Uganda for Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 9 : 28th July 2024

It was another early start and the Kibale Chimps were still vocal as I wandered over for breakfast – a taste of things to come.  We soon headed out and collected Milka and her crew from the trekking base camp but it was not Chimps that we were after to start with but the far more difficult Green Breasted Pittas.

We drove there in the first glimmers of light and as predicted by Paul a White-tailed Ant-Thrush came up off the road in front.  Before too long we were parked up at a seemingly random spot and joined the Pitta study team for a swift march into the forest.  The song is simple and actually caused by drumming the wings and the guides heard one way off so we altered route and wiggled that way.   A quiet twenty minutes followed with no sound or response but there were other birds singing including Scaly-throated and Brown Illadopsis, Yellow-billed Barbet, Little Greenbuls and Afep Pigeons although we did not see a single bird – not even a glimpse!

There was another territory we could try and so off we went again  - not Gorilla style but still an undulating wiggle.  It sounded like we were on top of the road and in fact we had looped round to within just twenty yards of it!

Suddenly the ‘vroooom’ sound of a drumming male was heard and it was close by.  We moved in slowly and after some glimpses we all independently got lucky and had truly fantastic views for a second or two each time.  It was not small and how it evaded being seen in flight surprised us all.  Sometimes it would appear at head height and then at ground level.  The greens on front and back flicked on and off with the light and the red glowed like a pillar box or changed to dark chocolate with a shift in posture but the ludicrously shiny blue rump, upper tail coverts and wing spots glowed with intensity regardless while at times it looked headless with the dark and tawny stripes being totally broken up in the dappled shade. What a bird and one we were very fortunate to connect with. 

Green Breasted Pitta

Green Breasted Pitta - well the most important bits - Robin Werpachowski

Green Breasted Pitta - Aditya Viswanathan - very grateful that Aditya got this shot while with us!

Only one other bird was seen the whole time and that was a very smart female Chestnut Wattle-eye.  Back on the road there were birds to be found including a White-breasted Nigrita, and several new species with Yellow-throated Tinkerbird, Rufous Flycatcher-Thrush and an invisible Red-chested Cuckoo that like the ones in Sri Lanka seemed to have a song made up of three whistles.

Back at the camp for a comfort break before the Chimp trek.  We only had a short walk into where the troop was ‘encamped’ and we could hear them kicking off well before we got there.  The other early morning groups of tourists were meant to have left well before we arrived but all were still present.  Most of the family were in the canopy above us and gradually began to move down to ground level where they would rest up on the forest floor for the middle of the day. We stood still and they passed close by.  They were quite unflustered or even interested in the humans around them and just went about their business but the behaviour of the other Apes in that forest was frankly appalling as they surged and pushed in after any Chimp that tried to settle down.  They were noisy and thought nothing about encircling one within just a couple of meters phones flashing and branches cracking.

Our group kept back and felt uncomfortable with the whole experience. Milka assured us that the Chimps were just fine – we understood that but it was the behaviour of the visually more primitive hominids that upset us.  At one point the two big males (Chimps that is) got all feisty and had a mad stampede through the crowd below us with arms thrashing and fur bristling.  It was every bit as terrifying as it sounds on the telly. 

We stayed and eventually everyone else was taken away leaving us in the now quietening forest with just the sound of snoring and farting Chimpanzees lazing unperturbed in the leaves around us.

Our group stayed another twenty minutes and watched a young male groom one of the alpha females before they too decided to head off for a kip and we then snaked our way back out on the narrow trail that was perfumed by the Chimps and Elephants.

Paul was there to greet us but we were unaware that a couple of the Chimps had discreetly followed us back to the main track and as we closed the door they kicked off with much screaming and branch thrashing.  Perhaps they were similarly unimpressed by their visitors that morning?

We collected our certificates and bought some wonderful craft gifts from what amounts to the local WI before heading back for lunch.  It was not perhaps the experience we had been expecting and it was a privilege to be amongst the Chimp troop but the sheer disregard for the rules displayed by the others present sullied the encounter somewhat.

Lunch at Gueraza and then some lounging around the raised dining area gave the opportunity for some quality birding out of the sun alongside Josh from Birding Ecotours.  Our two parties had been overlapping and helping each other out for the whole trip and both Paul and Saul, our respective guides knew each other well.

