori Double-collared Sunbirds, as well as Lagden’s Bush-Shrike. Many of these are Albertine Rift endemics, which we can see here and at our next location at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The beautiful Golden Monkey, a localized form of the Blue Monkey, occurs in the bamboo zone and Mountain Gorillas are seasonally resident in the park (although we are unlikely to see one).

Mid-morning or afternoon, we continue to drive to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Bwindi National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is home to approximately half of the world endangered population of Mountain Gorillas. This vast reserve offers arguably the most productive montane forest birding in Africa and supports 23 of Uganda’s 24 Albertine Rift endemic bird species.
Once part of a much larger forest that included the Virunga Volcanoes in neighboring Rwanda, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is now an ecological island within a sea of human cultivation and therefore of big conservation importance.

Forest Birding at Bwindi provides some of the best bird watching in Uganda and Africa as well, having been voted as the Number One Hotspot in Africa by African Bird Club Members.

Stay at Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge.

Day 5: July 25, 2022. Gorilla tracking
After an early breakfast, you will report to the park headquarters for briefing prior to the gorilla tracking excursion. This activity may take anywhere between 1 hour and 8 hours, so a reasonable degree of fitness is required. It is a wonderful experience to stare into the eyes of these gentle giants; watch them in awe as they play and go about their daily activities. It is indeed a “once in a lifetime” experience that you must never miss. Each encounter is different and has its own rewards, but you are likely to enjoy the close view of adults feeding, grooming and resting as the youngsters’ frolic and swing from vines in a delightfully playful display.

The rest of the day we spend birding in the surroundings.

Stay at Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge.

Day 6-7: July 26-27, 2022. Additional birding in the Bwindi and Ruhija areas.

We are tracking down Albertine Rift endemics one by one, also visiting the trails around Mubwindi swamps.
Special effort will be made to try to see Gray-chested Babbler (Illadopsis or Kakamega) – a rare member of the Dapplethroat family Modulatricidae. 

Ruhiija is likely to be one of the highlights of any bird watching safari to Uganda with excellent birding in spectacular surroundings. The Birds are many here and somehow easy to see; many bird species associated in mixed feeding flocks that are active throughout the day. An early start offers the best chance of finding the striking Dwarf Honeyguide, Stripe-breasted Tit, Ruwenzori Apalis, African Hill Babbler (sometimes treated as a separate species from Ruwenzori Hill Babbler), the rare and localized Grauer’s Scrub-Warbler and Carruther’s Cisticola. Some of the many species we have a chance of seeing here include Black Goshawk, Augur Buzzard, Crowned Hawk-Eagle, Handsome Francolin, Olive (Rameron) Pigeon, Bronze-winged Pigeon, Black-billed, Ruwenzori, and Ross’s Turacco, African, Barred Long-tailed, and African Emerald Cuckoos, Red-chested Owlet, Narina and Bar-tailed Trogons, Black and Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters, Blue-throated Roller, White-headed Woodhoopoe, Gray-throated, Double-toothed, and Yellow-spotted Barbets, Western and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Thick-billed and Dwarf Honeyguides, Rufous-necked Wryneck, Tullberg’s, Speckle-breasted, Elliot’s, and Olive Woodpeckers, African Broadbill, Rock Martin, Black Saw-wing, Gray and Petit’s Cuckoo-Shrike, Ansorge’s, Kakamega, Olive-chested, and Cabanis’ Greenbuls, White-tailed Ant-Thrush, Kivu Ground-Thrush, Olive and Mountain Thrushes, Red-throated Alethe, Chubb’s Cisticola, Banded Prinia, Ruwenzori, Black-throated, and Black-faced Apalis, Olive-green Camaroptera, Grauer’s and Cameroon Scrub-Warblers, Cinnamon and Black-faced Bracken-Warblers, Mountain Yellow Warbler, White-browed Crombec, Short-tailed Warbler, Red-faced Woodland-Warbler, White-eyed Slaty- Flycatcher, Yellow-eyed Black-Flycatcher, Sooty Flycatcher, Chapin’s Flycatcher, White-starred Robin, White-bellied and Archer’s Robin-Chats, Ruwenzori Batis, White-tailed, Slaty, and African Blue-Flycatchers, Puvel’s and Pale-breasted Mountain, Gray-chested Babbler, Ruwenzori Hill Babbler, Gray-headed, Western Violet-backed, Green, Green-headed, Blue-headed, Green-throated, Stuhlmann’s, Northern Double-collared, and Regal Sunbirds, Mackinnon’s Shrike, Ludher’s, Gray-green, Many-colored, and Lagden’s Bush-shrikes, Velvet-mantled Drongo, Slender-billed, Waller’s, Narrow-tailed, Stuhlmann’s, and Sharpe’s Starlings, Black-billed, Strange, and Brown-capped Weavers, Jameson’s and Woodhouse’s Ant-peckers, and Red-faced and Dusky Crimson-wings.

Stay at Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge.

Day 8: July 28, 2022. Birding to Kibale.
Today we head further north to Kibale National Park. A packed lunch will be arranged in advance to enjoy later as we travel.

Day 9. July 29, 2022. Chimpanzees and Green-breasted Pitta. 
A predawn start is usually necessary to have a go at the elusive Green-breasted Pitta.
Then we are taken to the visitor center for briefing and chimp tracking. The activity may last from a few hours to several hours. Kibale forest is home to 13 primates of Uganda.
Birding in the afternoon along the main road may be productive. Depending on the weather predictions, birding Bigodi wetland is also productive with riverine forest birds. Kibale National Park is a good site for several birds that are hard to find elsewhere including Speckle-breasted Woodpecker, Cabanis’s Greenbul and Joyful Greenbul as well as White-spotted Flufftail, Dusky and Olive Long-tailed Cuckoo, Lesser Honeyguide, Blue-shouldered Robin-Chat, White-chinned Prinia, Grey Apalis, Olive-green Camaroptera and White-collared Oliveback.

Day 10: July 30, 2022. Long drive back to Entebbe for a late flight.
After an early breakfast, we shall start our long journey with selective stops for birding en route to Entebbe for an evening  international flight.