List of Birds of Djibouti

Despite its small size, approximately 23,000 km², and a very limited amount of ornithological study, Djibouti boasts an impressive bird list, with 361 species identified to February 2001. The key to this variety is Djibouti’s location at the mouth of the African Rift Valley, the narrowest point along the Red Sea (the Bab el Mandeb straits) and close to the Arabian Peninsula. The country, therefore, supports an interesting mix of African and Middle Eastern species and is on a major migration flyway for birds breeding in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Western Asia and wintering in Eastern and Southern Africa.

For visiting birdwatchers, the main attractions are the endemic Djibouti Francolin Francolinus ochropectus, the spectacular passage, principally in autumn, of birds of prey with almost 250,000 recorded in 5 weeks in autumn 1987, and the variety of African and Middle Eastern species.

1. Abdim’s stork
2. Abyssinian roller
3. Abyssinian white-eye
4. African collared dove
5. African cuckoo
6. African darter
7. African desert warbler
8. African hawk-eagle
9. African jacana
10. African palm swift
11. African paradise flycatcher
12. African pied wagtail
13. African pipit
14. African pygmy goose
15. African pygmy kingfisher
16. African scops owl
17. African silverbill
18. African spoonbill
19. African stonechat
20. Alpine swift
21. Armenian gull
22. Arabian babbler
23. Arabian bustard
24. Arabian golden-sparrow
25. Arabian warbler
26. Archer’s buzzard
27. Atlantic petrel
28. Augur buzzard
29. Baillon’s crake
30. Bank swallow
31. Barbary falcon
32. Barn swallow
33. Barred warbler
34. Bar-tailed godwit
35. Basra reed warbler
36. Bateleur
37. Bearded vulture
38. Bimaculated lark
39. Black crake
40. Black headed heron
41. Black heron
42. Black kite
43. Black redstart
44. Black scrub robin
45. Black stork
46. Black tern
47. Black-bellied plover
48. Black-billed wood hoopoe
49. Black-billed wood-dove
50. Black-crowned night-heron
51. Black-crowned sparrow-lark
52. Black-crowned tchagra
53. Black-eared wheatear
54. Black-headed gull
55. Blackstart
56. Black-tailed godwit
57. Black-throated barbet
58. Black-throated canary
59. Black-winged kite
60. Black-winged stilt
61. Blue rock thrush
62. Blue-cheeked bee-eater
63. Blue-napped mouse bird
64. Bonelli’s eagle
65. Booted eagle
66. Bridled tern
67. Broad-billed sandpiper
68. Bronze-winged courser
69. Brown booby
70. Brown noddy
71. Brown woodland warbler
72. Brown-necked raven
73. Bruce’s green pigeon
74. Buff-crested bustard
75. Cape teal
76. Cardinal woodpecker
77. Caspian gull

1. Caspian plover
2. Caspian tern
3. Cattle egret
4. Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
5. Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse
6. Cinnamon-breasted bunting
7. Citrine wagtail
8. Collared pratincole
9. Common bulbul
10. Common buzzard
11. Common cliff chat
12. Common crane
13. Common cuckoo
14. Common greenshank
15. Common house martin
16. Common nightingale
17. Common ostrich
18. Common quail
19. Common redshank
20. Common redstart
21. Common ringed plover
22. Common rock thrush
23. Common sandpiper
24. Common snipe
25. Common swift
26. Common tern
27. Crab-plover
28. Cream-colored courser
29. Crested lark
30. Cretzschmar’s bunting
31. Crimson-rumped waxbill
32. Curlew sandpiper
33. Dark chanting-goshawk
34. Desert cisticola
35. Desert lark
36. Desert wheatear
37. Djibouti francolin
38. Double-banded courser
39. Dunlin
40. Eastern chanting-goshawk
41. Eastern olivaceous warbler
42. Eastern paradise whydah
43. Eastern yellow-billed hornbill
44. Egyptian goose
45. Egyptian vulture
46. Eleonora’s falcon
47. Ethiopian boubou
48. Eurasian blackcap
49. Eurasian curlew
50. Eurasian golden oriole
51. Eurasian griffon
52. Eurasian hobby
53. Eurasian hoopoe
54. Eurasian kestrel
55. Eurasian marsh-harrier
56. Eurasian moorhen
57. Eurasian nightjar
58. Eurasian oystercatcher
59. Eurasian reed warbler
60. Eurasian sparrowhawk
61. Eurasian spoonbill
62. Eurasian thick-knee
63. Eurasian wigeon
64. Eurasian wryneck
65. European bee-eater
66. European honey-buzzard
67. European roller
68. European starling
69. European turtle dove
70. Fan-tailed raven
71. Ferruginous pochard
72. Flesh-footed shearwater
73. Fork-tailed drongo
74. Fox kestrel
75. Fulvous chatterer
76. Fulvous whistling duck
77. Gambaga flycatcher
78. Garden warbler

