Uganda Birding & Gorilla Trekking Safari

Our driver will pick you up from Entebbe International Airport (15 minutes) and check you in at your hotel within Entebbe. You'll meet with your trip specialist for a briefing just before dinner.

You'll visit the Lake shores around the peninsula and wetlands searching the ?mystical shoebill and many other birds such as for Blue Monarch, Brown Twin Spots, Fain tailed Widow bird, Moustached Warbler, White headed Barbets, Black headed Gonolek, Striped Kingfisher, African Pied hornbill, Diederik’s Cuckoo, Black Bishop, among others. After lunch, visit the Uganda Wildlife Education centre where you will see different birds such as Ostriches, African grey parrots, the Peacock, crested cranes, Egyptian goose among others.

You'll stay at:Papyrus Guesthouse (Comfortable)

With a sunrise start, you will set off to Mabamba Wetland, a canoe boat ride on the shores of Lake Victoria. It is the best bird habitat to see the rare Shoebill birds in Uganda. Other birds you may see include the Lesser Jacana, Black-Shouldered Nightjar, Blue Swallow, Blue Breasted Bee-Eater, White Winged Warbler, and Papyrus Gonolek, among others.

After a late breakfast, hit the highway west of Kampala to Lake Mburo National Park, having lunch en route.

Staying at: Rwakobo Rock Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Take an early game drive on the misty tracks to catch the early risers on the park's savanna plains. Lucky birders may catch sight of the elusive leopard and some exotic wild animals. Still, you must take advantage of rare bird sightings in the early hours of the drive.

Punctuated with many lakes surrounded by swamps, Lake Mburo National Park has various water-loving bird species, such as the Pelican, Black crake, Heron, cormorant, and fish eagle. The mysterious shoebill is sometimes sighted in the fringes; look out for its big shoe-like head.

You'll also take a boat ride on the calm waters to get closer to some riparian birds, including crocodiles and hippos.

Staying at: Rwakobo Rock Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

You'll have an early birding drive to tick off the list of some birds you still need to get as you leave the park to drive southwest to Lake Bunyonyi - the place of birds.

You'll drive via Kabale, the last town, before you check in at a beach cottage. There's so much to marvel at, including the Virunga Mountains chain forming a curtain over the island-dotted lake and the hilly landscape.

Lake Bunyonyi is one of the richest bird habitats in Uganda; you won't stop turning your neck once you take an evening walk around your lodge.

Lake Bunyonyi is famous for its green and lush terraced hills punctuated by over 200 bird species, including water birds and some migratory birds, especially around Nyombi swamps. With the region's bird-watching expert, you'll explore the lake fringes in a fisherman's boat to islands dotted across the lake.

You'll visit the legendary Akampene Island, where historically, the Bakiga dumped unmarried pregnant girls. Besides the dark history behind many of the islands, it's an excellent Uganda birding spot.

Among the birds to expect are the grey crowned cranes, levillant cuckoo, white-tailed monad, slender-billed baglafetch, weavers, African harrier hawk, egrets, cardinal woodpecker, grey crowned cranes, African kingfisher, and herons.

Staying at: Bunyonyi Lake Resort
Meals: Brealfast, Lunch, Dinner

You will catch a motorized canoe from your beach lodge and cross Lake Bunyonyi to Muko Jetty, 2 hours away. Your guide will pick you up and drive through the hilly landscape, on a dirt road, for 2 hours to reach your cottage at the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

The journey introduces you to enchanting landscapes across the rift valley. For two hours, you'll drive around the Impenetrable forest with occasional glimpses of the misty jungle.

At the lodge, you can walk around the community for a few sightings of Bwindi's rare birds.

Staying at: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

You must be up by 7:00 am for an early start, have breakfast, and get your lunch pack, drinking water, and hiking gear. Your private driver will have you at the briefing point before 7:30 am. Gorilla trekking starts at about 8:00 am from the visitor center, irrespective of the weather and group size.

You will probably take the better part of the day in the jungle—more time tracking the mountain gorillas than watching them. You have about one hour to observe the dark-fared giant beasts staying 10 meters away from them. But sometimes they come closer, and you must follow the rules of the jungle.

