List of Birds of Western Sahara
In recent years the remote Dakhla region in southernmost Morocco, at the southern edge of the ‘Western Palearctic’ faunal region and part of the territory of Western Sahara that was annexed by Morocco after the Spanish left their former colony, has become famous as a place for seeing some very special birds and mammals. Western Sahara birding tours are most definitely frontier birding!

Large numbers of water birds can be found in Dakhla Bay, including Greater Flamingos, many Caspian Terns, and large numbers of Audouin’s Gulls. There are also fair chances for Western Reef Heron and Kelp Gull.

Migrants will be passing through Western Sahara at this season and among these, we should find Short-toed Snake and Booted Eagles, Western Marsh and Montagu’s Harriers, European and Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, and Western Bonelli’s, Western Subalpine and Western Orphean Warblers.

• African crake
• African desert warbler
• Allen’s gallinule
• Aquatic warbler
• Arctic tern
• Audouin’s gull
• Baillon’s crake
• Balearic shearwater
• Bank swallow
• Barbary falcon
• Barbary partridge
• Barn owl
• Barn swallow
• Barolo shearwater
• Bar-tailed godwit
• Bar-tailed lark
• Bearded vulture
• Black kite
• Black stork
• Black tern
• Black wheatear
• Black-bellied plover
• Black-crowned night heron
• Black-crowned sparrow-lark
• Black-eared wheatear
• Black-headed gull
• Black-legged kittiwake
• Black-tailed godwit
• Black-winged kite
• Black-winged stilt
• Bluethroat
• Bonelli’s eagle
• Booted eagle
• Brant goose
• Bridled tern
• Brown-necked raven
• Caspian tern
• Cattle egret
• Ceti’s warbler
• Citrine wagtail
• Collard pratincole
• Common bulbul
• Common buzzard
• Common chiffchaff
• Common crane
• Common cuckoo
• Common grasshopper warbler
• Common greenshank
• Common house-martin
• Common murre
• Common nightingale
• Common ostrich
• Common pochard
• Common quail
• Common redshank
• Common redstart
• Common rock thrush
• Common sandpiper
• Common scoter
• Common shelduck
• Common swift
• Common tern
• Common wood pigeon
• Common-ringed plover
• Corn crake
• Cory’s shearwater
• Cream-colored courser
• Crested lark
• Crowned sandgrouse
• Curlew sandpiper
• Dalmatian pelican
• Dark-chanting goshawk
• Desert lark
• Desert wheatear
• Dunlin
• Eastern olivaceous warbler
• Egyptian vulture
• Eurasian blackbird
• Eurasian coot
• Eurasian crag-martin
• Eurasian curlew
• Eurasian dotterel
• Eurasian golden oriole
• Eurasian griffon
• Eurasian kestrel

• Eurasian marsh harrier
• Eurasian moorhen
• Eurasian nightjar
• Eurasian oystercatcher
• Eurasian reed warbler
• Eurasian scops owl
• Eurasian sparrow-hawk
• Eurasian spoonbill
• Eurasian thick-knee
• Eurasian wigeon
• Eurasian wryneck
• European bee-eater
• European golden plover
• European honey buzzard
• European hoopoe
• European pied flycatcher
• European roller
• European shag
• European stonechat
• European storm petrel
• European turtle dove
• Fea’s petrel
• Ferruginous pochard
• Gadwall
• Garden warbler
• Garganey
• Glossy ibis
• Golden eagle
• Golden nightjar
• Gray heron
• Gray wagtail
• Gray-headed gull
• Graylag goose
• Great bittern
• Great cormorant
• Great egret
• Great reed warbler
• Great skua
• Great white pelican
• Greater flamingo
• Greater hoopoe-lark
• Greater scaup
• Greater short-toed lark
• Greater white-fronted goose
• Greater whitethroat
• Green sandpiper
• Green-winged teal
• Gull-billed tern
• Hen harrier
• Hooded vulture
• Houbara bustard
• House bunting
• Kentish plover
• Kurdish wheatear
• Lanner falcon
• Lappet-faced vulture
• Leach’s storm petrel
• Lesser black-backed gull
• Lesser crested tern
• Lesser kestrel
• Lesser short-toed lark
• Lichtenstein’s sandgrouse
• Little bittern
• Little crake
• Little egret
• Little grebe
• Little owl
• Little stint
• Little swift
• Little tern
• Little-ringed plover
• Long-billed dowitcher
• Long-legged buzzard
• Long-tailed cormorant
• Maghreb lark
• Maghreb magpie
• Mallard
• Manx shearwater
• Marbled teal
• Meadow pipit
• Melodious warbler
• Montagu’s harrier
• Namaqua dove
• Northern gannet
• Northern lapwing

• Northern pintail
• Northern shoveler
• Northern wheatear
• Olive-backed pipit
• Ortolan bunting
• Osprey
• Pallid harrier
• Pallid swift
• Parasitic jaeger
• Peregrine falcon
• Pharaoh eagle-owl
• Pied avocet
• Plain swift
• Pomarine jaeger
• Purple heron
• Razorbill
• Red kite
• Red knot
• Red-crested pochard
• Red-knobbed coot
• Red-necked nightjar
• Red-rumped swallow
• Red-rumped wheatear
• Red-throated pipit
• Richard’s pipit
• Ring-necked duck
• Rock martin
• Rock pigeon
• Rock pipit
• Roseate tern
• Royal tern
• Ruddy duck
• Ruddy shelduck
• Ruddy turnstone
• Ruff
• Rufous-tailed scrub-robin
• Ruppell’s griffon
• Sabine’s gull
• Sanderling
• Sandwich tern
• Sardinian warbler
• Scopoli’s shearwater
• Sedge warbler
• Short-toed snake eagle
• Slender-billed gull
• Spanish eagle
• Spanish sparrow
• Spectacled warbler
• Spotted crake
• Spotted flycatcher
• Spotted redshank
• Spotted sandgrouse
• Squacco heron
• Steppe eagle
• Sub-alpine warbler
• Tawny eagle
• Tawny pipit
• Temmnick’s lark
• Temmnick’s stint
• Thekla lark
• Thick-billed lark
• Tree pipit
• Trumpeter finch
• Tufted duck
• Waldrapp
• Water pipit
• Water rail
• Western bonelli’s warbler
• Western orphean warbler
• Western reef heron
• Western yellow wagtail
• Whimbrel
• Whinchat
• Whiskered tern
• White stork
• White wagtail
• White-tailed wheatear
• Willow warbler
• Wilson’s storm petrel
• Wood sandpiper
• Woodchat shrike
• Yellow-billed stork
• Yellow-legged gull

Best time for Birding in Western Sahara

The middle-year months have very comfortable weather with high temperatures that are comfortable. These months see the least precipitation with about 0 days of precipitation per month. June – August is the second busiest season for tourism in Western Sahara, so lodging and other accommodations may cost slightly more.