Uganda is one of Africa’s best birding countries, with over 1,000 recorded species, so gorilla trekking and birdwatching combine naturally. Bwindi alone has around 350 species, including over 20 Albertine Rift endemics, and Mabamba Swamp near Entebbe is the easiest place to see the shoebill. A week to ten days can cover gorillas, Bwindi’s endemics, shoebills and savannah birds in Queen Elizabeth.

Birding in Bwindi

Ruhija, in the east of Bwindi, is the top birding sector, with the trail to Mubwindi Swamp for the African green broadbill and other endemics such as the handsome francolin and Rwenzori batis. Buhoma’s waterfall trail and the forest road between Buhoma and Ruhija are also productive. Hire a specialist local bird guide; they know calls and territories and greatly improve your list.

Beyond Bwindi

Mabamba gives the shoebill from a canoe, usually on the first or last day near Entebbe. Queen Elizabeth adds waterbirds on the Kazinga Channel and savannah species, and Kibale or Bigodi offer the great blue turaco and forest birds. Mgahinga’s bamboo zone holds Rwenzori turacos and other montane species.

When to go

Birds are active all year; resident birds breed in the rains, and European migrants are present from about November to April. Dry months make trails easier. The gorilla permit costs US$800, or US$600 in April, May and November. See our guides to Ruhija birding, Albertine Rift endemics, shoebills at Mabamba and Bwindi’s birds.

Frequently asked questions

Combining Gorilla Trekking With Uganda’s Birding

Uganda’s position as Africa’s highest-density birding destination — 1,080 species in a land area comparable to the UK — is rarely the primary motivation for a gorilla trekking visit but almost always becomes a significant secondary interest once visitors arrive. The birding opportunity at Bwindi itself is exceptional — over 350 species including 23 Albertine Rift endemics that are not reliably found elsewhere in Uganda — and the approach walk to the gorilla family passes through exactly the forest interior habitat where the endemic and range-restricted species concentrate. The gorilla trek’s dawn start, before the endemic species have moved to the canopy, catches them at their most accessible and vocally active level.

The specialist birding sites that complement the Bwindi gorilla trek without significant itinerary deviation include the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary adjacent to Kibale Forest (24 Albertine Rift endemics in a community-managed wetland accessible on foot), the Mabamba Bay Shoebill area near Entebbe (the most reliable Shoebill site in Africa within 45 minutes of the airport), and the Queen Elizabeth National Park’s Maramagambo Forest (the bat cave at Maramagambo contains a colony of a million bats and the associated raptor activity that the concentration creates). The combination itinerary that covers Bwindi, Kibale with Bigodi, and Queen Elizabeth with Maramagambo provides a birding list that seriously competitive birders have used to approach and occasionally exceed 400 species in 10 days.

The practical birding equipment consideration for the gorilla trekking trip is that binoculars brought for the approach walk’s bird activity provide dual use — the 8×42 binoculars that most birders carry are equally effective for the gorilla encounter’s family observation at distances beyond the 7-metre minimum, and the weight penalty is minimal on a trek where camera equipment already dominates the daypack.

The Albertine Rift Endemics: Uganda’s Unique Species

The Albertine Rift endemic birds — species whose breeding range is restricted to the western branch of the East African Rift Valley and its associated highlands — are the specific draw that brings the serious birding traveller to Uganda rather than to the more famous bird destinations of Kenya or Tanzania. The 40-plus Albertine Rift endemics that Uganda’s Bwindi and the western forests support include the African Green Broadbill (which Uganda’s Bwindi and Kibale are among the most reliable sites for globally), the Grauer’s Warbler (Bwindi only, where its secretive forest-floor habit makes it a challenging but achievable target), and the Regal Sunbird (one of Africa’s most spectacularly plumaged birds, found in the Afromontane forest zone that Bwindi’s higher sections provide). The bird guide that accompanies the forest walk at Bwindi — separate from the gorilla tracker whose focus is on the family’s location — is the investment that converts the gorilla trek’s walking hours from a wildlife transit to a birding opportunity: the guide’s trained ear for the endemic warblers’ calls in the understorey, and the knowledge of the specific fig tree and flowering plant locations where the endemic sunbirds and barbets concentrate, multiplies the bird encounter rate in the same hours that the unaccompanied trekker would spend looking at empty branches.