Tourist destinations in Uganda

Uganda Kob in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Uganda National Parks, and other Important Bird Areas.

A. Entebbe Botanical Gardens

The beautifully landscaped Botanical Gardens at Entebbe, established in 1901, lie on the shore of Africa’s greatest lake. They offer a superb introductory to Ugandan birds and are situated conveniently close to the capital city and the International Airport. These gardens supports Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Gabar Goshawk, Ross,s Turaco, Red-chested Sunbird, Red-headed Lovebird, African Emerld Cuckoo, Diedrick’s Cuckoo, Great Blue Turaco. On the lake and around the shore, look for Long-tailed Cormorant, Common Squacco Heron, Black-headed Heron, Giant and Pied Kingshers.

B. Mabamba Wetland

This nearest, large accessible wetland is located on the shores of Lake Victoria. It takes a short drive from Kampala city. The wetland offers opportunities of seeing the Majestic Shoebill, Winding Cisticola, Caruthers’s Cisticola, Purple Swamphen, Allen’s Gullinules, Black Crake, African Pygmy Goose, African Marsh Harrier, and Blue-cheeked Bee-eater soaring around.

1. Lake Mburo National Park . 315 bird species.

(Size: 260 Sq km.)

Situated between the towns of Masaka and Mbarara. This comparatively small park, is composed primarily of grassland, wetland, and Acacia woodland. Lake Mburo has markedly different flora and fauna to other national parks and reserves. It is the best place in the country to see gigantic eland, impala, zebra, topi,rock hyrax, warthog, hyena, and crocodile. Avariety of waterbirds, while fringing swamps hide secretive papyrus specialists such as the Satatunga, antelope and white-winged warbler, papyrus yellow warbler, papyrus canary and papyrus gonolek. Mburo is the closest national park to Kampala and offers refreshing stop-overs when traveling to or from the western parks and reserves.

2. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. 359 total species of birds.

(Size: 321 Sq km.)

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park offers the best montane forest birding in Africa and is a key destination for any birder visiting Uganda. Amongst the numerous possibilities are no fewer than 23 of Uganda’s 24 Albertine Rift Endemics, including spectacular, globally threatened species such as Shelley’s Crimsonwing, and African Green Broadbill one of Africa’s most sought-after birds, and this is the most accessible siteon Earth for this rare and localized African Green Broadbill. Many known from no other site in East Africa. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest lies in the rugged Kigezi Highlands of Southwestern Uganda, protecting a continuum of forest that ranges from montane to lowland areas. It is this altitudinal variation, combined with its location within the Albertine Rift that results in Bwindi Impenetrable being the richest forest in East Africa, in terms of its trees, butterflies and Birds. Once part of a much larger forest that included the Virunga Volcanoes, some 25km to the south, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is now an ecological island within a sea of human cultivation and is therefore of immense conservation importance. Gorilla tracking and birding are the main attractions; Gorilla permits must be pre-booked at the UWA office in Kampala.

3. Mgahinga National Park. 115 bird species.

(Size: 33 Sq km.)

At the extreme south western tip of Uganda, on the borders of Rwanda and Congo, lies one of Uganda’s the smallest National Park, forming part of a large conservation area that straddles political boundaries to include Parc des Volcans in Rwanda and Parc des Virungas in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Three extinct volcanoes, part of the spectacular Virunga range, lie within the boundaries of Ugandan portion of this biologically rich area. Mgahinga is best known for its Mountain Gorillas, a habituated group of which wanders back and forth across the international border. Owing to its relative remoteness, the park has received little attention from ornithologists and this fact is in the ridiculously short official bird list. Even if the prospect of adding exciting new records to the park list does not entice you, few birders will be able to resist the attraction of some of Uganda’s most spectacular birds such as the scarce Rwenzori Turaco, Lagden’s Bush-shrike, and Scarlet-tufted Malachite Sunbird.

4. Queen Elizabeth National Park. Over 550 species of birds.

(Size: 1978 Sq km.)

Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s most popular game park and certainly one of its most scenic. It stretches from the crater-dotted foot hills of the Mountains of the Moon in the north, along the shores of Lake Edward to the remote Ishasha River in the South, incorporating a wide variety of habitats that range from savanna and wetlands to the gallery and lowland forests. This remarkable diversity is reflected in its bird list of over 550 species, the largest of any protected area in Africa.

And is a support territory with a profusion of Hippos, Elephants, the elusive Giant Forest Hog and the handsome Uganda Kob. All sighted around mweya peninsula. Launch trips on Kazinga channel offer great game and waterbird viewing, so do game drives around the peninsula. Bird watching is excellent. Chimp tracking is also available in Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elzabeth, and guided walks in Maramagambo lowland forest.

5. Mt Rwenzori National Park. 195 Bird species.

(Size: 996 Sq km.)

The mist-shrouded peaks of the fabled “mountains of the moon” lie in western Uganda on the Congolese border, with snow covered, equatorial peaks rising to a height of 5110 metres and lower slopes blanketed in moorland and rich montane forest. Most of the park is accessible only to hikers although the magnificent scenery and 19 Albertine Rift Endemics, amongst them Rwenzori Turaco and Shelley’s Crimsonwing, would be ample reward for the intrepid, backpacking birder.

Camp sites

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