The Albertine Rift Endemic Area
Featuring on all Classic Uganda Birding tours, is a bird trip along the Albertine Rift Endemic Zone often referred to as the western arm of the great East African rift valley. The Albertine Rift is the most biologically diverse ecosystem on the African continent protecting various endemic flora and fauna of which several are globally regarded as critically endangered and facing near extinction. On avifauna, the Albertine Rift has a total of 37 restricted range bird species where up to 23 species occur in Uganda. Other interesting specialists unique to this endemic zone include the only global population of the endangered mountain gorilla, close to 90% of the Eastern chimpanzee population, the endemic golden monkey more primates, butterflies, plants and more.
The Albertine endemic zone stretches over 5600 sq kilometers across 5 countries in the great lakes region, towering over altitudes of 720m to 5109m asl on the Rwenzori mountain and across the continental divide between Africa’s biggest river systems – the Nile and the mighty Congo.
In Uganda, the Albertine rift endemic zone runs along the entire western border, from L. Albert in the north all the way south to the Virunga mountain ranges protecting variety of bird-rich and diverse habitats in this ecosystem as UNESCO world-heritage sites, national parks, forest reserves and Ramsar sites.
Birding for the Albertine Rift From Uganda is the most accessible with excellent birding hotspots or sites to explore this rich zone. These hotspots unique in character and diversity of habitats of ancient montane forests, lowland moist evergreen forests and mid-altitude forests, highest mountain ranges, expansive woodlands and savannas, volcanic mountain ranges and Africa’s major lakes protects up to 23 Albertine Rift Endemics (ARE’s). With great accessible and serviced with variety of amenities, these hotspots attracting a steady flow of birdwatchers to exploit this endemic zone and specialists.
Top Birding Hotspots along the Albertine Rift in Uganda
While on birding for Albertine Endemics in Uganda, we cover these hotspots for a chance to twitch all the 23 species of Albertine Endemic Zone that occur in Uganda, but also others species restricted to these eco zones, notably Afro-tropical, montane and restricted range specialists. All the major Birding Safaris feature these hotspots for their rich bird diversity.
The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park
Birdwatching in the ancient rainforests of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest boast a checklist of over 360 bird species, notably of the Afro-tropical and highland specialists that are classified as restricted-range and globally-threatened species twitched along several excellent birding trails. A specialized birding itinerary covering this bird-rich area would at least stretch up to 4-days carried out from two main trail heads at Buhoma and Ruhija covering a range of altitudes from 1965-2987m through varied forests types from mid-altitude evergreen to montane, bamboo and high-altitude swamps looking out for up 23 Albertine Endemics.
Top sightings include, Red-throated Alethe, Nuemann’s Warbler (Short-tailed Warbler), Strange Weaver, Kivu Ground Thrush, Dwarf Honeyguide, Red-throated Woodland Warbler, Blue-headed Sunbird, Yellow-eyed Black flycatcher, are easily seen around the main trail of Buhoma the low-altitude section of the forest.
Birding at Ruhija sector, Bwindi Forest’s highest altitude trail-head the checklist includes, Stripe-breasted Tit, Regal Sunbird, Northern-Double Collared Sunbird, Handsome Francholin, the beautiful and neat African Green Broadbill is recorded along the main trails descending down to the swamp where Grauer’s Swamp Warbler is twitched with several other wetland restricted species.
Noisy Doherty’s and Lagden Bushshrikes thou not endemics are seen on the slopy and scrubby trail, the Grauer’s Warbler, Dusky and Shelly’s Crimsonwing, Purple-breasted Sunbird, Blue-headed Sunbird, Rwenzori Batis, Chapin’s Flycatcher, Rwenzori Apalis, Mountain-masked Apalis and more…Eliot’s and Fine-banded Woodpeckers, Mountain Illadopsis, Mountain-Hill Babbler, skulky Blue-shouldered Robin, Dusky Twinspot, and noisy Stulmann’s Starlings, Collared sunbird, Purple-throated and Grey Cuckoo shrikes should entertain us on the descent trail.
Mgahinga National Park
Uganda’s smallest park, Mgahinga NP is located at the south-west tip of Uganda protecting the Ugandan mountain ranges of the Virunga mountain ranges chain shared by the Rwanda and the DRC. Here we bird the trails crisscrossing these slopes up to the saddle known as The Gorge in between the dormant volcanic mountains of Sabyinyo and Gahinga where Handsome Francolin, Rwenzori Turaco, Archer’s Robin, Rwenzori and Mountain-masked Apalis, Regal Sunbird, Strange Weaver are usually encountered with ease.
Just like Bwindi, several other restricted range and afro-tropical species occur making a list up to 200 bird species. The bamboo slopes also host several Golden Monkey troops encountered along the edges of Bamboo Zones about 2300m. The total Albertine endemics (ARE) on this location is 14 bird species.
Echuya Forest
Lying between Mgahinga NP and Bwindi Forest the forest reseve of Echuya covers diverse habitats including a highland swamp at 2200m with healthy populations of Grauer’s Rush Warblers and other swamp specialists, the ever green tropical forest produces Regal Sunbird, Doherty’s Bush-shrike, Rwenzori Batis, White-starred Robin, Eliot’s Woodpecker and Handsome Francolin and a healthy checklist of more Afrotropical highland species including 14-species of Albertine endemics.
With time on your hands, the following hotspots within the Albertine rift are worthy a visit and produce very productive checklists.
- Rwenzori MNP with 17sp
- Kibale Forest with 7sp
- Imaramagambo Forests
- Albertine Rift Bird species list in Uganda
On a tailormade Albertine Endemics Birding Safari in Uganda, these are ARE that one can encounter;
- Handsome Francholin (Francholinus nobilis) LC
- Rwenzori Turaco (Turaco johnstoni) LC
- Rwenzori Nightjar (Caprimulgus ruwenzori)
- Dwarf Honeyguide (Indicator pumilio) NT
- African Green (Grauer’s)Broadbill (Pseudocalyptomena graueri)VU
- Red-throated Alethe (Chamaetylas poliophrys
- Archer’s Robin-chat (Dessonornis archeri)
- Grauer’s Warbler (Graueria vittata)
- Nuemann’s Warbler (Hamitesia nuemanni)
- Rwenzori Apalis (Oreolais ruwenzorii)
- Montane Masked (Apalis personata)
- Red-faced woodland Warbler (Phylloscopus laetus)
- Grauer’s Swamp Warbler (Bradypterus graueri)EN
- Yellow-eyed Black-flycatcher (Melaenornis ardesiacus)
- Chapin’s Flycatcher (Muscicapa lendu)
- Rwenzori Batis (Batis diops)
- Stripe-breasted Tit (Parus fasciiventer)
- Blue-headed sunbird (Cynomitra alinae)
- Regal sunbird (Cinnyris regia)
- Purple-breasted Sunbird (Nectarinia purpureventris)
- Rwenzori Double-Collared Sunbird (Stuhlmann) (Cinnyris stuhlmanni)
- Dusky Crimson-wing (Cryptospiza jacksoni)
- Shelly’s Crimson-wing (Cryptospiza shelleyi)VU
- Strange Weaver (Ploceus alienus)
- Dwarf Honeyguide (Indicator pumilio)
- Willard’s Sooty boubou (Laniarius willardi)
- *Kivu Ground-thrush (Geokichla tanganjicae) included here is often considered a full species by several authorities while others treat it as a distant Albertine race of a more widespread Abyssinian Ground-Thrush (Geokichla piaggiae)