1. Garganey
2. Glossy ibis
3. Golden pipit
4. Goliath heron
5. Graceful prinia
6. Gray heron
7. Gray wagtail
8. Gray-headed batis
9. Gray-headed kingfisher
10. Gray-headed sparrow
11. Great egret
12. Great gray shrike
13. Great reed warbler
14. Great spotted cuckoo
15. Great white pelican
16. Greater crested tern
17. Greater flamingo
18. Greater hoopoe-lark
19. Greater kestrel
20. Greater sand plover
21. Greater short-toed lark
22. Greater whitethroat
23. Greater-spotted eagle
24. Green sandpiper
25. Green-backed camaroptera
26. Green-winged pytilia
27. Green-winged teal
28. Gull-billed tern
29. Hamerkop
30. Hemprich’s hornbill
31. Hen harrier
32. Herring gull
33. Heuglin’s bustard
34. Heuglin’s wheatear
35. Hooded vulture
36. Hooded wheatear
37. Hottentot teal
38. House crow
39. Imperial eagle
40. Intermediate egret
41. Isabelline shrike
42. Isabelline wheatear
43. Jouanin’s petrel
44. Kentish plover
45. Kitilitz’s plover
46. Knob-billed duck
47. Kurdish wheatear
48. Lanner falcon
49. Lappet-faced vulture
50. Laughing dove
51. Lesser black-backed gull
52. Lesser crested tern
53. Lesser flamingo
54. Lesser frigatebird
55. Lesser gray shrike
56. Lesser kestrel
57. Lesser masked weaver
58. Lesser sand plover
59. Lesser whitethroat
60. Lesser-spotted eagle
61. Levant sparrowhawk
62. Lichtenstein’s sandgrouse
63. Lilac-breasted roller
64. Little bee-eater
65. Little bittern
66. Little crake
67. Little egret
68. Little grebe
69. Little owl
70. Little ringed plover
71. Little stint
72. Little swift
73. Little tern
74. Long-billed pipit
75. Long-legged buzzard
76. Long-tailed cormorant
77. Long-toed stint

