By Okoth Benard | 12 June 2024
Knowing the Albertine rift endemics Uganda birding safari is one of the most interesting for me and for our kin birding clients, as most of the locations are Ecological tour Hot-spots and relatively within the wealthy Albertine Rift Valley which is not only Uganda but Africa’s Richest Zone for most endemic and globally threatened species of birds and other animals like the Mountain Gorillas.
The Albertine rift is also the western arm of east African Great Rift Valley taking over Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Congo .it’s also a host to more than 7,500 species of endemic plants and animals and approximately 35% of all Biodiversity in Africa. The safari can takes us to various sites like Mgahinga, MT Rwenzori, Bwindi and most especially Ruhija the No.1 birding site in Africa, and Semliki and many others. These are so far the best birding spots or locations in Uganda for an amazing birding safari and have different ecosystems and each attracting a species different from the other.
Uganda has one endemic bird Species; The Fox’s Weaver which is found in Districts of Kumi and Soroti, 25 species endemic to the Albertine Rift and a number of different biomes’ species including; the Sudan–Guinea Savanna biome, Guinea–Congo forests biome, Afro-tropical highlands biome, Somali–Masai biome and the Lake Victoria Basin biome. The Endemic Bird Areas include; Albertine Rift mountains EBA, Kenyan mountains EBA, Eastern DR Congo lowlands EBA. Some of the amazing Albertine rift endemic birds of Uganda, Handsome Francolin (Francolinus nobilis),Rwenzori Turaco (Turaco Johnston),Willard’s Sooty Boubou (Laniarius willardi),Stripe-breasted Tit (Parus fasciiventer),Grauer’s Broadbill (Pseudocalyptomena graueri),Red-throated Alethe (Alethe poliophrys),Dwarf Honey guide (Indicator pumilio),Black-faced Apalis (Apalis personate),Rwenzori Apalis (Apalis Ruwenzori),Grauer’s Swamp Warbler (Bradypterus graueri),Grauer’s Warbler (Graueria vittata),Neumann’s Warbler (Hemitesia neumanni),Red-faced Woodland Warbler (Phylloscopus laetus),Yellow-eyed Black Flycatcher (Melaenornis ardesiacus),Rwenzori Batis (Batis diops),Purple-breasted Sunbird (Nectarinia purpureiventris),Regal Sunbird (Cinnyris regia),Stuhlmann’s Sunbird (Cinnyris stuhlmanni),Strange Weaver (Ploceus alienus),Dusky Crimson-wing (Cryptospiza jacksoni),Shelley’s Crimson-wing (Cryptospiza shelleyi ,Archer’s Robin-Chat (Cossypha anomala),Blue-headed Sunbird (Cyanomitra alinae), Yellow-crested Helmet Shrike (Prionops alberti) and the most focused on birds so far are shoe, the Grauer’s broadbill, Mountain mask9ed (Black Faced) Apalis, Dwarf Honey guide, Red-faced Woodland Warbler, Rwenzori Turaco, Red-throated Alethe, Short-tailed Warbler, Kivu-ground thrush, Grauer’s Rush Warbler, Regal Sunbird, Rwenzori Blue-headed sunbird, Stripe-breasted Tit, Strange Weaver bill and many others.
Most of Uganda’s forest inhabitants have a wide distribution in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and West Africa. At the same time, a smaller proportion comprises eastern species that birders might easily observe in forested habitats in Kenya, Tanzania, and in some instances, Ethiopia. A significant number, however, are endemic to the Albertine Rift. In other words, their range is more or less confined to montane habitats associated with the Rift Valley Escarpment running between Lake Albert and the north of Lake Tanganyika.
