List of Birds of Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast has a bird list of about 730 species which is a good total for a country about the size of Italy but not exceptional. Although it has deserved more ornithological attention than have many West African countries and although the number of recorded species is probably not far from the real one, much still remains to be discovered about the distribution and habits of Ivorian birds, and the country cannot be considered as very well-known. This state of knowledge will probably not improve for some time due to the current political troubles.

• Little grebe
• Soft-plumaged petrel
• Cory’s shearwater
• Scopoli’s shearwater
• Great shearwater
• Sooty shearwater
• Manx shearwater
• Wilson’s storm petrel
• European storm petrel
• Masked booby
• Brown booby
• Great cormorant
• Long-tailed cormorant
• African darter
• Pink-backed pelican
• Gray heron
• Black-headed heron
• Goliath heron
• Purple heron
• Great egret
• Intermediated egret
• Black heron
• Western reef heron
• Little egret
• Squacco heron
• Cattle egret
• Striated heron
• Black-crowned night-heron
• White-backed night-heron
• White-crested bittern
• Dwarf bittern
• Little bittern
• Hamerkop
• Sacred ibis
• Olive ibis
• Spot-breasted ibis
• Hadada ibis
• Glossy ibis
• African spoonbill
• Yellow-billed stork
• African openbill
• Black stork
• Abdim’s stork
• Woolly-necked stork
• White stork
• Saddle-billed stork
• Marabou stork
• Greater flamingo
• Lesser flamingo
• Fulvous-whistling duck
• White-faced whistling duck
• Egyptian goose
• Spur-winged goose
• Knob-billed duck
• Hartlaub’s duck
• African pygmy goose
• Green-winged teal
• Cape teal
• Northern pintail
• Garganey
• Northern shoveler
• Tufted duck
• Osprey
• African cuckoo-hawk
• European honey buzzard
• Bat hawk
• Black-winged kite
• Scissor-tailed kite
• Black kite
• African fish eagle
• Palm-nut vulture
• Hooded vulture
• Egyptian vulture
• White-backed vulture
• Ruppell’s griffon
• Lappet-faced vulture
• White-headed vulture
• Beaudouin’s snake-eagle
• Brown snake-eagle
• Banded snake eagle
• Bateleur
• Congo serpent eagle
• Eurasian marsh harrier
• Pallid harrier
• Montagu’s harrier
• African harrier hawk
• Lizard buzzard
• Dark-chanting goshawk
• Gabar goshawk
• Red-chested goshawk
• Shikra
• Red-thighed sparrow-hawk
• Ovambo sparrow-hawk
• Black goshawk
• Long-tailed hawk
• Grasshopper buzzard
• Common buzzard
• Red-necked buzzard
• Tawny eagle
• African hawk-eagle
• Cassin’s hawk-eagle
• Wahlberg’s eagle
• Booted eagle
• Ayres’s hawk-eagle
• Martial eagle
• Long-crested eagle
• Crowned eagle
• Secretary bird
• Lesser kestrel
• Eurasian kestrel
• Fox kestrel
• Gray kestrel
• Red-necked falcon
• Red-footed falcon
• Eleonora’s falcon
• Eurasian hobby
• Martial eagle
• Long-crested eagle
• Crowned eagle
• African hobby
• Lanner falcon
• Peregrine falcon
• White-throated francolin
• Latham’s francolin
• Ahanta francolin
• Double-sparred francolin
• Common quail
• Harlequin quail
• Crested guineafowl
• Black-crowned crane
• White-spotted flufftail
• Buff-spotted flufftail
• Red-chested flufftail
• Gray-throated rail
• Nkulengu rail
• Gray-throated rail
• African crake
• Corn crake
• Black crake
• Baillon’s crake
• Spotted crake
• Striped crake
• African swamphen
• Allen’s gallinule
• Eurasian moorhen
• Lesser moorhen
• African finfoot
