The tour guide with an undying love for birds

Herbert Byaruhanga (R) with another Ugandan birder

He fell in love with birds over a decade ago and since then, Herbert Byaruhanga, a tour guide, has been marketing birding in and outside Uganda.

Like a chef meticulously cuts onions, tomatoes and carrots, Herbert Byaruhanga shares his story in slices of passion, each tale intertwined with an experience about birding or tourism in general, and as interesting as the previous one. To this tour guide and entrepreneur, tourism is not a job, but a passion.

I meet him for this interview at a quiet country resort in Wakiso. Our conversation is occasionally interrupted when he hears the sound of a chirping monkey or singing bird.

“Hey, listen to that,” he says as he gets to his feet and reaches for the binoculars. “That must be a juvenile bateleur,” he notes as he focuses the binocular into the thicket overlooking an adjacent hill.

While others may check their handbooks for confirmation of what bird makes which sound or their physical characteristics, Byaruhanga has most of his knowledge of birds on his fingertips.

Byaruhanga is the chairman of Uganda Safari Guides Association and one of the pioneer tour guides. He specialises in birding. His leadership position is a platform for him to pass on skills in tour operations in the hospitality industry.

“I started the Uganda Safari Guides Association, which has greatly improved and changed the guiding services in Uganda and Rwanda,” he explains.

This earned him the nickname Papa, which is a term to show respect or to mean father. He says: “I have trained over 95 per cent of the tourist drivers we have in Uganda.”

For the past decade or so, Byaruhanga has been involved in marketing bird-watching in Uganda, other African countries as well as in Europe and America. “Since 2006, I have been selling Uganda to the American market. Now, we get a number of American birders coming here.”

This passionate birder has also traversed the country to train tourists in birding. It should be because of his effort to promote birding that he was elected president of Uganda Tourism Association, the apex body of tourist trade associations within the private sector.

Where did his love for birding start? He traces his passion for birding to when he was a young boy.

“I used to nickname birds in relation to their behaviour. At some point, we used to chase them. I used to get chicks from their nests to play with them,” he recalls.

In the 90s, Byaruhanga applied for a job as a driver guide in one of the companies in Kampala. Out of the 150 applicants, he was among the 12 that were selected to go for training.

“Out of these, I was among the four that were recommended to be employed as driver guides. Of the four, I was one of the two that were given a permanent status just because my trainer advised the company that I would be very important for the birding tours,” he recounts beaming with pride.

By 1998, he had established the Bird Guides Club. A few years later, he was sponsored by BirdLife International for training as a trainer of bird guides. “So birding has remained my hobby, passion, job and business,” he says.

Why birding?
It is a worthwhile passion considering the variety of birds in Uganda and the world. Birders never get disappointed, as opposed to those who watch animals. Besides, he adds, birds are naturally beautiful.