The most celebrated of these regional endemics is, of course, the mountain gorilla, confined to the Virungas and Bwindi Mountains near the eastern Rift Valley Escarpment. Other primates endemic to the Albertine Rift include several taxa of smaller primates, for instance, the golden monkey and Rwenzori colobus. In contrast, eight endemic butterflies are considered flagship species for the hundreds of invertebrate taxa that occur nowhere else. Of the remarkable tally of 37 range-restricted bird species listed as Albertine Rift endemics, roughly half are considered to be of global conservation concern. All 37 bird species have been recorded in the DRC, where nine are endemic since their range is confined to the western escarpment forests.
More than 20 Albertine Rift endemics reside in Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, while two extend their range southward into western Tanzania. All 24 Albertine Rift endemics recorded in Uganda occur in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, including the highly sought African green broadbill, which is elsewhere known only from the ltombwe Mountains and Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the DRC. Other important sites in Uganda are the Rwenzori Mountains with 17 Albertine Rift endemics, the Virungas with 14, and the Echuya Forest with 12. Outside Uganda, all but one of the 29 endemics that occur on the eastern escarpment have been recorded in Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest, a readily accessible site that is highly recommended for the opportunity to observe several species absent from, or not as easily located in, Uganda. The ltombwe Mountains, which rise from the Congolese shore of northern Lake Tanganyika, support the largest contiguous block of montane forest in east Africa. This range is also regarded to be the most important site for montane forest birds in the region, with a checklist of 565 species including 31 Albertine Rift endemics, three of which are known from nowhere else in the world. Additionally the most elusive of these birds is the enigmatic Congo bay owl, first collected in 1952, and yet to be seen again, though its presence is suspected in Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest.
Several Albertine Rift forest endemics share stronger affinities with extant or extinct Asian general than they do with any other living African species, affirming the great age of these forests, which are thought to have flourished during prehistoric climatic changes that caused temporary deforestation in lower-lying areas such as the Congo Basin. The Congo bay owl, African green broadbill and Grauer’s cuckoo-shrike, for instance, might all be classNameed as living fossils isolated relics of a migrant Asian stock that has been superseded elsewhere on the continent by indigenous genera evolved from a common ancestor. Among the mammal endemic to the Albertine Rift, the dwarf otter-shrew of the Rwenzori is one of three highly localized African mainland species belonging to a family of aquatic insectivores that flourished some 50 million years ago and is elsewhere survived only by the related tenrecs of Madagascar. A relic horseshoe bat species restricted to the Ruwenzori’s and Lake Kivu is anatomically closer to extant Asian forms of horseshoe bat and to ancient migrant stock than it is to any of the 20-odd more modern and widespread African horseshoe bat species, while a shrew specimen collected only once in the ltombwe Mountains is probably the most primitive and ancient of all I 50 described African species the habitat include riverine forests, agricultural lands, mountains , riverine forest and papyrus swamps acacia savanna, moist woodland, lakes.
We have to say the Albertine rift endemic birding safari is the most memorable birding safaris in Uganda with special birds such as Archer’s Robin-chat, Rwenzori Apalis, Chapin’s, Rwenzori Nightjar, the Handsome Francolin, Rwenzori Batis, the begrimed dark olive Grauer’s warbler, Yellow-eyed black flycatcher, the Grauer’s broadbill, Mountain masked (Black Faced) Apalis, Dwarf Honey guide, Red-faced Woodland Warbler, Rwenzori Turaco, Red-throated Alethe, Short-tailed Warbler, Kivu-ground thrush, Grauer’s Rush Warbler, Regal Sunbird, Rwenzori Blue-headed sunbird, Stripe-breasted Tit, Strange Weaver, Dusky Crimsonwing, Shelley’s Crimsonwing having all this can take some number of days let’s look at a 15 day Albertine rift endemic birding safari we can visit the various sites botanical gardens ,mabamba wetland specially for a shoebill are Murchison falls national park, Bwindi impenetrable (Ruhija, Rushaga,buhoma), Kibale forest national park queen Elizabeth national park, Semliki ,lake mburo national park,budongo national park, Mgahinga gollira national park, kipedo valley national park ,Echuya forest among others these sites give a variety of birds Albertine rift endemic birds in uganda.
