List of Birds of Lesotho

List of Birds of Lesotho

Birding in Lesotho will come as fascinating and surprising entertainment for all the bird lovers as well as ordinary tourists from all over the world, who will be able to view its astonishing variety and beauty first hand.

Lesotho is sheltered by an impressive number of species of birds. Over 300 varieties have been recorded in the country and vary from residents, that stay all year round, to breeding birds, that spend a good part of the growing season in Lesotho to raise their young, migrants who pass through Lesotho with the seasons, to wintering birds who like to spend a winter in Lesotho to escape even colder conditions up north. However, many species of birds are relatively common as they are part of the ecosystems of the country.

The Lesotho Drakensberg and Maluti are among the most sought after by bird watchers who come for Birding in Lesotho. You will be bowled out by the sheer variety and number of these colorful birds, some of which are extremely rare. The birds can be seen in the natural parks in the region, with its well-known avifauna, as well as isolated spots that host a variety of fauna of Lesotho.

Lesotho is a habitat to approximately 600 pairs of bird species (about 12% of the world population). Among the species of the checklist of the birds of Lesotho you can find waterfowl and wading birds, a large suite of songbirds, raptors, game birds, swifts and nighthawks, etc., many of which occupy several ecosystems simultaneously, as they fly to and from forests, meadows, shorelines of waters, cities and urban green spaces.

