Umusambi Village Nature Reserve – Grey Crowned Crane conservation center & birding hotspot in Kigali

The Grey Crowned Cranes were on the verge of extinction in Rwanda as they would be captured by locals and kept in homes as pets or traded. To prevent them from flying away the captors would either have their wings broken or flight feathers plucked out, causing immense injuries. The number of Grey Crowned Cranes is about 500 down from more than 2500 birds in the 1980s. It is not until local conservationists pushed government of Rwanda to create a law against keeping or capturing the Grey Crowned Cranes that there has been a turnaround with numbers are recovering steadily. The conservationists in Rwanda under Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA) further have established Umusambi Village to bring in the Grey Crowned Cranes that were set free by the new government law but would not have survived in the wild due to injuries, so they can have a home in Umusambi where they are rehabilitated and would be released back in the wild for those that would have healed from injuries. Many rehabilitated cranes are thriving in the reserve and are breeding. Many other flocks of cranes have discovered the reserve and often fly in to share on the supplemented feeds, interact with the residents and fly out after the meetup. Some of the visitors have found soulmates among the injured residents and now live at the sanctuary and are breeding. Many of the rehabilitated cranes that have healed from injuries shall be released back in the wild, however those with permanent injuries shall live in the reserve as their home.