List of Birds of BeninThe W du Benin Park is undoubted of great interest for birds and wildlife. The “piste régionale” is open all year round but the gravel roads and tracks inside can be rather rough during the dry season and nearly impassable during the wet season when the park is closed to visitors anyway. In the park itself, an FWD is pretty much a necessity. There are a number of small hotels in Kandi and one or two in Mandeville. Within the park, the “Campement des Chutes de Koudou” has the only accommodation on the Benin side.

Overview

Size & Location

How to get there

Activities

Areas of interest

When to visit

Where to stay

• Abdim’s stork
• Abyssinian ground hornbill
• Abyssinian roller
• African blue flycatcher
• African collared dove
• African crake
• African cuckoo
• African cuckoo hawk
• African darter
• African emerald cuckoo
• African finfoot
• African firefinch
• African fish-eagle
• African forest flycatcher
• African golden oriole
• African gray hornbill
• African gray woodpecker
• African green pigeon
• African harrier hawk
• African hawk-eagle
• African hobby
• African jacana
• African openbill
• African palm swift
• African paradise flycatcher
• African pied hornbill
• African pied wagtail
• African pipit
• African pygmy goose
• African pygmy kingfisher
• African scops owl
• African shrike flycatcher
• African silverbill
• African skimmer
• African spoonbill
• African spotted creeper
• African swamphen
• African swift
• African thrush
• African wood owl
• Ahanta francolin
• Akun eagle-owl
• Allen’s gallinule
• Alpine swift
• American golden-plover
• Arctic tern
• Ashy flycatcher
• Ayres’s hawk eagle
• Baka indigobird
• Banded martin
• Banded snake-eagle
• Bank swallow
• Bar-breasted firefinch
• Barn owl
• Barn swallow
• Bar-tailed godwit
• Bat hawk
• Bateleur
• Baumann’s greenbul
• Bearded barbet
• Beaudouin’s snake eagle
• Beautiful sunbird
• Black coucal
• Black crake
• Black cuckoo
• Black dwarf hornbill
• Black goshawk
• Black heron
• Black kite
• Black scimitar-bill
• Black stork
• Black tern
• Black-and-white casqued hornbill
• Black-and-white mannikin
• Black-and-white shrike-flycatcher
• Black-bellied bustard
• Black-bellied firefinch
• Black-bellied plover
• Black-bellied seed-cracker
• Black-billed wood dove
• Blackcap babbler
• Black-capped apalis
• Black-crowned crane
• Black-crowned night-heron
• Black-crowned tchagra
• Black-faced firefinch
