Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Biodiversity offsets create comparable and/ or additional biodiversity gains to compensate for developmental impacts. However, most offset assessments focus on flora creating a paucity of information on offset outcomes from the perspective of animals. This study used birds as indicators to ascertain whether biodiversity offsets for energy infrastructure are comparable to impact sites ten years after implementation in Gangu and Mabira forest reserves, Uganda. Specifically, the study assessed the species composition, diversity and ecological categories of birds at the impact and offset sites. Birds were sampled using fixed-radius point counts and data were analysed using R. We recorded 1,144 birds belonging to 83 species across 38 families in the forest reserves. Our study reveals that offset sites had not yet achieved compositional equivalence with the impact sites. There were significant differences in bird species composition between the impact and offset sites. Species diversity was higher at the offset than the impact sites. Forest specialists were higher at the impact sites while forest generalists dominated the offset sites. The study further revealed that the offset sites have not yet created a favourable habitat for forest specialist but has created suitable habitat for forest generalists. The offset sites should be managed to create suitable habitats for forest specialist. Return of forest specialists to the offset site should be continuously monitored to document recovery of the sites from the effect of power transmission line establishment through the forest.</p>