List of Birds of Botswana

Abdim’s stork
African barred owlet
African black duck
African black-headed oriole
African broadbill
African crake
African cuckoo
African cuckoo-hawk
African darter
African emerald cuckoo
African finfoot
African fish-eagle
African golden oriole
African goshawk
African grass-owl
African gray hornbill
African green-pigeon
African harrier-hawk
African hawk-eagle
African hobby
African jacana
African marsh harrier
African openbill
African palm-swift
African paradise flycatcher
African penduline tit
African pied wagtail
African pigmy-kingfisher
African pipit
African pitta
African pygmy goose
African rail
African reed warbler
African sacred ibis
African scop’s owl
African skimmer
African snipe
African spoonbill
African spotted creeper
African stonechat
African swamphen
African swift
African wood owl
African yellow warbler
African yellow-white eye
Allen’s gallinule
Alpine swift
Amethyst sunbird
Amur falcon
Angola swallow
Arnot’s chat
Arrow marked-babbler
Ashy flycatcher
Ashy tit
Augur buzzard
Ayres’s hawk-eagle
Baillon’s crake
Banded martin
Banded snake-eagle
Bank swallow
Barn owl
Barn swallow
Barred wren-warbler
Bar-tailed godwit
Bar-throated apalis
Basra reed warbler
Bat hawk
Bateleur
Bat-like spinetail
Bearded scrub-robin
Bearded woodpecker
Bennett’s woodpecker
Black coucal
Black crake
Black cuckoo
Black goshawk
Black harrier

Black heron
Black kite
Black sawwing
Black stork
Black-backed puffback
Black-bellied bustard
Black-bellied plover
Black-chested prinia
Black-chested snake-eagle
Black-collared barbet
Black-crowned night-heron
Black-crowned tchagra
Black-eared seedeater
Black-eared sparrow-lark
Black-faced babbler
Black-faced waxbill
Black-fronted bulbul
Black-headed canary
Black-headed gull
Black-headed heron
Blacksmith lapwing
Black-tailed godwit
Black-throated canary
Black-winged kite
Black-winged pratincole
Black-winged stilt
Blue crane
Blue-cheeked bee-eater
Bokmakierie
Booted eagle
Boulder chat
Bradfield’s hornbill
Bradfield’s swift
Broad-billed roller
Broad-tailed paradise-whydah
Bronze mannikin
Bronze-winged courser
Brown firefinch
Brown snake-eagle
Brown-crowned tchagra
Brown-hooded kingfisher
Brown-necked parrot
Brubru
Buff-spotted flufftail
Buffy pipit
Burchell’s starling
Burchelle’s courser
Burchelle’s sandgrouse
Burnt-necked eremomela
Bush pipit
Cape batis
Cape bunting
Cape crombec
Cape crow
Cape griffon
Cape robin-chat
Cape shoveler
Cape sparrow
Cape starling
Cape teal
Cape wagtail
Cape white-eye
Capped wheatear
Cardinal woodpecker
Caspian plover
Caspian tern
Cattle egret
Chat flycatcher
Chestnut weaver
Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
Chestnut-banded plover
Chinspot batis
Chirping cisticola
Cinnamon-breasted bunting
Cloud cisticola
Collared palm-thrush
Collared pratincole

Collared sunbird
Common bulbul
Common buzzard
Common cuckoo
Common greenshank
Common house martin
Common myna
Common ostrich
Common quail
Common redshank
Common ringed plover
Common sandpiper
Common scimitar bill
Common swift
Common waxbill
Copper sunbird
Coppery-tailed coucal
Coqui francolin
Corn crake
Crested barbet
Crested francolin
Crested guineafowl
Crimson-breasted gonolek
Croaking cisticola
Crowned eagle
Crowned hornbill
Crowned lapwing
Curlew sandpiper
Cut-throat
Dark chanting-goshawk
Denham’s bustard
Desert cisticola
Dickinson’s kestrel
Dideric cuckoo
Double-banded courser
Double-banded sandgrouse
Dusky lark
Dusky sunbird
Dwarf bittern
Eared grebe
Eastern clapper lark
Eastern nicator
Eastern paradise whydah
Egyptian goose
Egyptian vulture
Emerald-spotted wood-dove
Eurasian curlew
Eurasian hobby
Eurasian hoopoe
Eurasian moorhen
Eurasian nightjar
Eurasian reed warbler
Eurasian-golden oriole
European bee-eater
European honey buzzard
European roller
European turtle-dove
Fairy flycatcher
Familiar chat
Fan-tailed widowbird
Fawn-colored lark
Fiery-necked nightjar
Fiscal flycatcher
Flappet lark
Fork-tailed drongo
Freckled nightjar
Fulvous whistling-duck
Gaber goshawk
Gabon boubou
Garden warbler
Garganey
Giant kingfisher
Glossy ibis
Golden-breasted bunting
Golden-tailed woodpecker
Goliath heron
Goliath heron