• Black-faced quailfinch
• Black-headed gull
• Black-headed heron
• Black-headed lapwing
• Black-headed paradise flycatcher
• Black-headed weaver
• Black-necked cisticola
• Black-necked weaver
• Black-rumped waxbill
• Black-tailed godwit
• Black-winged bishop
• Black-winged kite
• Black-winged oriole
• Black-winged stilt
• Blue malkoha
• Blue-bellied roller
• Blue-billed malimbe
• Blue-breasted kingfisher
• Blue-cheeked bee-eater
• Blue-headed coucal
• Blue-headed crested flycatcher
• Blue-napped mouse bird
• Blue-spotted wood dove
• Bluethroat
• Blue-throated brown-sunbird
• Blue-throated roller
• Booted eagle
• Bristle-nosed barbet
• Broad-billed roller
• Bronze mannikin
• Bronze-tailed glossy-starling
• Bronze-winged courser
• Brown babbler
• Brown bobby
• Brown illadopsis
• Brown noddy
• Brown snake-eagle
• Brown-backed woodpecker
• Brown-cheeked hornbill
• Brown-crowned tchagra
• Brown-eared woodpecker
• Brown-rumped bunting
• Brown-throated wattle-eye
• Brubru
• Bruce’s green pigeon
• Buff-spotted woodpecker
• Buff-throated sunbird
• Bush petronia
• Cabanis’s bunting
• Cameroon indigobird
• Cape eagle-owl
• Cape gannet
• Capuchin babbler
• Cardinal woodpecker
• Carmelite sunbird
• Caspian tern
• Cassin’s flycatcher
• Cassin’s hawk-eagle
• Cattle egret
• Chestnut wattle-eye
• Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
• Chestnut-bellied shrike
• Chestnut-bellied starling
• Chestnut-breasted negro-finch
• Chestnut-capped flycatcher
• Chestnut-crowned sparrow-weaver
• Collared pratincole
• Collared sunbird
• Common bulbul
• Common chiffchaff
• Common cuckoo
• Common gonolek
• Common greenshank
• Common house-martin
• Common nightingale
• Common redshank
• Common redstart
• Common ringed plover
• Common rock-thrush
• Common sandpiper
• Common snipe
• Common swift
• Common tern
• Common waxbill
• Compact weaver
• Copper sunbird
• Crested guineafowl
• Crested lark
• Crested malimbe
• Croaking cisticola
• Crowned eagle
• Curlew sandpiper
• Cut-throat
• Damara tern
• Dark-chanting goshawk
• Denham’s bustard
• Dideric cuckoo
• Double-spurred francolin
• Double-toothed barbet
• Dunlin
• Dusky-blue flycatcher
• Dwarf bittern
• Dybowsky’s twinspot
• Eastern olivaceous warbler
• Eastern olive sunbird
• Egyptian goose
• Egyptian plover
• Ethiopian swallow
• Eurasian blackcap
• Eurasian curlew
• Eurasian hobby
• Eurasian hoopoe
• Eurasian kestrel
• Eurasian marsh-harrier

