Rwanda Birding Tours in Akagera National Park

Rwanda Birding Tours in Akagera National Park: Rwanda bird watching tours in Akagera national park offer birders a very unique birding experience as compared to bird watching in other Important Bird Areas in the country like Nyungwe Forest National Park or Volcanoes National Park.

Rwanda is a relatively small, hilly, landlocked nation of 26,328 square kilometers located in the equatorial highlands of the Western or Albertine Rift Valley. It is bounded to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Lake Kivu, to the south by Burundi, to the north by Uganda, and to the east by Tanzania.

Rwanda experiences equatorial climate that is mitigated by elevation. The average annual precipitation ranges from 600 mm in the east to 1,200 mm in the middle plateau and 2,400 mm in the Congo–Nile boundary. A dominant dry season from June to September, a brief rainy season from October to December, a shorter dry season from January to February, and a long wet season from March to June characterize much of the nation.

In the western montane forests, however, the rainy season lasts nine months. Temperatures are typically warm and consistent, ranging from 14°C to 21°C on a yearly basis. However, climate is affected locally by a variety of elements such as height, exposure, latitude, and so on.

The short dry season, for example, frequently lasts longer in the east than the long dry season. Frosts are possible in the mountains of the Congo–Nile divide, and snow occurs on the highest summits of the Volcanic Mountains on a regular basis.

The country’s geography is generally rough, with a high degree of relief. The west is hilly, whereas the east is mostly flat. The lowest point in the nation, at 800 meters, lies in the south-west, near Bugarama, and is an extension of Burundi’s Imbo region. The Congo dominates the western part of the country–the Nile watershed or divide, a range of highlands running north-south at elevations ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 meters, where the last montane forests may be found.

Karisimbi, Africa’s tallest peak, is located in the northernmost region of this highland, which is volcanic in nature (summit 4,507 m). To the west of these mountains, the ground drops precipitously to Lake Kivu on the rift valley level. The country’s center, east of the mountains, is characterized by a 1,500–2,000 m plateau cut by several rivers. Finally, the savanna regions of the Akagera basin and Bugesera, which sit between 1,300–1,600 m, combine into the large marshes and papyrus swamps that run along the international boundary with Tanzania in the east and south-central sections.

Rwanda has a great range of habitat-types as a result of its diverse topography, resulting in a robust birdlife. There are two main phytochoria: the Afromontane area between 1,800 and 4,500 meters and the Lake Victoria regional mosaic below 1,800 meters, which includes parts of Guineo–Congolian and Sudanian flora in Rwanda.

The majority of Rwanda’s woods are located in the Afromontane area, where they are part of the Albertine Rift forests, which have a high degree of endemism in their flora and fauna.

Until recently, Rwanda had four main montane forests: Nyungwe, Gishwati, Mukura, and Volcans, all located in the west of the country, where they effectively formed the boundary between the Guinea-Congo lowland rainforests of DR Congo and the Lake Victoria far south-east, where the vegetation is Acacia- and Combretum-dominated woodland basin to the east. Their high heights of 2,000 m on average, ranging from 1,600 to 4,500 m, and the clearings and dense understorey typical of montane forests characterize them.

The savannas of the Lake Victoria regional mosaic are found mostly in eastern Rwanda and are divided into five separate natural zones known as Mutara, Buganza, Mubari-Migogo, Gisaka, and Bugesera. Endemism levels are low, owing to the transitional character of the vegetation.

Birding Tours in Akagera National Park-Rwanda.

The Mubari–Migongo sub region, located in the north-east of Rwanda, near the Tanzanian and Ugandan borders, is home to Akagera National Park. The park’s geography is characterized by undulating sandstone hills in the west, which are broken in parts by deep, narrow valleys. Floodplains and wetlands predominate in the east. The Gisaka sub region is wetter to the south of the Buganza. To the north of Akagera lies the Mutara sub region, which has broad grasslands dominated by Themeda, Hyparrhenia, and Cymbopogon, as well as grasses typical of traditional pastoralism and periodic bush fires.

The park’s extraordinarily diverse vegetation has been called as the region’s most diversified savanna environment. Themeda triandra, Hyparrhenia filipendula, and Cymbopogon afronardus are the three most common grasses in open savannas. Though Acacia and Combretum dominant, the park has over 250 tree species.

The savanna gets more thickly forested as it approaches the lake’s eastern boundaries, with gallery forest appearing along the lake’s shores. Acacia polyacantha and several Ficus spp. are among the gallery forest species. The river valley has flood-plain and marsh vegetation, with wetlands dominated by Cyperus papyrus, Cladium, and Miscanthidium.

Akagera National Park in Rwanda has a diverse bird checklist with over 525 species, reflecting the area’s extraordinary diversity of habitat. There are 44 raptor species, Papyrus Gonolek, Shoebill Stork, and a considerable number of Palearctic migrants, including Lesser Kestrel, Great Snipe, and Black-winged Stilt.

A number of Zambezian biome species, including Sauza’s Shrike, Arnot’s Chat, and Long-tailed Cisticola, have their northern limit of range in the park. This location has one species of the Guinea–Congo Forests biome, seven of the Afrotropical Highlands biome, and nine of the eleven species of the Lake Victoria Basin biome that exist in Rwanda.

The park also has a robust mammal list with over 50 species, including the African Elephant, which was introduced in 1975. Just recently in 2021, 30 white rhinos where translocated to Akagera national park from andBeyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. This new addition brings the total number of rhinos in Akagera national park to about 50 individuals, with both black and white rhinoceros freely roaming the vast savannah plains in the national park.

Activities offered in Akagera National Park.

Akagera national park offers visitors a number of interesting activities such as guided game drives, boat cruise on Lake Ihema, sport fishing, walk the line tour, Behind the scenes tour, camping and community cultural experiences for visitors interesting in learn more about the unique traditions of the existent ethnic tribes in Rwanda.

Book with us a wildlife safari to Akagera national park and get to experience the park at its best!