Entebbe birds

Herewith a list of species that I encountered while in the vicinity of Entebbe town earlier this week (a "v" after a species name indicates hearing the bird's call but not actually seeing it).

This morning we've had a couple of western black-headed orioles around the yard, besides a convocation of black-and-white-casqued hornbills attracted to our fruiting musizi trees. There has been a flock of Ross' turacos in the neighborhood the past couple of weeks. And I heard a greater honeyguide calling a few hours ago, the first for some time.

1. African thrush
2. Marabou
3. Splendid glossy starling
4. Common bulbul
5. Red-chested cuckoo (v)
6. African fish eagle (v)
7. Palm-nut vulture
8. Crowned hornbill
9. Emerald cuckoo (male)
10. Hadada
11. Broad-billed roller
12. Grey-headed sparrow
13. Red-eyed dove
14. Black kite
15. Wahlberg's eagle
16. Pygmy kingfisher
17. Collared sunbird
18. Red-billed firefinch
19. White-rumped swift
20. Scarlet-chested sunbird
21. Yellow white-eye
22. Black-and-white shrike flycatcher
23. Grey woodpecker
24. Ross' turaco
25. Eastern grey plantain eater
26. Klaas' cuckoo (v)
27. Black-headed gonolek
28. Brown-headed tchagra
29. Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
30. Bronze mannikin
31. Black-and-white mannikin
32. Grey kestrel
33. Olive-bellied sunbird
34. Red-chested sunbird
35. Common (grey-backed) camaroptera
36. African mustache warbler
37. Vieillot's black weaver (female)
38. Black-headed weaver
39. Black-billed weaver
40. Speckled mousebird
41. Hooded vulture
42. Double-toothed barbet
43. Blue-spotted wood dove
44. Tambourine dove
45. Snowy-headed robin-chat (v -- mimicry)
46. White-browed robin-chat (v)
47. Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
48. Angola swallow
49. Tawny-flanked prinia
50. Northern black flycatcher
51. Northern puffback
52. Lizard buzzard
53. Black-and-white-casqued hornbill
54. Grey-cap warbler (v)
55. African green pigeon
56. Striped kingfisher (v)
57. Hamerkop
58. White-headed saw-wing
59. Ruepell's long-tailed starling
60. Great blue turaco
61. Harrier hawk
62. Little swift
63. Yellow-throated longclaw
64. Winding cisticola
65. Woodland kingfisher
66. Egyptian goose
67. African / European cuckoo (no binoculars handy, but the pair of cuckoos was one or the other of these)
68. Abdim's stork
69. Pink-backed pelican
70. Piapiac
71. Brown-throated (common) wattle-eye (v)
72. Grey-backed fiscal
73. African pied crow
74. Zitting cisticola
75. Cattle egret
76. Black-headed heron
77. Pied kingfisher
78. Northern brown-throated weaver
79. Little egret
80. Paradise flycatcher (v)
81. Yellow wagtail
82. Helmeted guineafowl
83. Mosque swallow
84. Osprey
85. Openbill
86. Barn swallow
87. Plain-backed pipit
88. African jacana
89. Two or three sandpiper spp.
90. African wattled plover
91. Long-toed lapwing
92. African yellow-billed duck
93. Long-tailed cormorant
94. Lesser striped swallow
95. Yellow-throated greenbul

Mt Elgon National Park

Last week I had the privilege of hiking for two days in Mt Elgon National Park, climbing from about 2050 meters above sea level to about 2,675 meters and back down to where we started. We spent the night at (partly in) Tatum (tah-TOOM) Cave at the 2,675-meter level. Of necessity our pace was faster than ideal for birding, but I did see some good ones along the way, viz.:

* Brown woodland warbler (Phylloscopus umbrovirens) -- a first for me

* Grey cuckoo-shrike (Coracina caesia)

* Hartlaub's turaco (Tauraco hartlaubi) -- first time to meet these in Uganda; have seen them several times in Kenya

* Olive pigeon (Columba arquatrix)

* White-tailed crested flycatcher (Elminia albonotata)

* African blue flycatcher (Elminia longicauda)

* Mountain buzzard (Buteo oreophilus)

* Ayres' hawk eagle (Hieraaetus ayresii)

* White-starred robin (Pogonocichla stellata) -- first time to see this in Uganda; a familiar species from Malawi years

* Olive thrush (Turdus olivaceus) -- first time to see this in Uganda; common in Kenya highlands

* Black-throated apalis (Apalis jacksoni)

We also saw a few blue monkeys and heard baboons and black-and-white colobus monkeys as we walked through the montane forest.

