List of Birds of Cape Verde

The islands of Cape Verde have an interesting range of endemic and subspecies offering some rare Bird watching opportunities.

Many challenges are facing the wildlife of Cape Verde, but with increased interest from wildlife enthusiasts the tide may change and with pressure, some of the more endangered species might be saved from extinction.

For anyone with a special interest in birds of Macaronesia, the islands of Cape Verde can provide an interesting change from the more popular islands of Madeira and the Azores.

• African crake
• African desert warbler
• Alexander’s swift
• Allen’s gallinule
• Alpine swift
• American golden-plover
• Arctic tern
• Baillon’s crake
• Balearic shearwater
• Band-rumped storm petrel
• Bank swallow
• Barn owl
• Barn swallow
• Barolo shearwater
• Bar-tailed godwit
• Bar-tailed lark
• Black heron
• Black kite
• Black-bellied plover
• Black-crowned night heron
• Black-crowned sparrow-lark
• Black-headed gull
• Black-headed heron
• Black-legged kittiwake
• Black-tailed godwit
• Black-winged stilt
• Blue-cheeked bee-eater
• Booted eagle
• Booted warbler
• Boyd’s shearwater
• Broad-billed roller
• Brown bobby
• Brown-necked raven
• Bulwer’s petrel
• Cape Verde buzzard
• Cape Verde shearwater
• Cape Verde storm petrel
• Cape Verde swamp warbler
• Caspian gull
• Caspian tern
• Cattle egret
• Citrine wagtail
• Collared pratincole
• Common buzzard
• Common cuckoo
• Common grasshopper warbler
• Common greenshank
• Common house-martin
• Common murre
• Common nightingale
• Common pochard
• Common quail
• Common redshank
• Common redstart
• Common ringed plover
• Common sandpiper
• Common snipe
• Common swift
• Common tern
• Common waxbill
• Cory’s shearwater
• Cream-colored courser
• Curlew sandpiper
• Dunlin
• Dwarf bittern
• Eastern olivaceous warbler
• Egyptian vulture
• Eurasian blackcap
• Eurasian coot
• Eurasian crag-martin
• Eurasian curlew
• Eurasian dotterel
• Eurasian hoopoe

• Eurasian kestrel
• Eurasian marsh harrier
• Eurasian moorhen
• Eurasian oystercatcher
• Eurasian spoonbill
• Eurasian woodcock
• European bee-eater
• European golden-plover
• European goldfinch
• European pied flycatcher
• European roller
• European starling
• European storm petrel
• European turtle dove
• Fea’s petrel
• Ferruginous pochard
• Fulvous whistling duck
• Glossy ibis
• Gray heron
• Gray-headed kingfisher
• Great bittern
• Great cormorant
• Great egret
• Great shearwater
• Great skua
• Great snipe
• Great spotted cuckoo
• Great-blue heron
• Greater flamingo
• Greater hoopoe-lark
• Greater whitethroat
• Greater yellowlegs
• Green sandpiper
• Green-winged teal
• Gull-billed tern
• Helmeted guineafowl
• Hen harrier
• House sparrow
• Intermediate egret
• Jack snipe
• Kentish plover
• Lago sparrow
• Leach’s storm petrel
• Lesser black-backed gull
• Lesser moorhen
• Lesser sandpiper
• Lesser yellowlegs
• Little bittern
• Little crake
• Little egret
• Little grebe
• Little ringed plover
• Little stint
• Little swift
• Little tern
• Long-legged buzzard
• Long-tailed jaeger
• Magnificent frigatebird
• Manx shearwater
• Marbled teal
• Marsh sandpiper
• Masked bobby
• Montagu’s harrier
• Northern gannet
• Northern lapwing
• Northern wheatear
• Osprey
• Pacific golden-plover
• Pallid harrier
• Pallid swift
• Parasitic jaeger
• Pectoral sandpiper
• Peregrine falcon

• Pied avocet
• Plain martin
• Plain swift
• Pomarine jaeger
• Preuss’s swallow
• Purple gallinule
• Purple heron
• Purple sandpiper
• Razo skylark
• Red kite
• Red knot
• Red phalarope
• Red-billed firefinch
• Red-billed tropicbird
• Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
• Red-eyed dove
• Red-footed bobby
• Red-necked phalarope
• Red-rumped swallow
• Red-throated pipit
• Redwing
• Rock martin
• Rock pigeon
• Roseate tern
• Rose-ringed parakeet
• Rosy starling
• Royal tern
• Ruddy turnstone
• Ruff
• Sabine’s gull
• Sanderling
• Sandwich tern
• Scopoli’s shearwater
• Semi-palmated plover
• Short-eared owl
• Slender-billed gull
• Snowy egret
• Song thrush
• Sooty shearwater
• Sooty tern
• Spanish sparrow
• Spectacled warbler
• Spotted crake
• Spotted flycatcher
• Spotted redshank
• Spur-winged lapwing
• Squacco heron
• Striated heron
• Sub-alpine warbler
• Tawny pipit
• Temmnick’s stint
• Tree pipit
• Trumpeter finch
• Tufted duck
• Verreaux’s eagle-owl
• Village weaver
• Waldrapp
• Western olivaceous warbler
• Western yellow wagtail
• Western-reef heron
• Whimbrel
• Whiskered tern
• White stork
• White wagtail
• White-bellied storm petrel
• White-faced storm petrel
• White-faced whistling duck
• White-fronted plover
• White-tailed tropicbird
• Willow warbler
• Wilson’s storm petrel
• Wood sandpiper
• Yellow-legged gull

Best time for birding in Cape Verde

The best time to visit Cape Verde is between November and June – at this time of year, you can make the most of the white-sand beaches the islands are known for. The temperatures sit around the mid-to-high twenties, and there’s hardly any rain.