Lake Mburo National Park Uganda

Lake Mburo National Park Uganda, Zembezian Biome Birding

This is the closest game park to Kampala city; it is located in a series of swamp-fringed lakes which provide a great habitat for bird life, notably the secretive African finfoot and the Red-faced Barbet. Lake Mburo national park is a well developed Acacia woodland harboring great species of birds. It has a great number of savannah species of birds and is the best place in Uganda to view the typical savannah bird species

The park has about 313 different bird species including 8 of the 12 species of the Lake Victoria Basin biome that occur in Uganda, the elusive Shoebill stork and White-winged Warbler; other species to look out for are; the Crested, Coqui, and the Red-winged Francolins, Blue-spotted Wood Dove, Brown Parrot, Barefaced Go-away bird, Harlequin and Blue Quails, Common Button Quail, White-headed and Black-billed Barbet, Greenwood Hoopoe, Common Scimitarbill, Blue-napped Mousebird, Blue-breasted and Shining-blue Kingfishers, Lilac-breasted Roller, African-grey Hornbill, the Nubian, Buff-spotted, Brown-eared, and the Grey Woodpeckers, Trilling, Stout, and Wing-snapping Cisticolas, Red-necked Spurfowl, Black-bellied Bustard, Temminck’s Courser, African-wattled Plover, Rufous napped and Flappet larks, Rufous-chested Swallow ,Yellow-throated Longclaw, Black-winged Bishop, Chubb’s, Carruther’s and a number of other Cisticolas, the Lesser and Great Swamp Warblers, among others.

The lake is rich with a diversity of animal and plant lives which can only be viewed clearly if you take a boat trip. The crocodiles, Hippopotamuses, and birds like Pelicans, Black Crake, Common Squacco, Striated, Goliath, Purple, Black-headed, Grey, and Black-headed Herons, Great White and Pink-backed Cormorants, the African Fish Eagle, Shoebill stork, and a number of other species are some of them. The duration of each boat cruise is negotiable with the park management.

This attractive park of rolling hills and open grassy valleys, interspersed with thickets, woodlands, and rich wetlands, is the only place in Uganda where the Impala still occurs and is the best place to see large herds of Eland (Africa’s largest antelope). Other antelope species that may be sighted in the park include Topi, Bushbuck, Sitatunga, Common Duiker, Klipspringer, Oribi, Defassa Waterbuck and Bohor Reedbuck. It is among the only two Ugandan national parks where Burchell’s zebra still occurs.

The people bordering the park are traditional, pastoral Bahima people, known for their famous long-horned Ankole cattle. As you enter the park, you will realize a lot of these animals as they graze near and inside the park.