• Eurasian moorhen
• Eurasian oystercatcher
• Eurasian reed warbler
• Eurasian wigeon
• Eurasian wryneck
• European bee-eater
• European pied flycatcher
• European roller
• Familiar chat
• Fanti drongo
• Fanti-sawwing
• Fernando po batis
• Ferruginous pochard
• Fiery-breasted bush-shrike
• Fiery-necked nightjar
• Fine-spotted woodpecker
• Finsch’s flycatcher-thrush
• Fire-bellied woodpecker
• Flappet lark
• Forbe’s plover
• Four-banded sandgrouse
• Fox kestrel
• Freckled nightjar
• Fulvous whistling duck
• Gabar goshawk
• Gambaga flycatcher
• Garden warbler
• Garganey
• Giant kingfisher
• Glossy ibis
• Glossy-backed drongo
• Golden-breasted bunting
• Golden-tailed woodpecker
• Goliath heron
• Gosling’s bunting
• Grasshopper buzzard
• Gray heron
• Gray kestrel
• Gray longbill
• Gray parrot
• Gray pratincole
• Gray-headed bristlebill
• Gray-headed bush-shrike
• Gray-headed gull
• Gray-headed kingfisher
• Gray-headed negro-finch
• Gray-headed oliveback
• Gray-headed sparrow
• Grayish eagle-owl
• Gray-rumped swallow
• Gray-tit flycatcher
• Great blue turaco
• Great egret
• Great reed warbler
• Great snipe
• Great spotted cuckoo
• Great white pelican
• Greater blue-eared glossy-starling
• Greater honeyguide
• Greater painted snipe
• Green bee-eater
• Green crombec
• Green hylia
• Green sandpiper
• Green sunbird
• Green woodhoopoe
• Green-backed camaroptera
• Green-backed twinspot
• Green-backed woodpecker
• Green-headed sunbird
• Green-olive camaroptera
• Green-winged teal
• Guinea turaco
• Gull-billed tern
• Hadada ibis
• Hairy-breasted barbet
• Hamerkop
• Hartlaub’s duck
• Helmeted guineafowl
• Heuglin’s masked weaver
• Heuglin’s wheatear
• Honeyguide greenbul
• Hooded vulture
• Horus swift
• Intermediate egret
• Jack snipe
• Jambandu indigobird
• Johanna’s sunbird
• Kemp’s longbill
• Kittilitz’s plover
• Klaas’s cuckoo
• Knob-billed duck
• Lanner falcon
• Lappet-faced vulture
• Large-billed puffback
• Laughing dove
• Lavender waxbill
• Leaf-love
• Lesser black-headed gull
• Lesser blue-eared glossy-starling
• Lesser flamingo
• Lesser honeyguide
• Lesser kestrel
• Lesser moorhen
• Lesser striped swallow
• Levaillant’s cuckoo
• Little bee-eater
• Little bittern
• Little egret
• Little grebe
• Little green sunbird
• Little greenbul
• Little ringed plover
• Little stint
• Little swift
• Little tern
• Little weaver
• Lizard buzzard
• Long-crested eagle
• Long-legged pipit
• Long-tailed cormorant
• Long-tailed glossy-starling
• Long-tailed hawk
• Long-tailed nightjar
• Long-tailed paradise whydah
• Magpie mannikin
• Malachite kingfisher
• Many-colored bush-shrike
• Marabou stork
• Marsh owl
• Marsh sandpiper
• Marsh tchagra
• Martial eagle
• Maxwell’s black-weaver
• Melodious warbler
• Mocking cliff chat
• Montagu’s harrier
• Mosque swallow
• Mottled spinetail
• Mottled swift
• Mourning collared dove
• Mouse-brown sunbird
• Moustached grass warbler
• Naked-faced barbet
• Namaqua dove
• Narina trogon
• Narrow-tailed starling
• Neumann’s starling
• Northern black flycatcher
• Northern carmine bee-eater
• Northern crombec
• Northern fiscal
• Northern pintail
• Northern puffback
• Northern red-billed hornbill
• Northern shoveler
• Northern wheatear
• Northern white-faced owl
• Olive-bellied sunbird
• Orange bishop
• Orange weaver
• Orange-cheeked waxbill
• Oriole warbler
• Osprey
• Ovambo sparrow hawk
• Pale flycatcher
• Pale-winged indigobird
• Pallid harrier
• Pallid swift
• Palm-nut vulture
• Parasitic jaeger
• Parasitic weaver
• Pearl-spotted owlet
• Pel’s fishing owl
• Peregrine falcon
• Piapiac
• Pied avocet
• Pied crow
• Pied cuckoo
• Pied kingfisher
• Pied-winged swallow
• Pink-backed pelican
• Pin-tailed whydah
• Piping hornbill
• Plain greenbul
• Plain martin
• Plain nightjar
• Plain-backed pipit
• Pomarine jaeger
• Preuss’s swallow
• Preuss’s weaver
• Purple glossy-starling
• Purple heron
• Puvel’s illadopsis
• Pygmy sunbird
• Quail plover
• Quailfinch
• Red knot
• Red-billed dwarf hornbill
• Red-billed firefinch

