List of Birds of Eritrea

Eritrea is heaven for bird-watchers. Eritrean is a safe destination for those who want to spend a week of adventurous bird spotting. The opportunities for bird-watching include the Semenawi Bahri (Filfil Solomuna) rainforests, Dahlak Islands, The Buri Peninsula, Gash Barka, Elabered / Keren, Adi Keih, and Asmara.

• Abdim’s stork
• Abyssinian ground hornbill
• Abyssinian owl
• Abyssinian roller
• Abyssinian slaty flycatcher
• Abyssinian thrush
• Abyssinian white-eye
• Abyssinian woodpecker
• African citril
• African collared dove
• African cuckoo
• African darter
• African desert warbler
• African dusky flycatcher
• African emerald cuckoo
• African fish eagle
• African goshawk
• African gray hornbill
• African gray woodpecker
• African harrier hawk
• African hawk eagle
• African mourning dove
• African openbill
• African palm-swift
• African paradise flycatcher
• African pied wagtail
• African pipit
• African pygmy kingfisher
• African quail finch
• African reed warbler
• African scops owl
• African silver bill
• African skimmer
• African snipe
• African spoonbill
• African stonechat
• African thrush
• African yellow white-eye
• Allen’s gallinule
• Alpine swift
• Arabian bustard
• Augur buzzard
• Baglafecht weaver
• Banded barbet
• Banded martin
• Bank swallow
• Barbary falcon
• Barn owl
• Barn swallow
• Barred warbler
• Bar-tailed godwit
• Basra reed warbler
• Bateleur
• Bearded vulture
• Beautiful sunbird
• Bimaculated lark
• Black cuckoo
• Black goshawk
• Black kite
• Black redstart
• Black sawwing
• Black scimitarbill
• Black scrub robin
• Black stork
• Black tern
• Black-bellied bustard
• Black-bellied plover
• Black-billed barbet
• Black-billed wood dove
• Black-billed wood hoopoe
• Black-chested snake-eagle
• Black-crowned night-heron
• Black-crowned sparrow lark
• Black-crowned tchagra
• Black-eared wheatear
• Black-headed gonolek
• Black-headed gull

• Black-headed heron
• Black-headed lapwing
• Black-headed weaver
• Black-necked cisticola
• Black-rumped waxbill
• Blackstart
• Black-tailed godwit
• Black-throated barbet
• Black-winged kite
• Black-winged lapwing
• Black-winged lovebird
• Black-winged stilt
• Blanford’s lark
• Blue rock thrush
• Blue throat
• Blue-breasted bee-eater
• Blue-cheeked bee-eater
• Blue-headed coucal
• Blue-napped mouse bird
• Blue-spotted wood dove
• Blue-winged goose
• Bonelli’s eagle
• Booted eagle
• Boran cisticola
• Bridled tern
• Broad-billed roller
• Broad-billed sandpiper
• Bronze-winged courser
• Brown booby
• Brown noddy
• Brown snake eagle
• Brown woodland warbler
• Brown-backed woodpecker
• Brown-necked raven
• Brown-rumped seed-eater
• Brown-tailed chat
• Brubru
• Bruce’s green pigeon
• Buff-bellied warbler
• Bush petronia
• Cape canary
• Cape crow
• Cape eagle owl
• Cardinal woodpecker
• Caspian gull
• Caspian plover
• Cattle egret
• Chestnut bellied sandgrouse
• Chestnut weaver
• Chestnut-backed sparrow lark
• Chestnut-bellied starling
• Chestnut-crowned sparrow-weaver
• Cinereous bunting
• Cinnamon-breasted bunting
• Clamorous reed warbler
• Clapperton’s francolin
• Collard pratincole
• Collared kingfisher
• Common bulbul
• Common buzzard
• Common chiffchaff
• Common crane
• Common cuckoo
• Common greenshank
• Common house martin
• Common ostrich
• Common pochard
• Common quail
• Common redshank
• Common redstart
• Common ringed plover
• Common sandpiper
• Common snipe
• Common swift
• Common tern
• Corn crake
• Crab plover

