The Bird Year Grand Tour

Three countries, four habitats, twenty-one days

Days in the field

$6,900

From, per person sharing

4 – 10 guests

Group size

Departs annually in December

When to travel

The trip

What this safari is

The Bird Year is the reason this company exists. Twenty-one days across Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya, taking in every habitat that makes this corner of Africa the richest birding on the continent, and structured so that the pace builds rather than exhausts. Twenty per cent of what you pay goes directly into sponsoring a young African birder through a year of guided field training. You will meet them; on most departures, they travel with us.

Highlights

Every one of our four flagship destinations in one journey
Shoebill at Mabamba and again on the Albert Nile delta
Albertine Rift endemics at Ruhija and Mubwindi Swamp
The Nyungwe canopy walkway, 60 metres above the forest floor
Flamingo concentrations on the Kenyan soda lakes
A sponsored birder travelling with the group

Day by day

The itinerary

Timings shift with weather and with what the birds are doing. Your guide will tell you the night before.

We open where the company began: the Botanical Gardens on arrival day, then a dawn canoe into the Mabamba channels for the Shoebill. Beginning with the hardest bird to find takes the pressure off the following three weeks.

Shoebill Great Blue Turaco Papyrus Gonolek Orange Weaver

North to the mahogany forest for two full mornings on the Royal Mile and a day at Busingiro. This is where the group's forest ear develops — by the third morning most guests are calling birds before the guides do.

Black Bee-eater Chocolate-backed Kingfisher Nahan's Francolin Ituri Batis

Savanna, the top of the falls, and the delta launch for a second Shoebill population, Rock Pratincoles and African Skimmers on the sandbars.

Shoebill Abyssinian Ground Hornbill Rock Pratincole African Skimmer

South through tea country to Kibale, and the Bigodi wetland sanctuary — a community-run swamp walk that is one of the best-managed conservation enterprises in the country, and a model for what Mabamba is becoming.

Green-breasted Pitta White-spotted Flufftail Black-billed Turaco Papyrus Canary

The Kazinga Channel launch is one of the densest concentrations of waterbirds and large mammals anywhere in Africa. Afternoons in the Maramagambo forest and on the Kasenyi plains.

African Skimmer Pink-backed Pelican Papyrus Gonolek Martial Eagle

The Albertine Rift endemics, and the most demanding walking of the trip — the descent to Mubwindi Swamp is long and can be wet. It is also the only realistic shot at Grauer's Broadbill, and the group that makes it down rarely regrets the climb back out.

Grauer's Broadbill Rwenzori Turaco Handsome Francolin Regal Sunbird Dusky Crimsonwing

Across the border to one of Africa's oldest montane rainforests. The canopy walkway puts you level with the treetops, which changes what is possible to see entirely, and the trails hold a further set of Albertine endemics.

Rwenzori Turaco Grauer's Swamp Warbler Red-collared Mountain Babbler Purple-breasted Sunbird

A morning in Kigali — including the Genocide Memorial for those who wish it — and an afternoon flight to Nairobi. A deliberately light day between two demanding halves of the trip.

Freshwater Naivasha by boat, the flamingo concentrations at Bogoria, and a full day at Nakuru. After three weeks of forest work, the open water and sheer numbers come as a release.

Lesser Flamingo Greater Flamingo Great White Pelican African Fish Eagle Grey-crowned Crane

A last morning's birding at the Nairobi National Park gate, then the group tally over lunch — most Bird Year departures finish between 620 and 700 species — and transfers to Jomo Kenyatta.

Hartlaub's Turaco Hildebrandt's Starling Red-throated Tit

What is included