• Arabian bustard
• Denham’s bustard
• Savile’s bustard
• Red-chested korhaan
• Black-bellied bustard
• Small buttonquail
• Black-rumped buttonquail
• Quail plover
• Lesser jacana
• African jacana
• Greater painted snipe
• Eurasian oystercatcher
• Black-winged stilt
• Pied avocet
• Water thick-knee
• Senegal thick-knee
• Spotted thick-knee
• Egyptian plover
• Temmnick’s courser
• Bronze-winged courser
• Collared pratincole
• Black-winged pratincole
• Rock pratincole
• Gray pratincole
• Spur-winged lapwing
• Black-headed lapwing
• White-headed lapwing
• Senegal lapwing
• Wattled lapwing
• Pacific golden plover
• American-golden plover
• Black-bellied plover
• Common ringed plover
• Little ringed plover
• Kitilitz’s plover
• Three-banded plover
• Forbe’s plover
• White-fronted plover
• Kentish plover
• Greater sand plover
• Jack snipe
• Great snipe
• Common snipe
• Black-tailed godwit
• Bar-tailed godwit
• Whimbrel
• Eurasian curlew
• Spotted redshank
• Common redshank
• Greater yellowlegs
• Green sandpiper
• Wood sandpiper
• Terek sandpiper
• Common sandpiper
• Ruddy turnstone
• Red knot
• Sanderling
• Little stint
• Temmnick’s stint
• White-rumped sandpiper
• Curlew sandpiper
• Pectoral sandpiper
• Dunlin
• Ruff
• Wilson’s phalarope
• Red phalarope
• Great skua
• Pomarine jaeger
• Parasitic jaeger
• Long-tailed jaeger
• Lesser black-backed gull
• Gray-headed gull
• Black-headed gull
• Slender-billed gull
• Sabine’s gull
• Gull-billed tern
• Caspian tern
• Sandwich tern
• Royal tern
• Roseate tern
• Common tern
• Arctic tern
• Little tern
• Damara tern
• Sooty tern
• Whiskered tern
• White-winged tern
• Black tern
• Black noddy
• African skimmer
• Four-banded sandgrouse
• Rock pigeon
• Speckled pigeon
• Afep pigeon
• Western bronze-napped pigeon
• Lemon dove
• Eurasian turtle
• Red-eyed dove
• Vinaceous dove
• Laughing dove
• Black-billed wood dove
• Blue-spotted wood dove
• Tambourine dove
• Blue-headed wood dove

• Namaqua dove
• Bruce’s green pigeon
• African green pigeon
• Rose-ringed parakeet
• Red-headed lovebird
• Black-collared lovebird
• Timneh parrot
• Gray parrot
• Brown-necked parrot
• Red-fronted parrot
• Senegal parrot
• Great blue turaco
• Guinea turaco
• Yellow-billed turaco
• Violet turaco
• Western plantain-eater
• Pied cuckoo
• Levaillant’s cuckoo
• Great spotted cuckoo
• Thick-billed cuckoo
• Red-chested cuckoo
• Black cuckoo
• Common cuckoo
• African cuckoo
• Dusky long-tailed cuckoo
• Olive long-tailed cuckoo
• Yellow-throated cuckoo
• Klaas’s cuckoo
• African emerald cuckoo
• Dideric cuckoo
• Blue malkoha
• Black coucal
• Black-throated coucal
• Blue-headed coucal
• Senegal coucal
• Barn owl
• Sandy scops owl
• African scops owl
• Eurasian scops owl
• Northern white-faced owl
• Grayish eagle-owl
• Fraser’s eagle-owl
• Shelley’s eagle-owl
• Verreaux’s eagle-owl
• Akun eagle-owl
• Pel’s fishing owl
• Rufous fishing owl
• Vermiculated fishing owl
• African wood owl
• Manned owl
• Pearl-spotted owlet
• Red-chested owlet
• African barred owlet
• Chestnut owlet
• Marsh owl
• Brown nightjar
• Red-necked nightjar
• Eurasian nightjar
• Black-shouldered nightjar
• Fiery-necked nightjar
• Swamp nightjar
• Plain nightjar
• Freckled nightjar
• Long-tailed nightjar
• Standard-winged nightjar
• Mottled spinetail
• Common swift
• Pallid swift
• African swift
• Little swift
• White-rumped swift
