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Uganda
is an equatorial country of astonishing contrasts.
No other area in Africa can match its amazing diversity
of habitats ranging from arid semi-deserts, rich savannahs,
lowlands and montane rainforests to vast wetlands,
volcanoes and an afro-alpine zone, and covering an
altitude from 650 to 5000 meters.
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This
richness is reflected in the number of birds per square
kilometer the highest than any other country in Africa!
Given the small size of the country, which is approximately
235,000 square kilometers, Uganda boasts a national bird
list of over 1008 species. This represents more than half
the bird species that can be found in the whole of Africa.
Forests
Uganda has an area contiguous with the Great Guinea / Congo
Basin rain forest on its western boarder. Subsequently there
are a number of west and central African bird species occurring
in Uganda that are not found elsewhere in East Africa.
There
are more than 700 forest reserves in Uganda.
One
particular region is the Albertine Rift Endemic area (ARE),
which has 38 species of birds confined to Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi and the Congo. Of these ARE’s Uganda has 25,
mostly confined to the forests of Mgahinga and Bwindi National
Parks in the southwest.
Wetlands
Uganda has 30,000 square kilometers of wetlands. Not less
than 210 species, ranging from the Shoebill and African
Skimmer to the endemic Fox’s Weaver, are found in these
wetlands. More to the above are four Papyrus endemics; the
Papyrus Gonolek, Papyrus Canary, White-winged Warbler and
Papyrus Yellow warbler. And a White winged Black Tern roost
of 2-3 million birds in the Entebbe area (Lutembe bay).
Savannahs
In Uganda savannahs vary from the remote, semi-dessert,
dry thorn-scrub region of Karamoja in the northeast, to
the richer fertile savannahs of the western rift valley.
Queen Elizabeth National Park has a bird list of 604 species,
the highest for any protected area in Africa.
Checklist
Ugandan Birds
Are you wondering what other species enrich the colourful
birdlife in Uganda? Then download
our complete Birding List of Uganda in Adobe PDF format
(165 kb), with a total of 1062 species.