The time you spend with the great apes will greatly compensate for all the jungle hiking that challenges your health and fitness. I recommend you work out for a few days before you come because the jungle is humid with thick air, uneven terrain on steep slopes, and it can get muddy

You'll be out of there by about 2:00 pm; have lunch somewhere in the jungle and get back to your cottage for the evening. Take advantage of the walk in the rainforest to look out for some special birds, but note that your guide will be more interested in finding the gorillas.

Staying at: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

You'll get on the trail at about 8:30 am after a short briefing with your walking safari guide at the lodge. You must hit the trails in the misty early morning hours so that the intense afternoon sunrays find you under the jungle canopy. You travel with a local guide and two gun-bearing rangers for security. Go light; just your backpack with lunch, a camera, and walking. It takes about 4-5 hours to walk the trail.

The trail offers some of Africa's best montane-forest (mountain-forest) bird watching. There are about 350 bird species, with 14 not recorded elsewhere in Uganda. On this trail, you could see some of the 23 birds unique to the Albertine Rift (90% of all Albertine Rift endemics), including Neumann's warbler and blue-headed sunbird. Migratory birds are present from November to April.

Two trails meet somewhere in the rainforest and snake down to Buhoma town; you'll have to select one. The longer one takes about six hours and strays along the Kashasha river and over several ridges. The shorter one starts at Kashasha River, down Nteko valley, and wanders along Ivy River. You must drive about 15 kilometers to Nteko village to start the Ivy River Trail. However, both trails deliver the same jolt of adventure for avid birders.

On the other side, you'll meet up with your driver, who will drive you through the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth and check you into a bush camp for overnight. In the dying light, look out for the tree-climbing lions lounging in fig trees or leopard lacking in the bushes.

Staying at: Ishasha Wilderness Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

From the arduous mountains and rainforests, this day calms down the Uganda birding expedition with another savanna wilderness expedition on the plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park. You'll start the day with a sunrise safari game drive through the southern tracks of the park from Ishasha Sector northbound.

You can see numerous bird species accentuated with wild game. Look out for the Martial Eagle, Lesser Flamingoes, Black-rumped Buttonquail, African Skimmer, Ovampo Sparrow hawk, Verreaux's Eagle-Owl, White-tailed Lark, Saddle-billed Storks, Red Footed Falcon, Papyrus Gonolek, and Papyrus Canary among others.

Tree-climbing lions are a specialty of the Ishasha sector. You'll also see giant forest hogs; buffalo are beautiful as they are often reddish brown due to interbreeding with forest buffalo from the rainforests. Many interesting antelope species, such as Uganda kob, topi, and bushbuck, will definitely cross your tracks.

In the evening, you'll visit the Katwe salt works to catch some salt-lake birds like flamingos, Pelicans, plovers, and stilts. Check-in at another camp in the northern section of the park.

Staying at: Katara Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

You'll have an early bird-watching expedition in the Maramagambo Forest. From this tropical moist forest, you will see different forest birds such as Hornbills, Kingfishers, and Sunbirds. Other highlights are Bat Cave, where thousands of Egyptian Fruit Bats stay, a small bluish transparent Blue Lake, and Hunter's Cave.

You'll then proceed to Mweya Jetty, reaching in time for a launch cruise on the Kazinga Channel.

There is prolific birdlife around the Kazinga Channel to keep your eyes in action for more than two hours on a boat safari. Prominent birds on the channel include the African Shoebill, Yellow Billed Stork, Great White & Pink-Backed Pelicans, Open-Billed Stork, Saddle Bill Stork, Great and Long Tailed Cormorants, Darters, Black Crake, and Jacana.

Hippos, elephants, and crocodiles are common sightings on the banks of the Kazinga Channel.

Staying at: Katara Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

Early morning game drive or birding in the Kyambura gorge and there after transfer to Entebbe via Mbarara with lunch stop at the Igongo Cultural Centre.

Optional Accommodation Papyrus Guesthouse
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (Packed), Dinner