• Cream-colored courser
• Crested lark
• Cretschmar’s bunting
• Cretzschmar’s babbler
• Cricket longtail
• Crimson-rumped waxbill
• Croaking cisticola
• Curlew sandpiper
• Cut-throat
• Dark chanting-goshawk
• Dark-headed oriole
• Demoiselle crane
• Denham’s bustard
• Desert cisticola
• Desert lark
• Desert wheatear
• Dideric cuckoo
• Double-banded courser
• Dunlin
• Dusky turtle dove
• Eastern olivaceous warbler
• Eastern paradise whydah
• Eastern plantain eater
• Eastern yellow-billed hornbill
• Egyptian goose
• Egyptian nightjar
• Egyptian plover
• Egyptian vulture
• Eleonora’s falcon
• Erckel’s francolin
• Ethiopian boubou
• Ethiopian cisticola
• Ethiopian siskin
• Ethiopian swallow
• Eurasian blackcap
• Eurasian crag-martin
• Eurasian curlew
• Eurasian golden oriole
• Eurasian griffon
• Eurasian hobby
• Eurasian kestrel
• Eurasian marsh harrier
• Eurasian moorhen
• Eurasian nightjar
• Eurasian oystercatcher
• Eurasian reed warbler
• Eurasian scop’s owl
• Eurasian sparrow hawk
• Eurasian spoonbill
• Eurasian thick-knee
• Eurasian turtle dove
• Eurasian wigeon
• Eurasian wryneck
• European bee-eater
• European honey buzzard
• European roller
• European stonechat
• Fan-tailed raven
• Ferruginous pochard
• Fork-tailed drongo
• Four-banded sandgrouse
• Fox kestrel
• Fulvous chatterer
• Fulvous whistling duck
• Gabar goshawk
• Gadwall
• Garden warbler
• Garganey
• Gary wagtail
• Giant kingfisher
• Glossy ibis
• Golden-breasted bunting
• Goliath heron
• Graceful prinia
• Grasshopper buzzard
• Gray heron
• Gray-headed batis

• Gray-headed bushshrike
• Gray-headed kingfisher
• Gray-headed sparrow
• Grayish eagle owl
• Great bittern
• Great black-backed gull
• Great cormorant
• Great crested tern
• Great egret
• Great gray shrike
• Great reed warbler
• Great skua
• Great spotted cuckoo
• Great white pelican
• Greater blue-eared glossy-starling
• Greater flamingo
• Greater honeyguide
• Greater hoopoe lark
• Greater kestrel
• Greater painted-snipe
• Greater sand plover
• Greater short-toed lark
• Greater spotted eagle
• Greater whitethroat
• Green bee-eater
• Green sandpiper
• Green-backed eremomela
• Green-winged pytilia
• Green-winged teal
• Grey kestrel
• Ground scraper thrush
• Hadada ibis
• Half-collared kingfisher
• Hamerkop
• Harlequin quail
• Helmeted guineafowl
• Hemprich’s hornbill
• Herring gull
• Heuglin’s bustard
• Heuglin’s wheatear
• Heuglin’s white-eye
• Hooded vulture
• Hottentot teal
• House crow
• Hypocolius
• Icterine warbler
• Imperial eagle
• Intermediate egret
• Isabelline shrike
• Isabelline wheatear
• Jameson’s firefinch
• Kentish plover
• Kitilitz’s plover
• Klaas’s cuckoo
• Knob-billed duck
• Kurdish wheatear
• Lanner falcon
• Lappet-faced vulture
• Laughing dove
• Lemon dove
• Lesser black-backed gull
• Lesser blue-eared glossy-starling
• Lesser crested tern
• Lesser flamingo
• Lesser frigatebird
• Lesser gray shrike
• Lesser honeyguide
• Lesser kestrel
• Lesser moorhen
• Lesser sand plover
• Lesser spotted eagle
• Lesser whitethroat
• Lesser-striped swallow
• Levailliant’s cuckoo
• Levant sparrow hawk
• Lichtenstein’s sandgrouse
• Lilac-breasted roller

