Located northwest from Kampala the capital city of Uganda about three hours drive is Budongo Forest situated along the northern route to the renowned Murchison Falls National Park. It is East Africa’s largest Mahogany forest and one of the best places in Uganda to enjoy a Chimpanzee Trekking Safari since it has the highest number of chimps in the country. It offers habitat to different wildlife including over 360 bird species, 290 butterfly species, about 130 different types of Moths, 24 mammal species including 9 different types of primates and 465 different types of trees.
Bugongo forest covers an area of 318.5 square miles and it is dominated by a mid-altitude moist semi-deciduous green forest with patches beautiful Savanna. The terrain is generally rolling and moving northwest towards the Rift Valley is a large pronounced slope. There are for small rivers that drain the forest as well as provide fresh water to the forest’s wildlife and these include: River Waisoke, River Sonso, River Bubwa and River Wake which empty into Lake Albert.
Vegetation Type of Budongo Forest
The vegetation composition of this forest includes 5 main types and these include: swamp-forest, Cynometra, mixed-forest, Cynometra-mixed, as well as colonizing. However the largest portion of this forest reserve is comprises of tropical-high forest communities; with the Mid-altitude semi deciduous Cynometra-celtis forest covering nearly half of it and then the extensive Combretum savanna is more pronounced in the drier parts of the forest.
There are a number of tourist activities and sites you can visit as you explore this forest on your Safari in Uganda and these include:
What to do in Budongo Forest
Explore Kaniyo Pabidi Ecotourism site as well as the Busingiro Ecotourism site
Both these sites are dominated iron-wood and Mahogany tree, and situated along the borders with the Murchison Falls National Park. This isolated section of the forest covers an area of 115km and occasionally buffaloes and lions in addition to leopards may be seen there.
We recommend exploring this area in the early mornings since at that time most of the inhabitants of the forest are converged licking salt at the forest-clearing the area licking salt by the forest glade. The animals living in the forest quest their thirst at the nearby River Waiga which has fresh water.
Chimpanzee Tracking Safaris
Chimpanzee Tracking is the primary tourist activity within the park. Something worth noting is that from the month of October to January, there is a shortage of fruits in the forest so the chimpanzees tend to move long distances and move deeper into the forest searching for fruits – so the success rate of seeing the chimps is lower. On a brighter side, there are various accommodation options nearby from which you can base to set out on this early morning activity. Don’t forget you cameras when planning for this thrilling activity.
Bird Watching Trip
Budongo forest prides as one of the best sited to enjoy a rewarding birding 
experience during your safari in Uganda. With a bird list of over 360 different species even an inexperienced birder will enjoy their birding trip here. The Yellow-footed Flycatcher which today is extremely rare to see was known to only be seen in this forest just as the Illadopsis puveli.
Other species include: Ixonotus guttatus, Zoothers camaronensis, Sylvietta denti, Ceratogymna fistulator, Smithornis rufolateralis, Neafrapus cassini plus the Batis ituriensi; and these are among the many species that make this forest a very important birding destination across the east African region.
For more information about Budongo Forest Visit adventureugandasafari.com
