8 Days Uganda Bird Watching, Gorilla & Wildlife Safari

On arrival, you will be met by Encounter Africa Safari guide who will transfer you to your overnight Guest house. Depending on your arrival time, you may visit the nearby Botanical gardens or Uganda Wildlife Education center for a short excursion tour and bird watching.

After an early breakfast at the hotel, you will drive to Mabamba swamp, which is located on the shores of Lake Victoria, traditionally one of the few and best places to spot the rare and elusive shoebill stock in central Uganda.
The bird species that we expect to see include the  Goliath Herons, White faced whistling Duck, White-winged Warbler, Lesser Jacana, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Winding Cisticola, Yellow-backed, Golden-backed, Vieillot’s Black, Weyns’s and Orange weaver and Red-headed Lovebird among others. After you will drive back to the hotel/lodge for dinner and overnight

After breakfast, you will check out at the lodge and drive to Lake Mburo National park, with stopovers at the Equator for photographs and equator experience and en-route lunch. Proceed and make another stopover at Kaku swamp where you sometimes see bird species like the Black kite, the White-faced and Fulvous, whistling ducks, Common and Purple Swamphen, Lesser Moorhen, Hottentot Teals, Spur-winged and Egyptian Geese, Grey-crowned Cranes and Saddle-billed Storks, Grey wood Pecker, Dusky Blue, African Dusky, African Paradise, Red-bellied Paradise, Brown-throated Wattle-Eye, Arrow-marked, Black-lored and Brown Babblers, Lesser and Scaly-throated Honey guide among others. You will then proceed on to Lake Mburo national park for dinner and overnight.

After your breakfast, with your packed lunch, you will start up your game viewing for both wildlife and bird species in Lake Mburo National Park. This is one of the IBAs(Important Birding Areas) in Uganda, protecting more than 350 bird species,  which includes; the Spot-franked, Double-toothed, Red-faced and Crested Barbets, Western-banded and Brown Snake-eagles, Trilling, Red-faced and Tabora Cisticolas, Crested and Coqui Francolins, Chin-spot Batis, Broad- billed and Lilac-breasted Roller, Brown-chested Lapwing, Bare-faced Go-away Bird, Brown Parot, Bateleur, and Emerald-spotted wood dove among others. You will drive towards Rwonyo, and the lake side for our picnic lunch and later go for the boat cruise on lake Mburo.   Where you will expect bird species like; the White-faced and Fulvous whistling ducks, White-backed and Black-crowned Night Herons, African Finfoot, African Darter, Rufous-bellied Heron, Papyrus Gonolek, Papyrus Yellow Warbler, Greater and Lesser Swamp Warbler, Common and Purple Swamphen, Lesser Moorhen, Spur-winged and Egyptian Geese, Grey-crowned Cranes, African Water Rail and Allen’s Gallinule among others. In the evening, drive back to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast at the lodge, you will drive to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, you will have opportunities to stop along the way to spot some bird species as well as sightseeing, This journey takes you through the beautiful green rolling hills of southern Uganda with banana and tea plantations and good scenic views. Lunch will be served en route and you will arrive in Bwindi in the evening.

After your early morning breakfast, your guide will drive you to Ruhija Park headquarters for briefing and joining others for gorilla trekking. You will start your mountain gorillas trekking experience. Once you find them, you will be given one hour of observation and photography before returning back to the park headquarters for certificate and drive to lodge for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast at the Lodge, you will go for bird watching at Mubwindi swamp, you will spend the entire day at this area. This trail to Mubwindi Swamp is the best place for some of the most difficult to find of all rift endemics including Grauer’s (African Green) Broadbill, the beautiful Regal Sunbird, and Archer’s Robin-Chat. Mubwindi Swamp is also home to 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. 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-rumpedTinkerbird, 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 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 Warbler, 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, and African Blue-Flycatchers, Pale-breasted, Mountain, and Gray-chested Illadopses, 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.

After breakfast at the lodge, you will drive to Kampala/Entebbe, you will have stop at the equator for photographs and lunch, later proceed to Kampala/Entebbe Airport for your departure flight.