Overview
Size & Location
How to get there
Activities
Areas of interest
When to visit
Where to stay
  • Abdim’s stork
  • African black duck
  • African black-headed oriole
  • African darter
  • African dusky flycatcher
  • African fish-eagle
  • African goshawk
  • African grass owl
  • African harrier-hawk
  • African hawk-eagle
  • African jacana
  • African marsh-harrier
  • African paradise flycatcher
  • African pied starling
  • African pied wagtail
  • African pipit
  • African pygmy goose
  • African rail
  • African reed warbler
  • African sacred ibis
  • African snipe
  • African spoonbill
  • African stone-chat
  • African swamphen
  • African swift
  • Allen’s gallinule
  • Alpine swift
  • Amethyst sunbird
  • Amur falcon
  • Ashy tit
  • Baillon’s crake
  • Banded martin
  • Bank swallow
  • Barn swallow
  • Barratt’s warbler
  • Bar-throated apalis
  • Bateleur
  • Bearded vulture
  • Black collared barbet
  • Black cuckoo
  • Black goshawk
  • Black harrier
  • Black kite
  • Black sawwing
  • Black stork
  • Black-backed puffback
  • Black-bellied plover
  • Black-chested prinia
  • Black-chested snake-eagle
  • Black-crowned night-heron
  • Black-fronted bulbul
  • Black-headed canary
  • Black-headed heron
  • Blacksmith lapwing
  • Black-throated canary
  • Black-winged kite
  • Black-winged lapwing
  • Black-winged pratincole
  • Black-winged stilt
  • Blue bustard
  • Blue crane
  • Bokmakierie
  • Booted eagle
  • Brimstone canary
  • Buff-streaked chat
  • Buffy pipit
  • Burchell’s courser
  • Bush blackcap
  • Cape batis
  • Cape bunting
  • Cape canary
  • Cape crombec
  • Cape crow
  • Cape eagle-owl
  • Cape grassbird
  • Cape griffon
  • Cape robin-chat
  • Cape rock-thrush
  • Cape shoveler
  • Cape sparrow
  • Cape starling
  • Cape teal
  • Cape wagtail
  • Cape weaver
  • Cape white-eye
  • Capped wheatear
  • Cardinal woodpecker
  • Cattle egret
  • Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
  • Chestnut-vented warbler
  • Chin-spot batis
  • Cinnamon-breasted bunting
  • Cloud cisticola
  • Collared pratincole
  • Common bulbul
  • Common buzzard
  • Common cuckoo
  • Common greenshank
  • Common house martin
  • Common myna
  • Common quail
  • Common ringed plover
  • Common sandpiper
  • Common swift
  • Common waxbill
  • Corn crake
  • Crested barbet
  • Crowned lapwing
  • Curlew sandpiper
  • Denham’s bustard
  • Desert cisticola
  • Dideric cuckoo
  • Double-banded courser
  • Drakensberg prinia
  • Drakensberg rockjumper
  • Drakensberg siskin
  • Eared grebe
  • Eastern clapper lark
  • Eastern long-billed lark
  • Egyptian goose
  • Egyptian vulture
  • Eurasian curlew
  • Eurasian golden oriole
  • Eurasian hobby
  • Eurasian hoopoe
  • Eurasian moorhen
  • Eurasian nightjar
  • European bee-eater
  • European honey buzzard
  • European starling
  • Fairy flycatcher
  • Familiar chat
  • Fan-tailed widowbird
  • Fiscal flycatcher
  • Fork-tailed drongo
  • Freckled nightjar
  • Fulvous whistling duck
  • Gabar goshawk
  • Garden warbler
  • Giant kingfisher
  • Glossy ibis
  • Golden-breasted bunting
  • Goliath heron
  • Gray heron
  • Gray tit
  • Gray-backed sparrow-lark
  • Gray-crowned crake
  • Gray-hooded gull
  • Gray-winged francolin
  • Great bittern
  • Great cormorant
  • Great crested grebe
  • Great egret
  • Great reed warbler
  • Great rufous-sparrow
  • Great spotted cuckoo
  • Greater double-collared sunbird
  • Greater flamingo
  • Greater honeyguide
  • Greater kestrel
  • Greater painted snipe
  • Greater striped swallow
  • Greater whitethroat
  • Ground woodpecker
  • Gurney’s sugarbird
  • Hadada ibis
  • Hamerkop
  • Harlequin quail
  • Helmeted guineafowl
  • Horus swift
  • Hottentot teal
  • House sparrow
  • Intermediate egret
  • Jackal buzzard
  • Karoo bustard
  • Karoo prinia
  • Karoo thrush
  • Karoo-scrub-robin
  • Kitilitz’s plover
  • Klaas’s cuckoo
  • Knob-billed duck
  • Kori bustard
  • Kurrichane thrush
  • Lanner falcon
  • Large-billed lark
  • Lark-like bunting
  • Laughing dove
  • Layard’s warbler
  • Lesser flamingo
  • Lesser gray shrike
  • Lesser honeyguide
  • Lesser kestrel
  • Lesser moorhen
  • Lesser striped swallow
  • Lesser swamp warbler
  • Levaillant’s cisticola
  • Lilac-breasted roller
  • Little bittern
  • Little egret
  • Little grebe
  • Little rush-warbler
  • Little sparrow-hawk
  • Little stint
  • Little swift
  • Long-billed pipit
  • Long-tailed cormorant
  • Long-tailed widowbird
  • Ludwig’s bustard
  • Maccoa duck
  • Malachite kingfisher
  • Malachite sunbird
  • Marsh owl
  • Marsh sandpiper
  • Mocking cliff-chat
  • Montane blue swallow
  • Mountain pipit
  • Mountain wagtail
  • Mountain wheatear
  • Namaqua dove
  • Namaqua sandgrouse
  • Namaqua warbler
  • Narina trogon
  • Olive thrush
  • Orange river francolin
  • Orange river white-eye
  • Orange-throated longclaw
  • Osprey
  • Pale-chanting goshawk
  • Pale-winged starling
  • Pallid harrier
  • Palm-nut vulture
  • Parasitic weaver
  • Pearl-breasted swallow
  • Peregrine falcon
  • Pied barbet
  • Pied crow
  • Pied cuckoo
  • Pied kingfisher
  • Pink-billed lark
  • Pin-tailed whydah
  • Piping cisticola
  • Plain martin
  • Plain-backed pipit
  • Purple heron
  • Quail-finch
  • Rameron pigeon
  • Red-backed shrike
  • Red-billed duck
  • Red-billed firefinch
  • Red-billed quelea
  • Red-capped lark
  • Red-chested cuckoo
  • Red-chested flufftail
  • Red-collared widowbird
  • Red-eyed dove
  • Red-faced mousebird
  • Red-footed falcon
  • Red-fronted tinkerbird
  • Red-headed finch
  • Red-knobbed coot
  • Red-winged francolin
  • Red-winged starling
  • Ring-necked dove
  • Rock kestrel
  • Rock martin
  • Rock pigeon
  • Rock-loving cisticola
  • Rudd’s lark
  • Ruddy turnstone
  • Ruff
  • Rufous-breasted sparrow-hawk
  • Rufous-chested swallow
  • Rufous-eared warbler
  • Rufous-napped lark
  • Rufous-necked wryneck
  • Secretary bird
  • Sedge warbler
  • Sentinel rock-thrush
  • Sfrican crake
  • Shikra
  • Sickle-winged chat
  • Small buttonquail
  • South African shelduck
  • South African swallow
  • Southern anteater-chat
  • Southern bald ibis
  • Southern boubou
  • Southern double-collared sunbird
  • Southern fiscal
  • Southern gray-headed sparrow
  • Southern masked weaver
  • Southern pochard
  • Southern red bishop
  • Southern white-faced owl
  • Speckled mousebird
  • Speckled pigeon
  • Spike-heeled lark
  • Spotted crake
  • Spotted eagle-owl
  • Spotted flycatcher
  • Spotted thick-knee
  • Spur-winged goose
  • Squacco heron
  • Square-tailed nightjar
  • Steppe eagle
  • Streaky-headed seedeater
  • Striped flufftail
  • Swainson’s francolin
  • Swee waxbill
  • Tawny eagle
  • Tawny-flanked prinia
  • Temmnick’s courser
  • Three-banded plover
  • Verreaux’s eagle
  • Verreaux’s eagle-owl
  • Village indigobird
  • Village weaver
  • Violet-backed starling
  • Wahlberg’s honeyguide
  • Wailing cisticola
  • Water thick-knee
  • Wattled crane
  • Wattled lapwing
  • Wattled starling
  • Whiskered tern
  • White browed coucal
  • White stork
  • White-backed duck
  • White-backed mousebird
  • White-browed sparrow-weaver
  • White-faced whistling duck
  • White-necked raven
  • White-quilled bustard
  • White-rumped swift
  • White-throated canary
  • White-throated swallow
  • White-winged flufftail
  • White-winged tern
  • White-winged widowbird
  • Willow warbler
  • Wing-snapping cisticola
  • Wood sandpiper
  • Yellow bishop
  • Yellow canary
  • Yellow-bellied eremomela
  • Yellow-billed duck
  • Yellow-billed stork
  • Yellow-breasted pipit
  • Yellow-crowned bishop
  • Yellow-fronted canary
  • Yellow-throated bush sparrow
  • Yellow-tufted pipit
  • Zebra waxbill
  • Zitting cisticola

Best time for birding in Lesotho

You will find the best visibility and pleasant temperatures in the fringe months of March and April as well as September and October, which we recommend as the best travel season in Lesotho. The summer from November to March is also suitable for a trip to Lesotho.

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