1. Malachite kingfisher
2. Mallard
3. Marabou stork
4. Marsh sandpiper
5. Masked shrike
6. Menetries’s warbler
7. Montagu’s harrier
8. Mountain gray woodpecker
9. Mourning-collared dove
10. Namaqua dove
11. Nile valley sunbird
12. Northern crombec
13. Northern pintail
14. Northern shoveler
15. Northern wheatear
16. Northern white-faced owl
17. Nubian nightjar
18. Nubian woodpecker
19. Olive-tree warbler
20. Oriental honey-buzzard
21. Ortolan bunting
22. Osprey
23. Pacific golden-plover
24. Pale rock finch
25. Pallid harrier
26. Pallid swift
27. Parasitic jaeger
28. Pearl spotted owlet
29. Peregrine falcon
30. Persian shearwater
31. Pied avocet
32. Pied crow
33. Pied cuckoo
34. Pied wheatear
35. Pink-backed pelican
36. Pin-tailed whydah
37. Plain nightjar
38. Pomarine jaeger
39. Purple heron
40. Pygmy sunbird
41. Rameron pigeon
42. Red-backed scrub robin
43. Red-backed shrike
44. Red-billed duck
45. Red-billed firefinch
46. Red-billed ox-pecker
47. Red-billed quelea
48. Red-billed tropical bird
49. Red-breasted wheatear
50. Red-cheeked cordonbleu
51. Red-footed booby
52. Red-footed falcon
53. Red-fronted prinia
54. Red-napped bush shrike
55. Red-necked phalarope
56. Red-rumped swallow
57. Red-tailed shrike
58. Red-throated pipit
59. Reichenow’s seed-eater
60. Ring-necked dove
61. Rock martin
62. Rock pigeon
63. Rose-ringed parakeet
64. Rosy-patched bush shrike
65. Ruddy turnstone
66. Ruepell’s weaver
67. Ruff
68. Rufous-tailed scrub robin
69. Ruppell’s griffon
70. Ruppell’s warbler
71. Sacred ibis
72. Saddle-billed stork
73. Saker falcon
74. Sanderling
75. Sandwich tern
76. Saunder’s tern

1. Scissor-tailed kite
2. Secretary bird
3. Sedge warbler
4. Senegal coucal
5. Senegal thick-knee
6. Shikra
7. Shinning sunbird
8. Short eared owl
9. Short-toed snake-eagle
10. Slender-billed curlew
11. Slender-billed gull
12. Slender-tailed nightjar
13. Small buttonquail
14. Socotra cormorant
15. Somali crow
16. Somali fiscal
17. Somali ostrich
18. Somali sparrow
19. Somali starling
20. Song thrush
21. Sooty falcon
22. Sooty gull
23. Sooty tern
24. Southern pochard
25. Speckled mouse bird
26. Speckled pigeon
27. Spotted crake
28. Spotted eagle owl
29. Spotted flycatcher
30. Spotted redshank
31. Spotted sandgrouse
32. Spotted thick-knee
33. Spur-winged plover
34. Squacco heron
35. Standard-winged nightjar
36. Star-spotted nightjar
37. Steppe eagle
38. Striated heron
39. Striolated bunting
40. Sub-alpine warbler
41. Swinhoe’s storm petrel
42. Tawny eagle
43. Tawny pipit
44. Temmnick’s stint
45. Terek sandpiper
46. Three-banded plover
47. Thrush nightingale
48. Toha sunbird or Djibouti sunbird
49. Tree pipit
50. Trumpeter finch
51. Tufted duck
52. Upcher’s warbler
53. Verreaux’s eagle
54. Verreaux’s eagle owl
55. Violet-backed starling
56. Wattled starling
57. Wedge-tailed shearwater
58. Western orphean warbler
59. Western reef-heron
60. Western yellow wagtail
61. Whimbrel
62. Whinchat
63. Whiskered tern
64. White stork
65. White wagtail
66. White-backed duck
67. White-backed vulture
68. White-bellied bustard
69. White-browed coucal
70. White-cheeked tern
71. White-crowned starling
72. White-eyed gull
73. White-faced whistling duck
74. White-headed vulture
75. White-tailed wheatear
76. White-throated bee-eater
77. White-throated robin

1. White-winged tern
2. Willow warbler
3. Wilson’s storm petrel
4. Wood sandpiper
5. Wood warbler
6. Wooly-necked stork
7. Yellow bittern
8. Yellow-bellied eremomela
9. Yellow-billed duck
10. Yellow-billed stork
11. Yellow-breasted barbet
12. Yellow-necked francolin
13. Yellow-spotted petronia
14. Zitting cisticola