Gray go-away-bird
Gray heron
Gray wagtail
Gray-backed sparrow-lark
Gray-crowned crane
Gray-headed bushshrike
Gray-headed kingfisher
Gray-hooded gull
Gray-rumped swallow
Gray-tit flycatcher
Great bittern
Great cormorant
Great crested grebe
Great egret
Great egret
Great frigate bird
Great reed warbler
Great rufous sparrow
Great snipe
Great white pelican
Greater blue-eared starling
Greater flamingo
Greater honey guide
Greater kestrel
Greater sand-plover
Greater striped swallow
Greater swamp warbler
Greater whitethroat
Greater yellowlegs
Greater-painted snipe
Great-spotted cuckoo
Green sandpiper
Green wood hoopoe
Green-backed camaroptera
Green-backed honey guide
Greencap eremomela
Green-winged pytilia
Grosbeak weaver
Ground scrapper thrush
Gull-billed tern
Hadada ibis
Half-collared kingfisher
Hamerkop
Harlequin quail
Hartlaub’s babbler
Helmeted guineafowl
Holub’s golden weaver
Hooded vulture
Horus swift
Hottentot teal
House sparrow
Icterine warbler
Intermediate egret
Isabelline wheatear
Jackal buzzard
Jameson’s firefinch
Kalahari scrub-robin
Karoo thrush
Kittlitz’s plover
Klaas’s cuckoo
Knob-billed duck
Kori bustard
Kurrichane thrush
Lanner falcon
Lappet-faced vulture
Lark-like bunting
Latakoo lark
Laughing dove
Lesser black-headed gull
Lesser blue-eared starling
Lesser flamingo
Lesser gray shrike
Lesser honey guide
Lesser jacana
Lesser kestrel
Lesser masked-weaver
Lesser moorhen

Lesser spotted eagle
Lesser striped swallow
Lesser swamp warbler
Lesser yellowlegs
Levaillant’s cisticola
Levaillant’s cuckoo
Lilac-breasted roller
Little bee-eater
Little bittern
Little egret
Little grebe
Little rush-warbler
Little sparrow hawk
Little stint
Little swift
Lizard buzzard
Locust finch
Long-billed pipit
Long-crested eagle
Long-legged buzzard
Long-tailed cormorant
Long-tailed jaeger
Long-tailed widowbird
Long-toed lapwing
Luapula cisticola
Ludwig’s bustard
Maccoa duck
Madagascar bee-eater
Magpie mannikin
Magpie shrike
Malachite kingfisher
Marabou stork
Mariqua flycatcher
Mariqua sunbird
Marsh owl
Marsh sandpiper
Marsh warbler
Martial eagle
Meves’s starling
Meyer’s parrot
Miombo rock-thrush
Mocking cliff-chat
Monotonous lark
Montagu’s harrier
Mosque swallow
Mountain pipit
Mountain wagtail
Mountain wheatear
Mourning collared-dove
Namaqua dove
Namaqua sandgrouse
Narina trogon
Natal francolin
Northern gray-headed sparrow
Northern pintail
Olive woodpecker
Olive-tree warbler
Orange river francolin
Orange-river white-eye
Orange-throated longclaw
Orange-winged pytilia
Osprey
Ovambo sparrow hawk
Pale chanting-goshawk
Pale flycatcher
Pale-crowned cisticola
Pale-winged starling
Pallid harrier
Palm-nut vulture
Parasitic weaver
Pearl-breasted swallow
Pearl-spotted owl
Pectoral sandpiper
Pel’s fishing owl
Pennant-winged nightjar
Peregrine falcon
Pied avocet

Pied barbet
Pied crow
Pied cuckoo
Pied kingfisher
Pied wheatear
Pink-backed pelican
Pink-billed lark
Pin-tailed whydah
Piping cisticola
Plain martin
Plain-backed pipit
Pririt batis
Purple heron
Purple heron
Purple indigobird
Purple-banded sunbird
Purple-crested turaco
Pygmy falcon
Quailfinch
Racket-tailed roller
Rattling cisticola
Red knot
Red phalarope
Red-backed scrub-robin
Red-backed shrike
Red-billed buffalo-weaver
Red-billed duck
Red-billed firefinch
Red-billed francolin
Red-billed ox-pecker
Red-billed quelea
Red-caped robin-chat
Red-capped lark
Red-chested cuckoo
Red-chested flufftail
Red-collared widowbird
Red-crested bustard
Red-eyed dove
Red-faced cisticola
Red-faced mouse bird
Red-footed falcon
Red-headed finch
Red-headed quelea
Red-headed weaver
Red-knobbed coot
Red-necked buzzard
Red-necked falcon
Red-necked phalarope
Red-winged starling
Retz’s helmet shrike
Ring-necked dove
River warbler
Rock kestrel
Rock martin
Rock pigeon
Rock pratincole
Rock-loving cisticola
Ross’s turaco
Rosy starling
Rosy-faced lovebird
Rosy-throated longclaw
Ruddy turnstone
Ruff
Rufous-bellied heron
Rufous-bellied tit
Rufous-cheeked nightjar
Rufous-chested swallow
Rufous-crowned roller
Rufous-eared warbler
Rufous-naped lark
Rufous-vented warbler
Sabota lark
Saddle-billed stork
Sanderling
Scaly weaver
Scarlet-chested sunbird
Schalow’s turaco