• Bates’s swift
• Speckled mousebird
• Narina trogon
• Shinning-blue kingfisher
• Malachite kingfisher
• White-bellied kingfisher
• African pygmy kingfisher
• African dwarf kingfisher
• Chocolate-backed kingfisher
• Gray-headed kingfisher
• Woodland kingfisher
• Blue-breasted kingfisher
• Striped kingfisher
• Giant kingfisher
• Pied kingfisher
• Black-bee-eater
• Blue moustached bee-eater
• Red-throated bee-eater
• Little bee-eater
• Swallow-tailed bee-eater
• Black-headed bee-eater
• White-throated bee-eater
• Green bee-eater
• Blue-cheeked bee-eater
• European bee-eater
• Rosy bee-eater
• Northern carmine bee-eater
• European roller
• Abyssinian roller
• Rufous-crowned roller
• Blue-bellied roller
• Broad-billed roller
• Blue-throated roller
• Eurasian hoopoe
• Green wood hoopoe
• White-headed wood hoopoe
• Forest wood hoopoe
• Black scimitar-bill
• White-crested hornbill
• Black dwarf hornbill
• Northern red-billed hornbill
• Red-billed dwarf hornbill
• African pied hornbill
• African gray hornbill
• Piping hornbill
• Black-and-white casqued hornbill
• Brown-cheeked hornbill
• Black-casqued hornbill
• Yellow-casqued hornbill
• Abyssinian ground hornbill
• Naked-faced barbet
• Bristle-nosed barbet
• Speckled tinkerbird
• Red-rumped tinkerbird
• Yellow-throated tinkerbird
• Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
• Yellow-fronted tinkerbird
• Yellow-spotted barbet
• Hairy-breasted barbet
• Vieillot’s barbet
• Double-toothed barbet
• Bearded barbet
• Yellow-billed barbet
• Spotted honeyguide
• Greater honeyguide
• Lesser honeyguide
• Thick-billed honeyguide
• Willock’s honeyguide
• Least honeyguide
• Lyre-tailed honeyguide
• Yellow-footed honeyguide
• Cassin’s honeyguide
• Wahlberg’s honeyguide
• Eurasian wryneck
• African piculet
• Fine-spotted woodpecker
• Golden-tailed woodpecker
• Little green woodpecker
• Buff-spotted woodpecker
• Brown-eared woodpecker
• Cardinal woodpecker
• Gabon woodpecker
• Melancholy woodpecker
• African gray woodpecker
• Brown-backed woodpecker
• Fire-bellied woodpecker
• African broadbill
• Rufous-sided broadbill
• African pitta
• Rufous-napped lark
• Flappet lark
• Rufous-rumped lark
• Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
• Crested lark
• Sun lark
• Bank swallow
• Plain martin
• Banded martin
• Gray-rumped swallow
• Rock martin
• Barn swallow
• Red-chested swallow
• Ethiopian swallow
• Wire-tailed swallow
• White-throated blue swallow
• Pied-winged swallow
• Lesser striped swallow
• Rufous-chested swallow
• Mosque swallow
• Red-rumped swallow
• Preuss’s swallow
• Common house-martin
• Square-tailed sawwing
• Fanti sawwing
• African pied wagtail
• Western yellow wagtail
• Mountain wagtail
• Yellow-throated longclaw
• Plain-backed pipit
• African pipit
• Tawny pipit
• Long-billed pipit
• Tree pipit
• Red-throated pipit
• White-breasted cuckoo-shrike
• Blue cuckoo-shrike
• Red-shouldered cuckoo-shrike
• Purple-throated cuckoo-shrike
• Ghana cuckoo shrike
• Western nicator
• Common bulbul
• Little greenbul
• Gray greenbul
• Ansorge’s greenbul
• Plain greenbul
• Yellow-whiskered greenbul
• Slender-billed greenbul
• Golden greenbul
• Honeyguide greenbul
• Spotted greenbul
• Simple greenbul
• Yellow-throated greenbul
• Swamp greenbul
• Leaf-love
• Baumann’s greenbul
• White-throated greenbul
• Icterine greenbul
• Red-tailed bristlebill
• Green-tailed bristlebill
