Birds on the brain

Thanks to July’s trip with my parents to western Uganda, my long pathetic search for a hobby has finally yielded something. Ornithology! - simply the science (?) of identifying birds! Given my choices in life, I am living in a mega-hotspot for birds - frequently traveling in the Albertine Rift which bridges the Congo Basin and East Africa's savannahs.

Anyways, with my parents, we visited Bigodi wetland which is a community conservation project just outside of the Kibale National Park in western Uganda. This project generates revenue for community members by leading tourists on guided primate & bird walks. Our young guide Alex was inspiring. Within seconds of debarking on our bird walk, he was shooting off cock-eyed looks through his binoculars and telling us which species we were seeing. A few minutes into the hike, Alex, exclaimed, “Oh, I hear a golden-backed thrush! I’m going to get him to fly overhead!” Then Alex whipped out his iPod and portable speakers and quickly played the call. The bird responded by flying directly overhead and repeating the recorded call. Wow! That was amazing!! As we proceeded, sometimes we’d hear birdcalls a long ways off. Other times we’d stop to talk and by chance, catch the glimpse of bird perched silently in the undergrowth close to us.
“What is that one Alex?!”
“It’s a blue-breasted kingfisher”; “It’s the larger cousin of the woodland kingfishers which you probably already know”
“What bout that one!!”
“That one is Ross’s turaco, one of three turacos found here. Frequently in groups of three”;
“Wow, this is your lucky day. That is a white-collared oliveback, see its white collar! OH wow! Even the female is here! I only see these about three times in a year! And we are getting such a good view of a couple!”
So this cool guy and fun experience convinced me that I should become an ornithology hobbyist! Other fun outings on the trip around Fort Portal crater lakes, Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve, and Murchison Falls National Park provided many new bird sightings! And back in Massachusetts, I went out with my new ornithologist friend Russ to a saltmarsh where we (read: he) identified 53 species in one day!
Now, I couldn’t hold the jockstrap of Alex (pardon me for trying to remember vulgar high school slang). I frequently search vainly for that incessant chirping in the forest canopy and viney tangles, but the darn bird won’t come out and show its beak! Oh SNAP, he just flew off! I can’t get my binocs to my face fast enough…and he’s gone….
Also, I have a very small capacity to forcefully imprint new calls into my brain. However, I find birding to be tons of fun! I wander all around Epulu with my binoculars and see things that I never cared to notice before. Having spent the better part of two years here already, I’m finding some birdsongs are already inprinted in my subconscious, but now I am matching the song to its singer by its color, size, shape, size, patterns, and behavior.
I was super lucky to have my new birding fetish coincide with the extended vacation of one the very few Congolese ornithologists. We went out birding together several times and he gave me some key tips and helped me with identification. Also, knowing that someone finds this interesting was important ego-booster. In fact, I’m not the first, second, third or fourth. Epulu has a rich history of conservationists (of whom I couldn’t humbly hold the jockstrap for) and ornithologists, who have successfully identified well over 300 species of birds in and around the central sector of Okapi Reserve!
To date, I’ve successfully identified about 25 of these birds, but my list is growing every day! There are easily another 25-50 that I wasn’t able to identify. And, I may be nuts, but I swear on my life that I saw the most seductive forest bird that one could ever imagine existed. Imagine a beta fish in bird form – black but with two long white tail feathers on either side of the tail, it was floating up in the canopy! There for 5 seconds before I took my binocs down and started running around in circles in excitement. Then it floated off, never to be seen again! But I know he and many others are still out there, waiting to be discovered.

PS. The little guy in the photo is a red-cheeked cordon bleu - a type of finch that we saw in Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve on the shores of Lake Albert in Uganda.