Bukoba Steve's Uganda birding blog: Birding in Bukoba

Blue-spotted Wood Dove

As I've previously mentioned our house is high (150 m) above Lake Victoria and the business centre of Bukoba. While the house itself has no garden to speak of we are surrounded on three sides by lush gardens with bananas, plantains, avocados, papaya, mango and assorted vegetable crops. The front of the house looks over a large grassy paddock used for drying clothes and grazing a small cattle herd. This combination attracts lots of birds and I've been keeping a daily log for the Tanzanian Atlas of birds seen within 500 m of the house.

Interestingly we have quite a few small eucalyptus groves nearby and there are Silky Oaks (Grevillea robusta) from Queensland and radiata pines scattered around. Lots of trees I can't put names to of course.

Bronze Mannikin

Daily visitors to my atlas patch include Hadada Ibis,Red-eyed Dove, Blue-spotted Wood Dove, Eastern Plantain-eater, White-headed Saw-wing, Common Bulbul, Rüpell's Starling, African Thrush, Bronzy and Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Northern Grey-headed Sparrow, Red-billed Firefinch and Bronze Mannikin. I've also seen Black Kites soaring overhead every day.

Hadada Ibis

Less frequent but regular visitors include raptors such as African Fish-Eagle and African Harrier-Hawk, the weird Hamerkop, the spectacular Ross's Turaco, Common Fiscal, Tropical Brubru, Lesser Striped Swallow, Baglafect's Weaver, Holub's Golden Weaver and Northern Brown-throated Weaver. These are probably present every day but are less conspicuous or visit at times when I'm not keeping an eye on things.

Northern Grey-headed Sparrow

Then there are a number of species that have popped in for a quick visit or two. Eventually I hope to see patterns but at the moment I have to assume that these species are in low numbers locally or wander far and wide. Included in this group are things like Palm-nut Vulture, Shikra, Augur Buzzard (seen more often a bit further afield), Speckled Mousebird, Malachite Kingfisher, Little Bee-eater, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Double-toothed Barbet, Black-and-white Shrike-flycatcher, Northern Puffback, African Paradise Flycatcher, African Blue Flycatcher, Angola Swallow, Black-lored Babbler, African Yellow White-eye, White-browed Robin-Chat, African Dusky Flycatcher, Green-headed Sunbird, Olive-bellied Sunbird, Grey-headed Nigrita and Brimstone Canary.

Down in town the lake dominates and I've added a number of species. A surprise was the number of Pink-backed Pelicans. These seem to be far more numerous than the White Pelicans but I haven't spent a lot of time looking at them. The huge and ugly Marabou Storks strut around the lake vicinity or soar overhead. Two Abdim's Stork, a few African Openbill and two Spur-winged Lapwings were seen on the weekend in front of the lake campground. Pied Kingfishers are everywhere there is water. Hundreds of them hunt over the lake in a constant flurry of activity. A fish wouldn't stand a chance.

Pink-backed Pelican

A few other sightings in town include Purple Heron, Speckled Pigeon, Woodland Kingfisher, Angola Swallow, Violet-backed Starling, Western Great and Little Egrets, African Pied Wagtail and African Palm Swift.

Readers with African birding experience will note some absences in the species listed above. I've seen no Cisticolas, Pipits, Larks, Chats etc. I've been surprised not to have seen any of these. Some of the open grassy and rocky areas should have them.