Bird Watching trips to Kibale Forest – Birds of Kibale Forest National Park in Uganda
Bird watching trips to Kibale forest – Kibale National Park and Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary are two prime African birding destinations located in the western part of the country. Created in 1993, Kibale National Park is home to about 350 species of birds, six of which are endemic to the region. The rare and beautiful bird species of the park can best be spotted on the guided forest walks offered by the park’s experienced and friendly staff or by one of the many tour operators in the region. Aside from bird watching, visitors to Kibale National Park can enjoy unrivaled sightings of chimpanzees and various species of primates such as
- Olive Baboons
- Bush babies / Demidoff Galago
- Black and White colobus
- Potto
- Vervet monkeys
- Blue monkeys
- Grey Cheeked mangabey
- Ugandan red colobus
- L’Hoest’s monkey
- Red tailed monkey
- Uganda mangabey
Bird watching trips in Kibale Forest – Birders also shouldn’t miss Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a superb community development enterprise located on the fringe of Kibale National Park in Magombe Swamp. The Sanctuary itself has 138 species of birds that can be easily seen on any of the guided tours along the boardwalk trail or from the many viewing platforms situated throughout the Sanctuary.
Key species found in Kibale National Park and Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary include:
- Green-breasted pitta
- African pitta
- Abyssinian ground-thrush
- Crowned eagle
- Dusky crimson-wing
- Black-capped apalis
- Collared apalis
- Purple-breasted sun-bird
- Black bee-eater
- Yellow spotted nicator
- Little greenbul
- Black-eared ground-thrush
- Brown-chested alethe
- Yellow-rumped tinker bird
- Blue-breasted kingfisher
When to visit Kibale National Park
Kibale National Park can be visited at any time of the year. Most significantly, take note of which season you wish to pay a visit because this park experiences 2 seasons. They include the dry and wet season with dry season starts is usually the most preferable and it starts from June to September and December to February. The wet/rainy season on the other hand kick starts from March to May and from October to November. The rainy or wet season is usually characterized by heavy rainfall but incredible for bird watching.
