Uganda – a birdwatcher’s paradise

Next weekend will see the return of Uganda’s national Big Birding Day as part of a weekend of bird watching across the entire country.

Uganda’s Big Birding Day will this year be organized as a three day event on the weekend of 18th and 19th of October 2013 before, when the results are in and reconciled, theBirding Festival will then take place on the 26th of October. The birding event will include guided nature walks throughout the country with expert ornithologists and / or bird guides from among Nature Uganda members who will lead participants at various locations to a competition on bird watching throughout the country.

The bird watching competition will involve groups of at least two 2 members who are experienced bird watchers / guides to confirm the species identification. All birds seen and heard calling within the sites will be recorded by the group at the site. The weekend’s competition will aim to update the species list for birds in Uganda and promoting avian tourism in Uganda, which has in recent years established herself as one of the world’s greatest bird watching destinations, with for instance Queen Elizabeth National Park alone featuring well over 600 birds.

Friday 18th of October: Launch of the Big Birding Day at the Uganda Museum starting at 4:30 pm (16.30 hrs)

Saturday 19th of October: Bid Birding Day in all parts of the country starting from midnight to midnight

Sunday 26th of October: Big Birding Day Festival at Ndere Cultural Center starting at 7:00 am to 4:00 pm

All activities are free as is entrance to the national parks and other protected areas for registered participants, courtesy of the Uganda Wildlife Authority! Registration can be done on line via this link: www.natureuganda.org/bbd_registration.php

For social media users, in particular those on Twitter, the following ‘Hashtags’ have been introduced which shold be used to send in results and sightings but even more important, for everyone to be able to follow the competition from anywhere around the world. Log into Twitter and enter any of the hashtags to get the updates: #BBD or #bigbirdingday or #BBDUganda to share what is going on at their location.

Meanwhile thanks go to Nature Uganda and the Uganda Wildlife Authority and all the supporters who have generously sponsored this event again and have made it possible to put Uganda once more on the map.

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