Biking Birder VIII - Rwanda 2025
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Biking Birder VIII - Rwanda 2025
Part Two - Birds and Reserves
One of the books I immediately bought, when I decided that Biking Birder VIII was going to be in Rwanda, as well as the two East Africa Bird Field Guides, was the superb '101 Curious Takes of East African Birds . . .
. . . by Colin Beale.
Reading about each bird was inspirational. How many of the species in the book would I be seeing in Rwanda? How many had I already seen?
Back in 2018, I went with two fantastic Birding Clams friends; Jason Oliver and Tony Barter, to Gambia.
As well as the immense amount of fun we had, including me finding hair to remind me of when in my youthful days I had long, bum-lengthened, braided, plaited locks . . .
. . . amazing what happens when one finds a washing line with a number of drying wigs in a small Gambian village.
Well, together Jason, Tony & I saw 205 bird species . . .
including the Broad-billed Roller.
One of the pages in Colin's book shows the Lilac-breasted Roller and reading the text there is the answer to the oft-asked question; are Tropical Birds more colourful than Eurasian ones?
Blue Tits, Bullfinches, Kingfishers, Jays, we have colourful birds here in Britain but are there more colourful species in Africa.
Colin references a study in Nature, Ecology & Evolution back in 2022 where it was found that "average variety of colours shown by a bird in the tropics is about 20 -30% greater than for songbirds in the temperate zone."
So to a colourful land where the birds are more colourful! Rwanda here I come.
Kigali, capital of Rwanda
Landing at 7;00 am on Tuesday, the 28th of October, I will be greeted by Mugisha, a fabulous Rwandan man I met at Global Birdfair back in July.
On the final day of the superb GLOBAL BIRDFAIR, I sat with Hilary MacBean of PLANET BIRSONG and met Mugisha. Together we talked about me coming to Rwanda.
Cutting out all the details of that conversation, a day later we met in the World's BEST city, Birmingham, UK at Ozzy the Bull in the New Street Station concourse.
A day was spent visiting the World's BEST football ground, Aston Villa and a extremely special gift was given to Mugisha, my scarf from the Aston Villa vs PSG Champion's League match! A treasured item, looks great on him . . . UP THE MIGHTY VILLA.
Mugisha was fabulous and if he is representative of the way people are in Rwanda, well then, this is going to be such a fun-filled, emotional adventure.
So . . .
After sorting out all of the things in the suitcases and rucksack I am taking, as well as all of the things in the bike box that arrived in Kigali a few weeks ago . . .
. . . After putting my bike together, filling my panniers, placing the cuddlies who will be with me for the adventure, and after having the most brilliant time meeting Mugisha again and hopefully other Rwandans; I will be visiting at least two of the sites mentioned on eBird.
On Wednesday and Thursday, I will be visiting Nyandungu Urban Wetland Eco-tourism Park, which I have linked the title below to their eBird page.
Image taken from this website detailing this amazing reserve
A couple of days ago, I used the a recent eBird checklist, made on the 11th of October, to collate a species list for the reserve, all ready to add my own data to when birding there next week.
95 bird species listed, around half of them will be LIFERS for me, birds I have never seen before, it was fantastic to go through them all and see such incredible birds!
https://ebird.org/checklist/S278477157
Imagine the delight of looking once more at the Nyandungu page and finding a more recent checklist listing 103 bird species! Yippee!!!
https://ebird.org/checklist/S281195504
Malachite Kingfisher
I had a large poster of this wonderful bird on my bedroom when I was a teenager dreaming of African birds.
On Friday and Saturday I will be visiting Umusambi Village and I am thrilled to know that I will be meeting a truly wonderful man, Dr Olivier Nsengimana! It will be a true delight, a pleasure and a privilege to meet him.
As for the bird species awaiting me there, another reserve with a lot of birds and a major centre for the rehabilitation of Grey-headed Cranes.
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