UGANDA
SHOEBILL, RIFT ENDEMICS & GORILLAS

$9375 (2008 fee). 22 days
From Entebbe. Limit: 12
Mostly good accommodations (2 nights basic and shared), easy to moderate terrain, warm climate. Our staff travel agents can book your air travel for this tour. Contact us at (800) 728-4953 for more information.

Saddle-billed Stork in Murchison Falls NP by guide Richard Webster

Beginning in Murchison Falls National Park, we'll search for the enigmatic and enormous Shoebill that shares the Victoria Nile with African Skimmers, Rock Pratincoles, and enormous crocodiles.  We'll devote our afternoons to game drives that will encounter a wealth of birds, with localized species perhaps including Heuglin's Francolin, Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill, or Red-winged Gray Warbler.  From Murchison Falls we'll continue on to Lake Albert and the Budongo Forest, where the "Royal Mile" is sure to unveil a varied gathering of forest birds, from francolins, tinkerbirds, barbets, and hawk-eagles, to eremomelas, longbills, and malimbes.

Then at Kibale Forest we'll join local guides for a Chimpanzee trek, keeping our ears and eyes open as well for the other eight species of primates that share the tropical forest with the fascinating Chimps.  The birding here can also be fabulous, from Gray Parrots which fly overhead to Dusky Long-tailed Cuckoos in the undergrowth or Black-and-white Shrike-flycatchers displaying over the canopy.

Two days in Queen Elizabeth National Park will give us the feeling of being in a more familiar East African savanna landscape.  Here we can watch African Elephants and Buffalo (often at very close quarters); Lion, or even Leopard, are also possible, as well as Warthogs, Hippopotamus, and several species of antelope, including large herds of Uganda Kob.

In the southwest we’ll then spend a full four days in the Bwindi Forest—formerly known as the Impenetrable Forest.  This will be our chance to bird at several elevations in this rich area, where perhaps our greatest hope (and luckiest find) would be Grauer’s (African Green) Broadbill.  But even without this rare and difficult species, there are many rewards waiting, from Handsome Francolin, Ruwenzori Batis, and Archer's Robin-Chat, to Grauer's Warbler, Strange Weaver, and Regal Sunbird.  And those who wish will have the opportunity to experience one of the most remarkable wildlife encounters anywhere—a trek to see the magnificent Mountain Gorillas.

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