• Little bee-eater
• Little bittern
• Little crake
• Little egret
• Little grebe
• Little owl
• Little ringed plover
• Little rock thrush
• Little sparrow hawk
• Little stint
• Little swift
• Little tern
• Little weaver
• Long-billed pipit
• Long-crested eagle
• Long-legged buzzard
• Long-tailed cormorant
• Long-tailed nightjar
• Malachite kingfisher
• Mallard
• Marabou stork
• Mariqua sunbird
• Marsh sandpiper
• Martial eagle
• Masked bobby
• Masked shrike
• Menetries’s warbler
• Meyer’s parrot
• Mocking cliff-chat
• Montagu’s harrier
• Mottled swift
• Mountain wagtail
• Mourning wheatear
• Namaqua dove
• Narina trogon
• Nile valley sunbird
• Northern black flycatcher
• Northern carmine bee-eater
• Northern crombec
• Northern fiscal
• Northern paradise whydah
• Northern pintail
• Northern puffback
• Northern red-billed hornbill
• Northern shoveler
• Northern wheatear
• Northern white-faced owl
• Nubian nightjar
• Nubian woodpecker
• Nyanza swift
• Olive tree warbler
• Orange bishop
• Orange river francolin
• Ortolan bunting
• Osprey
• Pacific golden-plover
• Pale flycatcher
• Pale rockfinch
• Pallas’s gull
• Pallid harrier
• Parasitic jaeger
• Pearl spotted-owlet
• Pectoral-patch cisticola
• Pel’s fishing owl
• Peregrine falcon
• Persian shearwater
• Pharaoh eagle owl
• Pied avocet
• Pied crow
• Pied cuckoo
• Pied kingfisher
• Pied wheatear
• Pink-backed pelican
• Pin-tailed whydah
• Plain martin
• Plain nightjar
• Plain-backed pipit

• Pomarine jaeger
• Purple heron
• Quail finch
• Red sea warbler
• Red-backed shrike
• Red-billed duck
• Red-billed firefinch
• Red-billed ox-pecker
• Red-billed quelea
• Red-billed tropic bird
• Red-breasted wheatear
• Red-capped lark
• Red-cheeked cordonbleu
• Red-collared widowbird
• Red-eyed dove
• Red-footed booby
• Red-fronted prinia
• Red-fronted tinkerbird
• Red-knobbed coot
• Red-napped bush shrike
• Red-necked phalarope
• Red-pate cisticola
• Red-rumped swallow
• Red-shouldered cuckoo shrike
• Red-tailed shrike
• Red-throated pipit
• Red-winged starling
• Ring-necked dove
• Rock martin
• Rock pigeon
• Roseate tern
• Rose-ringed parakeet
• Rosy-patched bush shrike
• Rouget’s rail
• Ruddy shelduck
• Ruddy turnstone
• Ruepell’s chat
• Rueppell’s glossy starling
• Rueppell’s robin-chat
• Rueppell’s weaver
• Ruff
• Rufous crowned roller
• Rufous-breasted sparrow-hawk
• Rufous-tailed rock thrush
• Rufous-tailed scrub robin
• Ruppell’s griffon
• Ruppell’s warbler
• Sacred ibis
• Saddle-billed stork
• Saker falcon
• Sanderling
• Sandwich tern
• Savi’s warbler
• Scarlet-chested sunbird
• Scissor-tailed kite
• Secretary bird
• Sedge warbler
• Semi-collared flycatcher
• Senegal coucal
• Senegal thick-knee
• Sennar penduline tit
• Shikra
• Shinning sunbird
• Short-eared owl
• Short-toed snake-eagle
• Siffling cisticola
• Silvery-cheeked hornbill
• Singing bushlark
• Singing cisticola
• Slender billed starling
• Slender-billed gull
• Small buttonquail
• Sociable lapwing
• Socotra cormorant
• Somali crow
• Somali starling
• Somber nightjar