• Gray-headed bristlebill
• Red-tailed greenbul
• Western bearded greenbul
• Yellow-bearded greenbul
• Finsch’s flycatcher
• White-tailed ant-thrush
• Gray ground thrush
• African thrush
• Red-faced cisticola
• Singing cisticola
• Whistling cisticola
• Rock-loving cisticola
• Red-pate cisticola
• Dorst’s cisticola
• Winding cisticola
• Croaking cisticola
• Siffling cisticola
• Zitting cisticola
• Black-necked cisticola
• Tawny-flanked prinia
• Sierra Leon prinia
• Red-winged prinia
• Black-capped apalis
• Yellow-breasted apalis
• Sharpe’s apalis
• Oriole warbler
• Green-backed camaroptera
• Yellow-browed camaroptera
• Olive-green camaroptera
• Black-capped rufous warbler
• Senegal eremomela

• Rufous-crowned eremomela
• Moustached grass warbler
• Green crombec
• Lemmon-bellied crombec
• Northern crombec
• Kemp’s longbill
• Gray longbill
• Green hylia
• Tit-hylia
• African bush warbler
• Fan-tailed grassbird
• Sedge warbler
• Eurasian reed warbler
• Great reed warbler
• Greater swamp warbler
• Eastern olivaceous warbler
• Western olivaceous warbler
• Melodious warbler
• Icterine warbler
• Willow warbler
• Common chiffchaff
• Wood warbler
• Yellow-bellied hyliota
• Violet-backed hyliota
• Eurasian blackcap
• Garden warbler
• Greater whitethroat
• Western orphean warbler
• Common rock thrush
• Blue rock thrush
• Pale flycatcher
• Northern black flycatcher
• Nimba flycatcher
• African forest flycatcher
• White-browed forest flycatcher
• Spotted flycatcher
• Gambaga flycatcher
• Ussher’s flycatcher
• Swamp flycatcher
• Olivaceous flycatcher
• Little gray flycatcher
• Dusky-blue flycatcher
• Tessmann’s flycatcher
• Cassin’s flycatcher
• Ashy flycatcher
• Gray-throated tit-flycatcher
• Gray-tit flycatcher
• European pied flycatcher
• Forest robin
• Lowland akalat
• Common nightingale
• Bluethroat
• Blue-shouldered robin-chat
• Gray-winged robin-chat
• Snowy-crowned robin-chat
• White-crowned robin-chat
• Forest scrub robin-chat
• Common redstart
• Whinchat
• African stonechat
• Northern wheatear
• Desert wheatear
• Heuglin’s wheatear
• Familiar chat
• White-fronted black-chat
• Mocking cliff-chat
• Brown-chested alethe
• White-tailed alethe
• African shrike flycatcher
• Black-and-white shrike-flycatcher
• Brown-throated wattle-eye
• Chestnut wattle-eye
• West African wattle-eye
• White-spotted wattle-eye
• Red-cheeked wattle-eye
• Yellow-bellied wattle-eye
• Senegal batis
• Fernando po batis
• West African batis
• Chestnut-capped flycatcher
• African blue flycatcher
• Dusky-crested flycatcher
• Blue-headed crested flycatcher
• Black-headed paradise flycatcher
• African paradise flycatcher
• White-necked rock-fowl
• Blackcap illadopsis
• Rufous-winged illadopsis
• Puvel’s illadopsis
• Pale-breasted illadopsis
• Brown illadopsis
• Blackcap babbler
• Brown babbler
• Capuchin babbler
• White-shouldered black-tit
• Dusky tit
• African spotted creeper
• Yellow penduline-tit
• Forest penduline-tit
• Scarlet-tufted sunbird
• Mouse-brown sunbird
• Western violet-backed sunbird
• Little green sunbird
• Green sunbird
• Collared sunbird
• Pygmy sunbird
• Reichenbach’s sunbird
• Green-headed sunbird
• Blue-throated brown sunbird
• Eastern-olive sunbird
• Buff-throated sunbird
• Carmelite sunbird
• Scarlet-chested sunbird
• Olive-bellied sunbird
• Tiny sunbird
• Beautiful sunbird
• Splendid sunbird
• Johanna’s sunbird
