Mabamba Shoe bill watching
Mabamba shoe bill watching takes place in the Mabamba swamp situated in Entebbe along the shores of Lake Victoria, the Lake is traditionally known as “Lake Nalubale” the largest in east Africa with parts of it being occupied in the neighboring states of Kenya and Tanzania, the swamp is a wetland area recognized as an important birding area of Uganda, it is a known hub for the critically endangered species of the shoe bill stock, basically because of the lots of lung fish in the region as this is the primary food of the shoe bill, the community has worked tirelessly to preserve the wetland area. It is one of the beautiful places of Uganda to go to, eye catching as you will realize how much the pearl of Africa is blessed with nature.
The name Mabamba swamp is derived from the local Luganda word “Mamba “meaning lung fish, due to the fact that fisher men got so much of lung fish in the swamp to date, it is also a recognized Ramsar site in 2006. The swamp is a beautiful bird catching point there are over 300 species of birds present here it is one of the must see places of Entebbe city, notable for the shoe bills species, other bird types to see here include papyrus warbler, red-faced barbet, blue swallow, yellow rumpled tinker bird, woodland king fisher, winding cist cola, white throated bee eaters, pink backed pelicans, pygmy geese, purple heron, Ross Turaco, pied wagtail, Papyrus Gonolek,Hammerkop, great white pelican, grey parrot, common squacco to mention a few.
The shoe bill stock is the main thing to see while at the swamp, the bird is named after its shoe shaped beak, it is shy beautiful bird, despite most travelers finding it as an ugly bird, it is amazingly beautiful in its own way,