Below us in the garden there were Copper, Scarlet Chested, Olive Bellied and Green Headed Sunbirds and the Red Hot Pokers were the favoured nectar source.  A pair of subtle Blue-throated Brown Sunbirds were defending the blooms in an adjacent big tree – nothing else was permitted to land there. White-chinned Prinias, Grey-backed Camaroptera, African Blue Flycatchers, Brown-throated Wattle Eyes and Grey Headed Nigritas moved through the bushes and Pied Wagtails and Bulbuls were coming down to bath in the two drinking basins above which African Pygmy Kingfishers sat.

Brown-throated Wattle Eye
The female Wattle-eyes have the 'named part' that ids the species

Green Headed Sunbird

Green Headed Sunbird

Green Headed Sunbird

Green Headed Sunbird - this one posed

Scarlet Chested Sunbird

Blue-throated Brown Sunbird

A Black Crowned Tchagra sang and popped up on top briefly where a pair of Black and White Shrike-Flycatchers hunted only to be disturbed by a Crowned Hornbill.  Grosbeak Weavers moved over in small groups with small white wing patches flashing and further back a group of about 40 languid Alpine Swifts appeared, freshy south from their Med breeding grounds and eventually some came closer where they mingled with the White-rumped Swifts and Lesser Striped and Angolan Swallows.  These were joined but Mottled Spinetails which seemed much bigger that I remember from the Gambia.  They were super fast and careened around the lodges and even seemed to go under the roof of one of them – proper aeronauts.  A Speckled Breasted Woodpecker briefly appeared before bounding off.

Not sure what it is yet - but it was small and funky

Crowned Hornbill - Angie Merrick

Crowned Hornbill

Black and White Shrike-Flycatcher - Angie Merrick

Dark Capped Bulbul - Angie Merrick

As we were about to head back out an adult Harrier-Hawk landed on the roof and started calling and an immaculate juvenile appeared and circled just over our heads. Structurally it felt like a more heavily built Honey-Buzzard.

Harrier-Hawk l

Harrier-Hawk - the juvenile

We bumped back out and made our way to the nearby Bigodi Swamp for a guided circuit. It started well with a party of Magpie Mannikins – a chunky pied species that were coming down to scavenge from some collecting maize husks while a Lizard Buzzard perched up behind and was delicately pulling a small reptile apart. A stand of Eucalyptus quickly gave us more new birds with a Red-bellied Paradise Flycatcher and a pair of Brown-eared Woodpeckers and in the tangles below a pair of Black-necked Weavers were poking around.

Magpie Mannikin

Lizard Buzzard - Angie Merrick

A high pitched call alerted us to a vivid red bird and a Black-bellied Seedcracker popped out with massive silver bill gleaming and white eye bling flashing and a Grey-cheeked Mangabey nonchalantly appeared on the path before clambering up above our heads where a Trump-esque quiff swooshed back over his head.

Grey-cheeked Mangabey

Grey-cheeked Mangabey

Red-tailed Monkey - Angie Merrick

Our first of several White Spotted Flufftails were heard but try as we might we never saw one despite them calling very close by and White Winged Swamp-Warbler was once again heard but not seen. There were plenty of Dragonflies and Black and White Colobus, Red-tailed Monkeys and Ugandan Red Colobus were moving through the trees.  We emerged into a farmed area bordering the swamp where Great Blue Turacos and Black and White Casqued Hornbills power glided between the bigger trees and as the sun began to drop, African Grey Parrots circled into roost giving us our first perched views of the trip.

Black and White Colobus - Angie Merrick

Ugandan Red Colobus

African Grey Parrot

Black and White Casqued Hornbill

I suddenly noticed a large Chimpanzee sat in the path a couple of hundred yards ahead.  He sat there for a while before heading into the swamp.  In some ways this was a more rewarding encounter. Our guide told us that they come here to hunt the other monkeys and almost immediately we heard the Colobus kicking off shortly followed by the shout Chimps – the hunt was underway.

Balding, gummy old Chimp

Ugandan Red Colobus 

The sun was setting by the time we got back to the van (amazing sunspots activity) and in the last of the light we still had time for a ten minutes stop at the Weaver marsh near the Lodge.  Spectacled and Black-necked Weavers were now amongst the Veillot’s, Village and Grosbeak Weavers and a Moustached Grass-warbler sat up for us and preened in the last of the glow and a Red-faced Cisticola became yet another member of this diverse tribe and our final new bird of the day.