• Superb sunbird
• Variable sunbird
• Bates’s sunbird
• Copper sunbird
• African yellow white-eye
• Eurasian golden oriole
• African golden oriole
• Western black-headed oriole
• Black-winged oriole
• Red-backed shrike
• Emin’s shrike
• Northern fiscal
• Woodchat shrike
• Yellow-billed shrike
• Brubru
• Northern puffback
• Large-billed puffback
• Marsh tchagra
• Black-crowned tchagra
• Brown-crowned tchagra
• Tropical boubou
• Common gonolek
• Sooty boubou
• Sulphur-breasted bush-shrike
• Many-colored bush-shrike
• Fiery-breasted bush-shrike
• Lagden’s bush-shrike
• Gray-headed bush-shrike
• White helmet shrike
• Chestnut-bellied shrike
• Western square-tailed drongo
• Shinning drongo
• Glossy-backed drongo
• Fanti drongo
• Piapiac
• Pied crow
• Yellow-billed ox-pecker
• Greater blue-eared glossy-starling
• Lesser blue-eared starling
• Bronze-tailed glossy-starling
• Splendid glossy-starling
• Emerald starling
• Purple glossy-starling
• Long-tailed glossy-starling
• Chestnut-bellied starling
• Purple-headed starling
• Copper-tailed starling
• Violet-backed starling
• Chestnut-winged starling
• Neumann’s starling
• Narrow-tailed starling
• White-billed buffalo weaver
• Speckle-fronted weaver
• Chestnut-crowned sparrow-weaver
• Slender-billed weaver
• Little weaver
• Black-necked weaver
• Orange weaver
• Heuglin’s masked weaver
• Village weaver
• Vieillot’s weaver
• Yellow-mantled weaver
• Maxwell’s black weaver
• Preuss’s weaver
• Compact weaver
• Ballman’s malimbe
• Red-vented malimbe
• Blue-billed malimbe
• Crested malimbe
• Red-headed malimbe
• Red-headed weaver
• Red-headed quelea
• Red-billed quelea
• Yellow-crowned bishop
• Black-winged bishop
• Orange bishop
• Yellow-mantled widowbird
• Red-collared widowbird
• Red-collared widowbird
• Thick-billed weaver
• Parasitic weaver
• Red-fronted ant-pecker
• White-breasted negro-finch
• Chestnut-breasted negro-finch
• Pale-fronted negro-finch
• Gray-headed negro-finch
• Gray-headed oliveback
• Red-winged pytilia
• Green-winged pytilia
• Red-faced pytilia
• Green-backed twinspot
• Crimson seed-cracker
• Black-bellied seed-cracker
• Western bluebill
• Dybowsky’s twinspot
• Bar-breasted firefinch
• Red-billed firefinch
• Black-bellied firefinch
• African firefinch
• Black-faced firefinch
• Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
• Lavender waxbill
• Orange-cheeked waxbill
• Black-rumped waxbill
• Common waxbill
• Zebra waxbill
• Quail-finch
• Black-faced quail-finch
• African silverbill
• Bronze mannikin
• Black-and-white mannikin
• Magpie mannikin
• Cut-throat
• Village indigobird
• Jabandu indigobird
• Baka indigobird
• Variable indigobird
• Pale-winged indigobird
• Cameroon indigobird
• Pin-tailed whydah
• Togo paradise-whydah
• Long-tailed paradise-whydah
• Ortolan bunting
• Gosling’s bunting
• Brown-rumped bunting
• Cabanis’s bunting
• White-rumped seedeater
• Yellow-fronted canary
• West African seedeater
• House sparrow
• Gray-headed sparrow
• Bush petronia

Best time for birding in Ivory Coast

The best time for birding in Ivory Coast is during the Rainy season lasts from May to October, with rains the heaviest in the south from May to July and the lowest average temperatures in August and September. If you’re planning to explore the west, June to October is best avoided, as the rains can cause roads and hiking paths to deteriorate with alarming speed.