• Red-billed quelea
• Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
• Red-cheeked wattle-eye
• Red-chested cuckoo
• Red-chested goshawk
• Red-chested swallow
• Red-collared widowbird
• Red-eyed dove
• Red-faced cisticola
• Red-faced pytilia
• Red-headed lovebird
• Red-headed malimbe
• Red-headed quelea
• Red-headed weaver
• Red-necked buzzard
• Red-necked falcon
• Red-pate cisticola
• Red-rumped swallow
• Red-rumped tinkerbird
• Red-shouldered cuckoo-shrike
• Red-tailed bristlebill
• Red-tailed greenbul
• Red-thighed sparrow-hawk
• Red-throated bee-eater
• Red-throated pipit
• Red-vented malimbe
• Red-winged prinia
• Red-winged pytilia
• Reichenbach’s sunbird
• Rock martin
• Rock pratincole
• Rock-loving cisticola
• Roseate tern
• Rose-ringed parakeet
• Rosy bee-eater
• Royal tern
• Ruddy turnstone
• Ruff
• Rufous cisticola
• Rufous-chested swallow
• Rufous-crowned eremomela
• Rufous-crowned roller
• Rufous-rumped lark
• Ruppell’s griffon
• Sacred ibis
• Saddle-billed stork
• Sanderling
• Sandwich tern
• Scarlet-chested sunbird
• Scarlet-tufted sunbird
• Scissor-tailed kite
• Secretary bird
• Sedge warbler
• Senegal batis
• Senegal coucal
• Senegal eremomela
• Senegal lapwing
• Senegal parrot
• Senegal thick-knee
• Shikra
• Shinning blue-kingfisher
• Shinning drongo
• Short-toed snake-eagle
• Siffling cisticola
• Simple greenbul
• Singing bush lark
• Singling cisticola
• Slender-billed greenbul
• Slender-billed weaver
• Small buttonquail
• Snowy-crowned robin-chat
• Sooty boubou
• Sooty shearwater
• Sooty tern
• Speckled pigeon
• Speckled tinkerbird
• Speckle-fronted weaver
• Splendid glossy-starling
• Splendid sunbird
• Spotted flycatcher
• Spotted honeyguide
• Spotted redshank
• Spotted thick-knee
• Spur-winged goose
• Spur-winged lapwing
• Squacco heron
• Standard-winged nightjar
• Stone partridge
• Striated heron
• Striped kingfisher
• Sulphur-breasted bush-shrike
• Sun lark
• Superb sunbird
• Swallow-tailed bee-eater
• Swamp flycatcher
• Swamp greenbul
• Swamp nightjar
• Tambourine dove
• Tawny eagle
• Tawny pipit
• Tawny-flanked prinia
• Temmnick’s courser
• Temmnick’s stint
• Tessmann’s flycatcher
• Thick-billed weaver
• Tiny sunbird
• Tit-hylia
• Togo paradise whydah
• Tree pipit
• Tropical boubou
• Variable sunbird
• Verreaux’s eagle-owl
• Vieillot’s barbet
• Vieillot’s weaver
• Village indigobird
• Village weaver
• Vinaceous dove
• Violet turaco
• Vitelline masked weaver
• Wahlberg’s eagle
• Water thick-knee
• Wattled lapwing
• West African batis
• West African seedeater
• West African wattle-eye
• Western black-headed oriole
• Western bluebill
• Western bonelli’s warbler
• Western bronze-napped pigeon
• Western nicator
• Western olive sunbird
• Western plantain-eater
• Western reef heron
• Western square-tailed drongo
• Western violet-backed sunbird
• Western yellow wagtail
• Western-bearded greenbul
• Whimbrel
• Whinchat
• Whiskered tern
• Whistling cisticola
• White helmet shrike
• White stork
• White wagtail
• White-backed duck
• White-backed night heron
• White-backed vulture
• White-bellied bustard
• White-billed buffalo-weaver
• White-breasted cuckoo-shrike
• White-breasted negro-finch
• White-browed forest flycatcher
• White-crested bittern
• White-crested hornbill
• White-crowned robin-chat
• White-fronted black chat
• White-fronted plover
• White-headed lapwing
• White-headed vulture
• White-headed woodhoopoe
• White-rumped seedeater
• White-rumped swift
• White-shouldered black-tit
• White-thighed hornbill
• White-throated bee-eater
• White-throated blue swallow
• White-throated francolin
• White-throated greenbul
• White-winged tern
• Willow warbler
• Wilson’s storm petrel
• Winding cisticola
• Wire-tailed ant-thrush
• Wire-tailed swallow
• Wood sandpiper
• Wood warbler
• Woodchat shrike
• Woodland kingfisher
• Woolly-necked stork
• Yellow penduline-tit
• Yellow-billed barbet
• Yellow-billed ox-pecker
• Yellow-billed shrike
• Yellow-billed stork
• Yellow-breasted apalis
• Yellow-browed camaroptera
• Yellow-casqued hornbill
• Yellow-crowned bishop
• Yellow-fronted canary
• Yellow-fronted tinkerbird
• Yellow-mantled weaver
• Yellow-mantled widowbird
• Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
• Yellow-throated greenbul
• Yellow-throated longclaw
• Yellow-throated tinkerbird
• Yellow-whiskered greenbul
• Zebra waxbill
• Zitting cisticola

Best time for Birding in Benin

The best time to visit Benin is in the dry months of December to March and this is pretty key to the birding expedition as access can be difficult during rainy season however some areas are pretty accessible all year round if you are in Benin then you can consider birding in those areas