Birdwatching in Uganda

This video is called Birds Of Uganda Part One in HD.

And here is Part Two.

From The Monitor (Kampala, Uganda):

Uganda: Bird-Watching Do At End of Month

Nelson Wesonga

13 September 2011

Kampala — Ugandans will have an opportunity at the end of this month to enter national parks, wildlife and forest reserves free of charge. As part of an initiative to boost earnings from tourism, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the National Forestry Authority have organised a national birding event through which those participating are expected to identify as many unknown bird species as possible.

Mr Stephen Sanyi Masaba, UWA’s acting director of tourism and business Services, said this is meant to promote bird watching and to ‘provide as much information as possible to the international community about Uganda’s bird species.

“Birding has the potential to generate at least $45 million (Shs126 billion) annually, if only 10,000 foreign tourists visited Uganda specifically to see birds,” said Mr Masaba yesterday during a press conference at the Uganda Media Centre. He added that in 2008 alone, Uganda generated $6 million (Shs16.8 billion) from ‘birding’ compared to $3.3 million (Shs9.24 billion) from gorilla tracking.

Tourist arrivals for the year 2009 closed at 1,084,000 compared to 1,163,000 in 2008 translating to a decrease of about five percentage points, according to the Ministry of Tourism statistics.

The highest numbers of visitors to national game parks are non-resident foreigners who contribute to about 61,000 visitors, followed by students from Uganda (42,000) and ‘reasonable’ number of citizens (30,000).

Ornithologists (experts on birds) and bird guides will guide those participating in the birding event.

All the birds seen and heard will be recorded. Special sites have been selected. These include areas in the Bwindi Impenetrable, Mgahinga, Kibale, Rwenzori Semiliki, Lake Mburo, Mount Elgon, Kidepo Valley and the Murchison Falls National Parks as well as Tooro Semiliki Wildlife Reserve.

Other areas are, Katonga and Kyambura Wildlife Reserves, Ishasha, Budongo, Kasohya Kitomi, Echuya and Mabira Forest Reserves as well as Lutembe Bay, Kumbu Forest, Kibimba, Entebbe Peninsula, Kawanda-Namulonge, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Makerere University, Bahai Temple and Rwenzori Bottling Company Namanve.

Friday 30th September 2011 will be the BIG BIRDING DAY 2011! It is a day when bird watching enthusiasts come together to celebrate Uganda’s famous bird species whose population is said to be one of the highest in Africa. It is the third consecutive year that the day will be celebrated after it was officially launched in October 2010: here.

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