Mabamba Swamp
The reliable place to see a shoebill, an hour from Entebbe.
Overview
Mabamba is a papyrus wetland on the northern shore of Lake Victoria, west of Entebbe, designated a Ramsar site in 2006 and run for visitors by the fishing community that lives around it. It is the most dependable shoebill site in Uganda. A handful of adults hold territories in the channels, and you look for them from a dugout canoe poled slowly through the papyrus at first light — a very different kind of wildlife watching from a vehicle, and much closer to the bird. The swamp is good for a great deal besides: African pygmy goose, lesser jacana, papyrus gonolek, blue swallow on passage, malachite kingfisher, and the lungfish that the shoebill is there for. Boatmen and guides are local, the fees go into the community, and the shoebill’s survival here is now tied directly to the fact that people pay to see it.