Tour Overview
The 14-day exclusive birding safari in Uganda is an amazing safari that is aimed at exposing you to Uganda’s most birding places. Uganda is home to over 1,090 bird species which are found in different tourist destinations. You will visit Mabamba Bay, Lake Mburo National Park, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park, and Kibale Forest National Park. On safari, you will be sure to see the rare shoebill, cuckoos, turacos, flycatchers, sunbirds, herons, saddle-billed storks, herons, mousebirds, plantain eaters, and hornbills among others.
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival and transfer to the hotel
Upon arrival for your 14-day birding expedition in Uganda, our driver guide will be waiting to receive you at the airport, he will take you the itinerary and then transfer you to the hotel where you will spend an overnight as you get ready for the safari.
Day 2: Transfer to Lake Mburo
Arise in the morning, enjoy a delicious breakfast, and meet your driver guide who will transfer you to Lake Mburo National Park the closest national park to Kampala which is the capital city of Uganda. You will have a stopover at the Equator, take pictures and proceed to the park.
You will proceed to the park, arrive in time for lunch, check in the lodge, and engage in the evening boat cruise to spot some birds especially water-loving birds like pelicans, African fin-foot, papyrus Gonolek, you will also see hippos, crocodiles, enjoy the scenery and sunset pictures. Return to the lodge in the evening for dinner and overnight.
Day 3: Birdwatching in Mburo
After a delicious breakfast in the morning, you will spend the whole day looking for birds in Lake Mburo National Park. Lake Mburo National Park is endowed with over 350 bird species and on this search, you expect to see birds like barbets, lapwings, Abyssinian ground hornbills, saddle-billed storks, cattle egrets, ibis, you expect to see wildlife apart from birds for example; buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, impalas, elands to mention but a few. You will spend another night in Mburo.
Day 4: Check-out and transfer to Bwindi
On this day, you will check out of the lodge and be transferred to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. You will have an en route to Igongo to experience the Ankole Culture, you will be exposed to how the Ankole culture behaves, and what they treasure and listen to their stories. You will have lunch in Mbarara, proceed to Bwindi, arrive in the evening, have dinner and overnight at your lodge.
Day 5: Gorilla trekking and birding in Bwindi
Arise in the morning, enjoy a scrumptious breakfast, and transfer to the park headquarters for a briefing about the gorilla trekking, you will also be allocated a gorilla family to track, and thereafter, head to the forests to search for gorillas, as you are looking for gorillas, you will be meeting several birds since the park in a haven of over 350 bird species, and your ranger guide who is knowledgeable about birds will be explaining to you all kinds of birds you will meet on the way.
You will meet gorillas spend an hour with them, take pictures and videos, return to the lodge, freshen up, and head to visit the Batwa community which will entertain you through songs, and dances, they will also take you through ancient stories. In the evening, you will return to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.
Day 6: Transfer to Queen Elizabeth
This is another day for you to discover the beauty of Uganda. You will arise in the morning at your time of convenience, have breakfast, check out of the lodge and head to Queen Elizabeth National Park which is Uganda’s open savanna national park.
You will arrive in the afternoon hours, check in the lodge, have lunch and enjoy the aura of the lodge. Here you will spot some birds that will be coming to your hotel premises, take note of them, have dinner and overnight stay.
Day 7&8: Birding in Queen Elizabeth
In these 2 days, you will spend them searching for different birds in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Queen Elizabeth National Park is a haven of birds, the park accommodates over 600 bird species and to capture a number of them, you are going to spend here two days watching birds.
Among the birds you will have to meet while you are in the park are; barbets, red-throated wryneck, fish eagles, red-shouldered robin-chat, black coucal, brown-eared woodpecker, honeyguide greenbul, green combat, flycatchers, pelicans, flamingos, saddle-billed stork, spur-fowl, black-headed weaver, grey-headed heron, handsome francolin, among others. You will find these birds while you are on a game drive, or a boat cruise on the Kazinga channel, Kyambura Gorge, Maramagambo. Besides birdwatching in Queen Elizabeth National Park, you will see other animals such as buffaloes, elephants, bushbucks, waterbucks, kobs, and tree-climbing lions among other animals.
Day 9: Transfer to Kibale Forest National Park
You will wake up in the morning, enjoy a scrumptious breakfast, check out of the lodge and transfer to Kibale Forest National Park a home of chimpanzees. Kibale National Park is a 2hours drive from Queen Elizabeth National Park, you will arrive at the park in the afternoon, check-in at the lodge, have a hot lunch, relax and in the evening you will visit Bigodi wetland where you will find a lot of birds, including shoebills, Rwenzori turaco, kingfisher among other birds, you will return to the lodge for diner and overnight.
Day 10: Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale
You will arise in the morning, grab a delicious breakfast, meet your driver guide and be transferred to the park headquarters to be briefed about chimpanzee trekking. You will be allocated a chimpanzee family to track, and head to the thick forests to search for chimps.
As you search for the chimpanzees, you will be meeting so many birds since Kibale is home to over 470 bird species. After you have met the primates, you will spend an hour with them, enjoying how they feed, and how they play, you will return to the lodge in the evening with a lot of memories about the birds and chimpanzees.
Day 11: Transfer to Murchison Falls National Park
Unfold your day with a scrumptious breakfast, check out of the lodge, meet your driver guide and transfer to Murchison Falls National Park which is the largest national park in Uganda. Since this is a bird breeding area, you will drive gently as you look out for birds such as; white-spotted Greenbul, Robin-chat, chestnut crowned sparrow, and barbets, among other species. You will have your lunch on the way, arrive in Murchison in the evening, check-in to the lodge, and have dinner and overnight stay.
Day 12: Game drive and boat cruise
Arise in the morning on a delicious breakfast, meet your ranger guide and then head to the jungle to search for birds. You will fall in love with the beautiful animals that you will encounter for example; lions, elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, bushbucks, waterbucks, oribis, hartebeests, and leopards among others.
You will be sure to see birds like; Abyssinian ground hornbills, bee-eaters, sunbirds, kites, eagles, and barbets to mention but a few. You will return to the lodge for refreshments and in the evening, you will go for a boat cruise to the Nile delta where you will find shoebill storks, Pel’s fishing owls, and bat hawks, you will also see other wildlife species like elephants, buffaloes, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, you will as well enjoy sunset pictures, return to the lodge in the late evening for dinner and overnight.
Day 13: Transfer back to Kampala
This is another day for you to travel, arise in the morning on a mouthwatering breakfast, check out and transfer back to Kampala via Kaniyo Pabidi forest to spot some other bird species like illadopsis, broadbills, turacos and so many other forest birds.
You will drive for about 7 hours to Kampala, lunch en route will be in Masindi, proceed to Kampala, arrive in the evening, check-in to the hotel, have dinner and overnight.
Day 14: Birdwatching in Mabamba and departure
This is the last leg of your birding safari in Uganda, you will unfold your day with a scrumptious breakfast, meet your driver guide and be transferred to Mabamba Bay one of the most birding areas that Uganda celebrates.
You will spend half of your day at Mabamba encountering birds like; shoebill storks, purple swampen, malachite kingfishers, black crake, African black headed Oriole, black bishop, African jacana, and flycatchers among other species.
You will return to Entebbe town where you will have lunch and then be dropped at the airport or the hotel thus marking the end of your sfari.
