The Shadowy Secrets of Sunbird Hill: Who Would Visit Kibale for Chimps?!

National park megastars can be annoying. Allow a park to get famous for one specific thing and that’s all people are going to think about. In the case of Kibale NP in western Uganda, it’s the chimpanzee!

But picture an enchanting place — right on the jungle fringe — where a nature lover can get something so rich that chimps don’t matter anymore … This post on Julia Lloyd’s Sunbird Hill is a triple try to do justice to a national park:

1. your perception of Kibale may radically expand
2. as Julia is too busy with other work for self-promotion, this will be a rare useful bit of online info
3. we will give Kibale some deserved attention in our media

There’s a twist: Julia was on the team that in 1998 habituated the first chimps for tourism! Yet once she got to know their complex personalities, she decided they were too human for her liking … Kidding! Julia still loves her chimpies but feels there’s more the world should be alerted to, so she named her NGO “In the Shadow of Chimpanzees”.

They got a chunk of forest edge farmland and let it regenerate, erected three cottages on stilts, a treehouse and a common area with a natural history library, two observation hides, and a family-run kitchen. Originally meant for biologists, this wilderness launchpad has been gradually opened to any traveller who appreciates nature, can commit to at least two nights and doesn’t mind simplicity.

The images might make Sunbird look more basic than it is, but if you crave more overnight comfort Julia will understand. You can sleep at any of the fancier Kibale accommodations and come solely for naturalist action — because that’s the point!

The NGO employs three extraordinary naturalists who are at the service of Sunbird clients all day (and offer even nocturnal bush walks). Birds? Butterflies? Beetles? Bigger creatures of the wild, like elephants? All within reach!

The fact that Sunbird is officially a nature monitoring site should not scare lay people away. This is a fun place soaked in British eccentricity and Ugandan joy. 295 recorded bird species and experts doing things like ringing/banding only adds to your experience.

And if you listen carefully you might even hear the chimps!

photos by Anjni & Kalpa Vekaria, Edd Atchson, Julia Lloyd, Miha Logar, Nick Byaba and Susan Robinson