Birding Lutembe Bay
Looking for Birding Lutembe Bay in Uganda? Just like Mabamba Swamp, Lutembe Bay is another ramsar site in Uganda and is also an Important Bird Area. Its located on Kampala Entebbe road about 4Km from Entebbe. Lutembe also receives a sizable number of tourist but its not as popular as Mabamba Swamp. It’s a good site that will help you check off a few birds off the list.
The Lutembe Bay is located on the shores of lake Victoria and is home to many water birds and wetland related birds. The site is not just a swamp and extends abit into the woodland and grass thickets which contributes a variety of birds and big volumes. This Bay is home to about 200 bird species. It is also housing about 8 of the 12 Lake Victoria biome Endemics. The best time to visit this bay is September to March. During this time, a sizable number of bird species have been recorded. It is during this time that the Paleartic visiting birds are also sighted.
Birding trail to Lutembe bay:
Most birding around Lutembe are usually the New Lutembe beach. As soon as you branch off the main road, you should start looking out for the special birds n the area. The area is still under populated and therefore still good to house birds.
Like most birding areas, you need to do birding in this area early in the morning before any activity that may disrupt the bird. This being a grassland area, you will have a chance to see a lot of insect eating birds
You can also take a boat ride long the beach to widen you scope and you will have a chance to see more birds along the beach more so in the virgin areas that are not inhabited by people. Doing birding around Lutembe bay would give you a count of about 100 species.
Here are some of bird species recorded at Lutembe bay in recent times;
Red-chested Sunbird
White-browed Robinchat
Snowy-headed Robinchat
White-throated Bee-eater
Broad-billed Roller
Common Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Lizard Buzzard
Palmnut Vulture
African Blue-Flycatcher
Blue-spotted Wood-dove
Brown-crowned Tchagra
Tawny-flanked Prinia
Laughing Dove
Yellow-breasted Apalis
Willow Warbler
Spotted Flycatcher
Purple Heron
Gull-billed
Helmeted Guineafowl
African Wattled Lapwing
Swamp Flycatcher
Fan-tailed Widowbird
Winding Cisticola
Sooty Chat
Croaking Cisticola
Yellow-backed Weaver
Blue-breasted Bee-eater
Green-headed Sunbird
Grey-headed Nigrofinch
Great Blue Turaco
Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird
Tern
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Grey-headed Gull
Little Stint
Common Greenshank
Black-winged Stilt
Common Squacco Heron
Whinchat
Wattled Starling
Black-and-white Shrike Flycatcher
Marsh Harrier
Glossy Ibis
Great Heron
African Pygmy Kingfisher
Yellow Wagtail
White-chinned Prinia
Barn Swallow
Grey-crowned Crane
Giant Kingfisher
Common Waxbill
African Golden-breasted Banting
Red-headed Lovebird
White-headed Sawing
Black-shouldered Kite
Diederik’s Cuckoo
Klass’s Cuckoo
Yellow-throated Greenbul
Black-headed Gonolek
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird
Little Bee-eater
Plain-backed Pipit
Black-and-white Mannikin
Slender-billed Weaver
Pin-tailed Whyder
Spur-winger Lapwing
Golden-backed Weaver
Grey-backed Fiscal
Long-toed Lapwing
African Jacana
Grassland Pipit
Blue-headed Coucal
White-faced Whistling Duck
Yellow-billed Duck
Long-tailed Cormorant
Yellow-throated Longclaw
Northern Black Flycatcher
Fawn-breasted Waxbill
Malachite Kingfisher
Rufous-naped Lark
Northern Crombec
Grey-capped Warbler
Brown-throated Wattle-eye
Grossbeak Weaver
White-winged Tern
Whiskered Tern
Common Ringed Plover
Nubian Woodpecker
African Green Pigeon
Northern Puffback
Mosque Swallow
Stripped Kingfisher
Yellow Fronted Canary
Brimstone Canary