Secretary bird
Sedge warbler
Senegal coucal
Shaft-tailed whydah
Sharp-tailed starling
Shikra
Short-clawed lark
Short-toed rock-thrush
Sickle-winged chat
Slaty egret
Small buttonquail
Sociable weaver
Sooty falcon
South African ostrich
South African shelduck
South African swallow
Southern anteater chat
Southern black tit
Southern black-flycatcher
Southern boubou
Southern brown-throated weaver
Southern carmine bee-eater
Southern cordonbleu
Southern fiscal
Southern gray-headed sparrow
Southern ground hornbill
Southern masked-weaver
Southern penduline tit
Southern pied-babbler
Southern pochard
Southern red bishop
Southern red-billed hornbill
Southern white-faced owl
Southern yellow-billed horn-bill
Souza’s shrike
Speckled mouse bird
Speckled pigeon
Spectacled weaver
Spike-heeled lark
Spotted crake
Spotted eagle-owl
Spotted flycatcher
Spotted redshank
Spotted thick-knee
Spur-winged goose

Spur-winged plover
Squacco heron
Square-tailed nightjar
Stark’s lark
Steppe eagle
Stierling’s wren-warbler
Streaky-headed seedeater
Striated heron
Striped crake
Striped kingfisher
Striped pipit
Sulphur-breasted bush shrike
Swainson’s francolin
Swallow-tailed bee-eater
Swamp nightjar
Tawny eagle
Tawny-flanked prinia
Temmnick’s courser
Temmnick’s stint
Terek sandpiper
Terrestrial brownbul
Thick-billed cuckoo
Three-banded courser
Three-banded plover
Thrush nightingale
Tinkling cisticola
Tree pipit
Tropical boubou
Trumpeter hornbill
Verreaux’s eagle
Verreaux’s eagle owl
Village indigobird
Village weaver
Violet-backed starling
Violet-eared waxbill
Wahlberg’s eagle
Wahlberg’s honey guide
Water thick-knee
Wattled crane
Wattled lapwing
Wattled starling
Western marsh harrier
Western yellow wagtail
Whimbrel
Whinchat

Whiskered tern
White helmet shrike
White stork
White-backed duck
White-backed mouse bird
White-backed night-heron
White-backed vulture
White-bellied bustard
White-breasted sunbird
White-browed coucal
White-browed robin-chat
White-browed sparrow-weaver
White-crowned shrike
White-faced whistling-duck
White-fronted bee-eater
White-fronted plover
White-headed lapwing
White-headed vulture
White-necked raven
White-quilled bustard
White-rumped swift
White-throated robin-chat
White-throated swallow
White-winged tern
White-winged widowbird
Willow warbler
Wire-tailed swallow
Wood sandpiper
Woodland kingfisher
Woodland pipit
Woolly-necked stork
Yellow canary
Yellow-bellied eremomela
Yellow-bellied greenbul
Yellow-billed duck
Yellow-billed ox-pecker
Yellow-billed stork
Yellow-breasted apalis
Yellow-crowned bishop
Yellow-fronted canary
Yellow-fronted tinker bird
Yellow-throated bush sparrow
Yellow-throated sandgrouse
Zebra waxbill
Zitting cisticola

Best time for Birding in Botswana

The best season in Botswana for a number of species is during the summer months when the migrants have arrived but this is not to say that the winter months are a bad birding time. On the contrary, the dry winter months often see the gatherings of great numbers of birds around permanent water sources and where pools are drying to mud and the birds arrive to feed on the trapped fish and crustaceans.

Birding safaris to Botswana are usually planned for the summer months but for the casual birder, who also wants to experience the legendary wildlife of Botswana then the dry season, although not providing as many species, will nonetheless provide a birding experience of great drama.

RECOMMENDED AFRICAN SAFARIS

Great Wildebeest Migration Tanzania & Kenya

Gorilla Tracking in Rwanda

Victoria Falls Zambia – Zimbabwe

Gorilla Trekking in Uganda