• Song thrush
• Sooty falcon
• Sooty gull
• Sounders’s tern
• Southern pochard
• Speckled mouse bird
• Speckled pigeon
• Speckle-fronted weaver
• Spotted crake
• Spotted eagle-owl
• Spotted flycatcher
• Spotted redshank
• Spotted sandgrouse
• Spotted thick-knee
• Spur-winged lapwing
• Squacco heron
• Standard-winged nightjar
• Steppe eagle
• Stone partridge
• Stout cisticola
• Streaky seed-eater
• Striated heron
• Striolated bunting
• Striped kingfisher
• Sudan golden sparrow
• Swainson’s sparrow
• Taccaze sunbird
• Tawny eagle
• Tawny pipit
• Tawny-flanked prinia
• Temminick’s stint
• Temmnick’s courser
• Terek sandpiper
• Thekla lark
• Thick-billed raven
• Three-banded plover
• Thrush nightingale
• Tree pipit
• Tufted duck
• Upcher’s warbler
• Variable sunbird
• Verreaux’s eagle
• Verreaux’s eagle owl
• Vieillot’s barbet
• Village indigobird
• Village weaver
• Vinaceous dove
• Violet-backed starling
• Wahlberg’s eagle
• Waldrapp
• Wattled ibis
• Wattled lapwing
• Wattled starling
• Western black-headed batis
• Western bonelli’s warbler
• Western orphean warbler
• Western reef-heron
• Western yellow wagtail
• Whimbrel
• Whinchat
• Whiskered tern
• White helmeted shrike
• White stork
• White wagtail
• White-backed black tit
• White-backed night heron
• White-backed vulture
• White-bellied bustard
• White-billed buffalo-weaver
• White-billed starling
• White-browed coucal
• White-cheeked tern
• White-cheeked turaco
• White-collared pigeon
• White-eyed gull
• White-faced whistling duck
• White-fronted black-chat

• White-fronted plover
• White-headed vulture
• White-rumped babbler
• White-rumped seed-eater
• White-rumped swift
• White-shouldered black-tit
• White-tailed lapwing
• White-tailed wheatear
• White-throated bee-eater
• White-throated robin
• White-winged black tit
• White-winged cliff-chat
• White-winged tern
• Willow warbler
• Wire-tailed swallow
• Wood sandpiper
• Woodchat shrike
• Woodland kingfisher
• Woolly-necked stork
• Yellow-bellied eremomela
• Yellow-billed duck
• Yellow-billed ox-pecker
• Yellow-billed stork
• Yellow-billed waxbill
• Yellow-breasted barbet
• Yellow-crowned canary
• Yellow-fronted canary
• Yellow-necked spurfowl
• Yellow-rumped serin
• Yellow-shouldered widowbird
• Yellow-spotted petronia
• Yellow-throated sandgrouse
• Zitting cisticola
• Little bee-eater
• Little bittern
• Little crake
• Little egret
• Little grebe
• Little owl
• Little ringed plover
• Little rock thrush
• Little sparrow hawk
• Little stint
• Little swift
• Little tern
• Little weaver
• Long-billed pipit
• Long-crested eagle
• Long-legged buzzard
• Long-tailed cormorant
• Long-tailed nightjar
• Malachite kingfisher
• Mallard
• Marabou stork
• Mariqua sunbird
• Marsh sandpiper
• Martial eagle
• Masked bobby
• Masked shrike
• Menetries’s warbler
• Meyer’s parrot
• Mocking cliff-chat
• Montagu’s harrier
• Mottled swift
• Mountain wagtail
• Mourning wheatear
• Namaqua dove
• Narina trogon
• Nile valley sunbird
• Northern black flycatcher
• Northern carmine bee-eater
• Northern crombec
• Northern fiscal
• Northern paradise whydah
• Northern pintail
• Northern puffback
• Northern red-billed hornbill