Recently noted

Several species of interest that I've spotted here and there in the past week or two:

Red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera) -- checked the borassus palm where we have been seeing one of these for the past several weeks and found it perched there again

Abyssinian roller (Coracias abyssinica) -- saw a few of these in passing while traveling in the vicinity of Soroti town

Namaqua dove (Oena capensis) -- had one fly by over wet grassland near Awoja on our way to Soroti

Giant (Verreaux's) eagle owl (Bubo lacteus) -- saw one carrying prey early the other morning, and have been hearing them more often lately than we did for a while

Black-and-white-casqued hornbill (Bycanistes subcylindricus) -- heard one of these large fellows while out running early a couple of mornings ago

African little sparrowhawk (Accipiter minullus) -- another one (second in a month) flying over

Tropical boubou (Laniarius aethiopicus) -- haven't actually seen one recently, but have been hearing them often calling (often duetting) from inside thickets in our neighborhood

Harlequin quail (Coturnix delegorguei) -- came across a female dead on the road, probably struck by a car while migrating in the night

African hoopoe

What a treat this morning, as I was taking the kids to school, to see an African hoopoe (Upupa africana) winging away over an undeveloped lot across from the school house! I remember seeing these handsome fellows only twice before in my twelve years in Mbale, although they are more regular elsewhere in the region (e.g., just across the mountain from us in the western Kenya highlands). Interestingly, all three sightings have been at spots within 500 meters of each other, even though separated by a couple of years, time-wise.

Red-headed lovebird

Jonathan and I went birding early on a recent Monday in an area of moist grassland interlaced with Acacia stands (mostly falcon's claw acacia trees) and bordering a wetland, just outside Mbale town. Saw quite a few interesting species of birds, including broad-billed rollers (Eurystomus glaucurus) and green sandpipers (Tringa ochropus). But we were most pleased (and surprised) to have a close encounter with a couple of red-headed lovebirds (Agapornis pullaria). I've occasionally seen flocks of Lilian's lovebird (Agapornis lilianae), particularly in Liwonde National Park, Malawi. But this was the first time I've come across a member of this family in East Africa. These were quite confiding, and one of the pair we saw allowed us to approach fairly closely and view him at our leisure.

The red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera) that I mentioned in an earlier post has continued to hang out in the borassus palm in which I've seen it three or four times now. This strengthens my belief that a pair may be nesting there.

I have not seen the white-necked ravens (Corvus albicollis), that had been in our vicinity, for over a week now.

Nifty Mbale raptors & a few birds from around Entebbe

The past two or three weeks have been better than average for raptor sightings around Mbale. I also ran across some interesting bird species on a recent trip to Entebbe.

• European marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) - one female, just outside Mbale town, over a patch of wetland
  

• Red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera) - on two occasions I've seen a single bird on a borassus palm on the south edge of Mbale town; I speculate that there may be a pair breeding there, as I have observed a breeding pair of these attractive falcons in another borassus about three years running in the late 90s, also in Mbale town

• African little sparrowhawk (Accipiter minullus) - had one over our house engaged in what appeared to be a display flight; I have only rarely seen these particularly secretive little hawks out in the open

• Palm-nut vulture (Gypohierax angolensis) - these are resident in Mbale town, but I also had excellent views of more than one near Entebbe; the interesting thing there was that I stumbled on a "feeding station," the regular perch used by one individual for its morning meal of palm nuts (Raffia sp., I believe)
  

• Wahlberg's eagle (Aquila wahlbergi) - I've come to expect these in the Entebbe area, and have watched them there often enough to begin to recognize the particular soaring posture that distinguishes them from other smaller-than-average eagle species
  

• Red-chested cuckoo (Cuculus solitarius) - probably the commonest of the larger cuckoos, but always a striking bird; I had especially fine views of one while in the Entebbe area
  

• Red-shouldered cuckoo-shrike (Campephaga phoenicea) - another from my Entebbe trip, this may be the first time (at least first in many years) that I've seen a male of this species; am more accustomed to the standard black cuckoo shrike (Campephaga flava), but this red-shouldered fellow was a truly impressive sight to behold
  

• African penduline tit (Anthoscopus caroli) - two or three in an Entebbe garden; these diminutive avians appear thoroughly nondescript but do sport a distinctive short, sharp beak
  

• Red-billed oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) - have been seeing these in Mbale the past couple of weeks or so, sometimes singly, sometimes in groups of two or three

• African spoonbill (Platalea alba) - in a wetland area just west of Mbale town; although I don't see these all that often, I suspect that they are around most of the time in small numbers, tending to roost in mixed groups of herons, egrets, storks and other aquatic birds

Wanale thermals

An opportunity several days ago to hike Wanale mountain, the lovely backdrop to Mbale town, afforded some nifty sightings of birds taking advantage of the thermals rising at the cliffs' edge.

My favorite was an immature Ayre's hawk eagle (Hieraaetus ayresii) engaging in an impressive series of aerial maneouvres with three adult harrier hawks (Polyboroides typus).

There were also a dozen or so common (rock) kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) in evidence around the rock faces.

An interesting encounter was with a pair of white-necked ravens (Corvus albicollis) -- a common species in Malawi, but one that I have never come across in Uganda before. They were cruising along the edge of the mountain on the same thermal currents already mentioned. Since that day, I have seen this same pair (presumably) down in Mbale town scavenging refuse near a local hotel. I'll keep an eye out for them to figure out whether they're just passing through for a few days or weeks or intend to take up longer-term residence.

Speaking of ravens, one morning last week when I had observed the white-necked ravens near the hotel, I later visited Sipi Falls on Mt. Elgon and saw the fan-tailed ravens (Corvus rhipidurus) that are regular there. This was the first time that I can remember ever seeing two species of ravens in Africa in the same day.

One other raptor of special interest from the Wanale hike was a mountain buzzard (Buteo oreophilus) in flight, of which I had excellent views for ten minutes or more as we waited for others in the group to begin our descent.