The Spectacular Shoebill Swamps of Uganda

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My bird tour of Uganda began in late May 2019. I arrived in Entebbe at about midnight for the tour that began at 6am the next morning. This was a highlights tour – about 12 days rather than the 19 days of the full, classic tour. And for duration and price, this option fit my needs perfectly. Especially since I was in Uganda for one bird.

Yep, I paid for this tour and spent about 18 hours in transit to see one single bird: the Shoebill. #priorities?

Operation Shoebill

A bird named for its most noticeable feature, an impressive bill that is not, in fact, a shoe. It’s probably shoe-shaped. A clog, maybe? Clogbill sounds horrible, though. But, I quibble. It’s certainly a bill that will grab your attention. Okay, it’s a bird that will grab your attention. It’s large. It’s unwieldy and strange. Simply put, it is magnificent.

It’s not the rarest bird in Uganda, no. But it is relatively rare. It’s a bird of remote and dense freshwater swamps in central Africa. They’re found, generally, from Zambia to South Sudan. And although that might seem like a wide distribution, birding tours won’t venture into some of the countries where the Shoebills occur. And even where Shoebill populations are good in well-touristed wildlife destinations (i.e., Tanzania), the wetlands they inhabit are generally inaccessible and logistically challenging.

The most accessible populations of Shoebill in the world are in Uganda. And, maybe more important for bird tours, the most reliable destination to see Shoebills? Uganda. It isn’t as if you can’t see them anywhere else, but a bird trip to Uganda certainly increases your odds of success.

An Odd Duck (but Not A Duck!)

But what is this bird? It’s been the cause of some speculation. Not just by birders! Its placement within the avian classification system has shifted over the years. It’s often been called a stork, which is totally understandable. It looks storkish. You might see some physical traits similar to herons as well. But nope, neither of those are correct. The current widely accepted taxonomy places these birds within the Order Pelicaniformes, with their cousins the pelicans.

But I called this bird “unique” because it is just that! The shoebill is the sole extant member of its monotypic Family, Balaenicipitidae. If the beginning of that word seems familiar, maybe the beginning of the word reminds you of the baleen whales? Sure enough, the “balaen” part of its Family name is a reference to “whale”. And it’s scientific name, Balaeniceps rex, continues to reference (from Latin) some perceived whale-like attributes.

But this is one impressive, singularly beautiful bird. Whale-headed?! Honestly, that seems a bit rude.

I’m not the only one that thinks this bird is pretty special. After all, it does grace the cover of Extreme Birds. What further proof would anyone need to be convinced this bird is a show-stopper?

In Mbamba Swamp

So it’s Day 1 of the tour, and we leave early in the morning. We head to Mabamba Swamp with hopes of spotting this strange bird. It’s located off the northwest side of Lake Victoria in Uganda, not too far west of Entebbe. This famous shoebill hotspot is dominated by papyrus and dense swaths of marsh vegetation. It’s exactly what this bird prefers in a home.

Once we arrive, our group jumps into a couple boats to enter the swamp via large wooden non-motorized boats. In open water, this was a pleasant adventure through the wetlands. But the Shoebill likes to its vegetation a bit more impassable, and the energy exerted by our guides to get us through this swamp was alarming. Honestly, it felt almost shameful to just be sitting there as a passenger. This was seriously hard work. But blazing paths into the more distant swamp was necessary to find that sought-after Shoebill, of course.

And find the Shoebill, we did! At first, it was such a distant bird that it was a mere speck in the binoculars. Gratifying to see, of course, but not the most satisfactory view. We tried to get a bit closer, and eventually did see a better view of the still-distant pair. As we were leaving that area, we even saw an individual flying past. As unusual as the shoebill’s appearance might be on the ground, it’s in-flight profile is just downright absurd. It’s positively endearing. I adore this bird.

But Wait, There’s More

After our very distant and slightly less distant views, we moved on. It was time to explore the more accessible, or certainly more navigable, areas of the swamp.

Mabamba Swamp is an excellent location to bird in Uganda. I’d never seen a papyrus swamp in previous trips to Africa, and it’s a beautiful backdrop for the wetland species we spotted this day.

We saw otters, bee-eaters, and sunbirds. Various herons dotted the marsh vegetation and flew gracefully overhead. Jacana walked on lilies, openly foraging near the water’s edge.

And as we took the opportunity to photograph a nearby goliath heron, a vibrant Papyrus Gonolek decided to perch close to our boats. Frankly, with plumage like that, he didn’t need to work all that hard to get our attention.

Encore, Encore!

But the most pleasant surprise came late in the day. After several distant views of the Shoebill, we’d all be able to add the bird to our life lists. But it would be completely out of character for a birder to be entirely satisfied with a distant view! Luckily, an individual was spotted not far from our canal. Before we ended the day in Mabamba Swamp, we rushed over to catch another glimpse of the day’s most desired species.

This is the way of the birding tour, I swear it. The bird that you exert significant effort to see – traipsing through uneven fields, over rivers, and up hillsides – will then be the bird that you see again later in the day. Crossing the road, probably. Or something equally, and obnoxiously, easy.

And so we saw this glorious, strange bird again. Not too close – the often solitary bird likes the security, and distance, provided by the dense aquatic vegetation. But we were close enough to get fantastic views with our binoculars, staring with rapt appreciation between excited bursts of photography.

Soon after, we wrapped up our trip to the swamp. We saw so many birds in Mabamba, but the entire visit was over before lunchtime.

What did we do for the remainder of the day? Well, we stopped for lunch. Then we were in transit for many hours, until after sunset. This is not unusual for a birding tour, either.

But like every day of a bird tour, the shady roadside lunch was an excellent opportunity for birding. And the hours of travel on the way? Yep, more birding. It’s a great excuse to get out of the vehicle. Naps are also allowed, of course. But, ya know, there’s a lot of birding. And we’d be ready to do it all again the next day, too.

But Day 1? Day 1 in Uganda was a special one. This was the one and only day with Shoebills. And that’s a day, and a bird, to remember.