Bulletin 382 - Uganda # 26 - Miscellaneous Birds and Mountain Gorilla

 After the week in the Capetown area, the guide Casper Badenhorst, and I flew to Uganda and met a local guide. We started at Entebbe Airport on the southeast corner of Uganda and made a diagonal trip to Murchison Falls NP in the northwest corner. From there, we proceeded south through a chain of nature preserves and parks to the southwest corner at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We finished along the southern border back to the airport.

Well, we are finally at the end of the photos of this amazing 2 weeks in Uganda.

The 8" Black-billed Wood Dove (Turtur abyssinicus) is brown with a gray head, black bill and dark blue wing spots.

Black-billed Wood Dove

The 8" Blue-spotted Wood Dove (Turtur afer) is similar be he has a red bill with a yellow tip.

Blue-spotted Wood Dove

The 21" Crested Guineafowl (Guttera pucherani) is black with blue spots on the body, a blue head, red throat and a curly crest

Crested Guineafowl 

The 5.5" Common Button-quail (Turnix sylvatica) is a small plump brown bird with spotting on the  flanks and an orange breast. This was a life bird and also a new family for me to see.

Common Button-quail

The 9" African Crake (Crex egregia) was a great bird to find as rails and crakes are usually shy and stay hidden in tall grass. He has a brown back with black spots, black and white striped flanks, a red eye and red base of the bill.

African Crake

The 16" Grey-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus) is a white bodied gull with a pale grey head and wings. He has a red bill and legs.

Grey-headed Gull

His cousin is the 15" Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus). He is similar but with a black head. In this photo, he is in the middle of a group of skimmers.

Black-headed Gull

The 9" White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) in breeding plumage is all black except for white wings. In winter as this bird, he mostly white with some black on the back of his head. He is the smaller bird in the center foreground.

White-winged Tern - non-breeding

We are now at the end of the photos from the Uganda trip, I saved the best for last. This hike to see the Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla beringei) in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was the highlight of the trip and the most amazing wildlife encounter of my life.

If you have seen the movie "Gorillas in the Mist" about Dian Fossey and her work with the gorillas in Rwanda, then you know that the gorilla families can be acclimatized to people and then the people can get close to them. This process takes 2 -3 years before tourists can visit that group. The population remaining of the animals is just over 1000, in family groups of 10 20.They are spread across the mountainous region where Uganda, Rwanda and Congo meet. About 50% of the gorillas are in Uganda.

Before the trip I assumed that we would be kept 30 - 50 meters away from the animals, but at the lodge meeting before the hike, they said 10 meters and actually when we were there we were so close we could shake hands with the gorillas and they watched us - but paid no attention.

The silverback is the dominant male in the group

Mountain Gorilla - Silverback

After eating their fill of plants and leaves in the morning, they take a siesta.

Mountain Gorilla

And we had the pleasure to watch a 4 month old baby!

Mountain Gorilla - baby

I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 39 of the 331 species of pigeons and doves

I have photos of 2 of the 6 species of guineafowl

I have photos of 19 of the 132 species of  rails, coots etc

I have photos of 44 of the 102 species of gulls and terns

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2021 David McDonald

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Bulletin 330 - South Africa #7 - Part 1 - Ground Birds, Thick-knees, Turacos, antelope

I had an amazing 2 week trip to South Africa and scored almost 280 new species of birds as well as fantastic mammals and a few reptiles. My guide Casper Badenhorst was outstanding. You can see his web site here. He can be contacted through the web site or if you want his email it is info@birdingandwildlifesafaris.com. I recommend him highly as he showed me so many rare birds and animals. I will use him again when I go to Southern Africa.

As usual my birding luck was 100% and we saw almost every thing expected to be found and many that were not expected!

The huge 6' Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus) needs no introduction. It is the largest bird in the world alive today (although some extinct species were much bigger). It can weigh up to 175 pounds and cannot fly. The male has a black body.

Common Ostrich - male

The female has a brown body.

Common Ostrich - female

Bustards and Korhaans are tall ground-dwelling birds. The 55" Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori) is another target bird in Africa. It weighs up to 45 pounds and is the largest bird in the world capable of flying.

Kori Bustard

The male, to display, inflates his throat and elevates his tail. Here is a male displaying.

Kori Bustard - male displaying

The 24" Black-bellied Bustard (Lissotis melanogaster) is brown with a black belly.

Black-bellied Bustard

Korhaans are in the same family and smaller than bustards. The 20" Red-crested Korhaan (Lophoris ruficrista) is similar in coloration to the above bird, but the male has red crest feathers he elevates in display.

Red-crested Korhaan

The 20" Northern Black Korhaan (Afrotis afraoides) has a black neck and head.

Northern Black Korhaan

The guineafowl are an endemic African family of 6 species. I saw both of the species in South Africa. The 23" Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) is well known as this is the domesticated bird kept by many people in USA and elsewhere.

Helmeted Guineafowl

The 20" Crested Guineafowl (Guttera pucherani) has a similar colored body, but the bare skin on the head is gray and it has a curly topknot.

Crested Guineafowl

The pheasant family has over 180 species and includes everything from huge peacocks to small grouse and francolins. We saw 4 species on the trip. The 15" Swainson's Spurfowl (Pternistis swainsonii) is all brown with bare red facial skin.

Swainson's Spurfowl

The 15" Natal Spurfowl (Pternistis natalensis) has a brown back and wings and black and white rest of body. There is no bare facial skin. At one picnic area where we stopped to have our breakfast of muffins and coffee, there were several of these birds. I was able to hand feed them some of my muffin and one jumped onto my forearm!. A nice treat.

Natal Spurfowl

Continued on part 2