Birding in queen Elizabeth national park

Birding in Queen Elizabeth national park

Birding in Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the preferred activities to enjoy in the park. Queen Elizabeth National Park is situated in the southwestern part of Uganda.

The park ranges from the savannah Ishasha plains to the humid rain forests, salty water lakes, fresh water lakes, acacia and euphorbia bushes, lowlands, and wetlands. This diversity has made Queen Elizabeth a top habitat for birds in Uganda.

The park contains over 600 bird species, making it a must-visit destination for birders to Uganda. Migratory birds are seen from November to April; however, birds can be seen throughout the year. In 1997, the park established the observatory area to study migratory and resident birds.

Increasing awareness and guide training, developing avid tourism by creating hides, walkaways, and birding trails. Some birds are endemic, while others are migratory en route from Europe and summer nesting sites from South Africa.

Queen Elizabeth’s nature has adapted birds to fit every variety of habitat. These birds mostly inhabit the special habituated areas listed below.

Maragambo Forest Area

This area is located on the right side of the western rift valley arm along the Kichambwa escarpment, with species like the African finfoot, yellow bill, black coucal, red-throated wryneck, blue-shouldered Robin chat, African mustached warbler, barbets, African emerald cuckoo, brown illadopsis, and many more others

Katwe area

This area consists of Lake Munyanyange, which has many lesser flamingos and a few greater flamingos. Other water birds common here are the white-breasted nigrofinch, chestnut wattle-eye, marsh tchagra, Sulphur-breasted bush shrike, and black bishop, among others

Katuguru Bridge Area

This area contains papyrus swamps around the Katuguru Bridge, where the Kazinga Channel crosses from the Kasese District to the Rubirizi District. This offers a habitat to birds such as the papyrus gonolek, white-winged tern, pied kingfisher, malachite kingfisher, white-winged warbler, greater swamp warbler, and lesser swamp warbler among the rest.

Lake Kikorongo Area

This lake is an extension of Lake George and is a habitat for waterfowl. Most species seen here are knob-billed duck, African jacana, yellow wagtail, sacred ibis, black crake, shoebill, and saddle-billed stork, among the rest.

Kasenyi Area

This famous tourist spot with outlying savannah consists of species such as black-bellied bustard, flapwing lark, white-tailed lark, palm but culture, long-crested eagle, croaking cisticola, hooded vulture, white-backed vulture, brown-backed scrub robin, sitting cisticola, ripeols griffon vulture, and grey-backed fiscal from the rest of other numerous birds.

Ishasha Sector

This area is most known for tree-climbing lions but doesn’t necessarily stop it from being a habitat for some bird species such as the palm-nut vulture, shoebill, grey kestrel, African wattled plover, African green pigeon, cisticola, martial eagle, and African crowned eagle, among the rest.

The Mweya Peninsular Area

This area lies next to the Kazinga channel to the far Lake Edward. Most bird species seen here are the African morning dove, grey-headed kingfisher, swamp nightjar, little bee eater, swifts, swallows, martins, Nubian woodpecker, and swamp flycatcher, among many other species.

Birding reservations in Queen Elizabeth can be made at the Katwe information center for tourism.