There is one bird on earth that lives in Uganda and nowhere else. Fox’s Weaver — Ploceus spekeoides — went unrecorded for over twenty years, then was found again in a flooded Teso wetland. That is the honest shape of birding here: a country that can lose its only endemic for two decades and still give it back.
The other bird people ask for by name is the shoebill. It is reached from Mabamba Swamp by dugout canoe, about forty-five minutes from Entebbe, and we offer it as a dawn option on day one — on the water at first light, the rest of the journey still ahead of you.
Birds by passage
Every passage crosses good ground. What follows is only what we can stand behind; the rest belongs to the guides.
The Rift Road
The Albertine Rift, taken for its endemics rather than its permits. Two nights at Bwindi are there so the Mubwindi Swamp trail can be walked at a proper dawn, and the Kazinga Channel comes at golden hour.
The Eastern Endemic
Jackson’s Francolin and Alpine Chat on the caldera moorland of Mount Elgon, above the coffee. Then the flooded wetlands of Teso, the ground Fox’s Weaver came back from, and two nights at Kidepo at the end of the road — the dry-country specials there are the guides’ list, and they hand it over on the ground, not on a website.
The Hour
Built around the gorilla and chimpanzee permits, but the forest gives you mornings. Three nights at Bwindi leave time either side of the trek, and day seven takes Kibale and the Fort Portal crater lakes.
The Chwezi Road
A history road — four kingdoms in eight days — and we will not dress it up as a birding one. If the lists matter to you, say so when you write and the trip designer will build the mornings around them.
There are no bird photographs on this site yet. Everything Sacred Earth publishes was shot on the ground by us, and we do not publish what we have not stood in front of — so the images on this page are habitat, not birds. The full lists are the guides’ work, and they come with your written proposal.
If birds are the reason you are coming, say so on plan your journey. A trip designer in Uganda replies with a written proposal within twenty-four hours — the passage, the dawns, and the name of the guide whose list you will be borrowing. There is nothing to pay to ask. Questions first: [email protected].