With patience and binoculars, Ugandan women build jobs as birders
| Mabira Forest, Uganda
A slight figure stepping lightly through the rainforest, Abia Atukwatse chirrups and cheeps. Sometimes she hoots and coos. Or she whoops and whistles. Then she stops and keeps her eyes peeled.
Ms. Atukwatse is a birder. But not just any kind of birder. She belongs to the all-female group. And in Mabira Forest鈥檚 world-renowned birders鈥� paradise, she says, women do bird guiding differently.
鈥淟adies naturally pay more attention than men,鈥� says Ms. Atukwatse. 鈥淚鈥檓 cautious and I feel I see more things.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
Women birders in Uganda spotted an opportunity to rely on their own expertise. 鈥淲e encourage women to be independent,鈥� says a guide.
Her client today, a Swedish ecotourist called Annika Lindqvist, seems to agree.聽
鈥淪he has good eyes,鈥� Ms. Lindqvist says, but there is more to it than that.聽
鈥淢ale guides have shown me good birds, but that鈥檚 it,鈥� she explains. 鈥淭hey have a tendency to just check off the birds. Here we discuss the birds, their colors, and their behavior. I learn more.鈥�
And there is a lot to learn. Ms. Atukwatse gives me my first lesson as I stroll ahead of her through the cool aqueous green of the forest. 鈥淵our speed is not for birders,鈥� she admonishes me. I slow down.
Ms. Lindqvist is an avid student with a broad taste in wildlife who stops to photograph anything that moves.聽
鈥淚 do anything that comes my way,鈥� she says, stooping to snap a tiny spider and then spotting an iridescent wasp on a nearby leaf. 鈥淟ook, it鈥檚 really cool; it鈥檚 got spikes on it.鈥�
Uganda Women Birders is the brainchild of Judith Mirembe, a professional birding guide frustrated that the field of ornithology 鈥� like Ugandan society as a whole 鈥� is so male-dominated.
She founded the group six years ago 鈥渢o increase the number of women in nature guiding,鈥� she explains.聽聽
鈥淭ourism is a growing sector and it could give women a way to earn a livelihood and support their families鈥� in a country where the unemployment rate is twice as high for women as it is for men.聽鈥淎lso we encourage women to be independent,鈥� Ms. Mirembe adds.
But she recognized that birding is an expensive occupation requiring binoculars, laser pointers (to direct clients鈥� attention to the right bit of the right tree), and field guides. As a group, members could share equipment and experienced birders could teach new ones. Uganda Women Birders now comprises 60 members, including 30 active guides earning their living from the business.
Ms. Atukwatse was an intern at a Ugandan gorilla park when she 鈥渟aw some other ladies birding around and they introduced me to the activity.鈥� She was intrigued by the group鈥檚 approach.聽
鈥淚 felt as if I was easily understood because we see things from the same perspective as females 鈥� for example the need to make our own living,鈥� she recalls.
Plus, she adds, 鈥渕ost ladies love color. I ended up loving birds because they are colorful.鈥� Ms. Atukwatse herself sports an eye-catching turquoise watch cap.聽
The birder says she can now recognize 800 of the 1,061 bird species found in Uganda and mimic the calls of nearly 400 鈥� 鈥渁nd I鈥檓 still learning.鈥�
Ms. Lindqvist came across her guide on the World Girl Birders Facebook group. 鈥淚 thought it would be a nice change to have a female guide and a good way to support women who are not really in the workplace in Uganda,鈥� she says.
With Ms. Atukwatse鈥檚 help, Ms. Lindqvist spots lots of birds, and notes them all down like a competitive birder. I have less luck as an absolute novice, focusing my binoculars repeatedly on leaves fluttering in the wake of a bird鈥檚 departure.
And then Ms. Atukwatse directs me to two extraordinary birds high in the forest canopy with massive box-shaped beaks. They are a beginner birder鈥檚 ideal target, so enormous as to be unmissable, sitting absolutely motionless, superbly indifferent to my presence.聽
Black-and-white-casqued hornbills, she tells me. (It鈥檚 worth Googling them.) I stare at them through my binoculars, astonished, for as long as I can tilt my head back.
Eventually I lower my field glasses and bring my head down, sighing as I relieve the crick in my neck.聽
鈥淗e has warbler鈥檚 neck!鈥� laughs Ms. Atukwatse. Clearly this is an occupational hazard.
鈥淏irdwatching is not for the weak,鈥� adds Ms. Lindqvist.
