We stopped at a roadside pond on the way to Lake Mburo and photographed crested cranes and a marabou stork. We also saw a black crake (looks similar to a coot, not pictured).
Other bird sightings in the park included blue-naped mousebirds, which have long brown tails, Senegal lapwing, wattled lapwing, bulbuls and helmeted guineafowl; and we heard the call of the tropical boubou, which goes do-do-do-do-do.
This beautiful bird is a cinnamon-breasted bee eater.
On our night drive we saw nightjars, brown and white birds with streaming wings that look like giant swallowtail butterflies as they fly up from the ground into the trees.
We also saw this brown snake eagle at night.
In the morning as we were leaving I noticed a tree full of vultures; they were taking turns to picnic on a zebra, which our driver Francis thought might have died of old age.
The picnic party included African white backed vultures, white-headed vultures, flappet faced vultures which have a triangular head, a white face and a yellow beak, Ruppell's griffon vulture, and the palm nut vulture which has a white head (juveniles are pale brown) and a red eye patch. A marabou stork and several warthogs also joined the fun.
This is a Ruppell's starling, with iridescent purple-black plumage.
We also spotted a crowned hornbill and a long-crested eagle en route; we also saw several in trees and in flight, identifiable by the white diamond shaped patches under their wings, slightly closer to the tip than the middle, at Queen Elizabeth National Park.
As we drove further to Masaka we passed more crowned cranes in the fields and a black-headed heron.
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