• Northern shoveler
• Northern wheatear
• Northern white-faced owl
• Nubian nightjar
• Nubian woodpecker
• Nyanza swift
• Olive tree warbler
• Orange bishop
• Orange river francolin
• Ortolan bunting
• Osprey
• Pacific golden-plover
• Pale flycatcher
• Pale rockfinch
• Pallas’s gull
• Pallid harrier
• Parasitic jaeger
• Pearl spotted-owlet
• Pectoral-patch cisticola
• Pel’s fishing owl
• Peregrine falcon
• Persian shearwater
• Pharaoh eagle owl
• Pied avocet
• Pied crow
• Pied cuckoo
• Pied kingfisher
• Pied wheatear
• Pink-backed pelican
• Pin-tailed whydah
• Plain martin
• Plain nightjar
• Plain-backed pipit
• Pomarine jaeger
• Purple heron
• Quail finch
• Red sea warbler
• Red-backed shrike
• Red-billed duck
• Red-billed firefinch
• Red-billed ox-pecker
• Red-billed quelea
• Red-billed tropic bird
• Red-breasted wheatear
• Red-capped lark
• Red-cheeked cordonbleu
• Red-collared widowbird
• Red-eyed dove
• Red-footed booby
• Red-fronted prinia
• Red-fronted tinkerbird
• Red-knobbed coot
• Red-napped bush shrike
• Red-necked phalarope
• Red-pate cisticola
• Red-rumped swallow
• Red-shouldered cuckoo shrike
• Red-tailed shrike
• Red-throated pipit
• Red-winged starling
• Ring-necked dove
• Rock martin
• Rock pigeon
• Roseate tern
• Rose-ringed parakeet
• Rosy-patched bush shrike
• Rouget’s rail
• Ruddy shelduck
• Ruddy turnstone
• Ruepell’s chat
• Rueppell’s glossy starling
• Rueppell’s robin-chat
• Rueppell’s weaver
• Ruff
• Rufous crowned roller
• Rufous-breasted sparrow-hawk
• Rufous-tailed rock thrush

• Rufous-tailed scrub robin
• Ruppell’s griffon
• Ruppell’s warbler
• Sacred ibis
• Saddle-billed stork
• Saker falcon
• Sanderling
• Sandwich tern
• Savi’s warbler
• Scarlet-chested sunbird
• Scissor-tailed kite
• Secretary bird
• Sedge warbler
• Semi-collared flycatcher
• Senegal coucal
• Senegal thick-knee
• Sennar penduline tit
• Shikra
• Shinning sunbird
• Short-eared owl
• Short-toed snake-eagle
• Siffling cisticola
• Silvery-cheeked hornbill
• Singing bushlark
• Singing cisticola
• Slender billed starling
• Slender-billed gull
• Small buttonquail
• Sociable lapwing
• Socotra cormorant
• Somali crow
• Somali starling
• Somber nightjar
• Song thrush
• Sooty falcon
• Sooty gull
• Sounders’s tern
• Southern pochard
• Speckled mouse bird
• Speckled pigeon
• Speckle-fronted weaver
• Spotted crake
• Spotted eagle-owl
• Spotted flycatcher
• Spotted redshank
• Spotted sandgrouse
• Spotted thick-knee
• Spur-winged lapwing

• Squacco heron
• Standard-winged nightjar
• Steppe eagle
• Stone partridge
• Stout cisticola
• Streaky seed-eater
• Striated heron
• Striolated bunting
• Striped kingfisher
• Sudan golden sparrow
• Swainson’s sparrow
• Taccaze sunbird
• Tawny eagle
• Tawny pipit
• Tawny-flanked prinia
• Temminick’s stint
• Temmnick’s courser
• Terek sandpiper
• Thekla lark
• Thick-billed raven
• Three-banded plover
• Thrush nightingale
• Tree pipit
• Tufted duck
• Upcher’s warbler
• Variable sunbird
• Verreaux’s eagle
• Verreaux’s eagle owl
• Vieillot’s barbet
• Village indigobird
• Village weaver
• Vinaceous dove
• Violet-backed starling
• Wahlberg’s eagle
• Waldrapp
• Wattled ibis
• Wattled lapwing
• Wattled starling
• Western black-headed batis
• Western bonelli’s warbler
• Western orphean warbler
• Western reef-heron
• Western yellow wagtail
• Whimbrel
• Whinchat
• Whiskered tern
• White helmeted shrike
• White stork

• White wagtail
• White-backed black tit
• White-backed night heron
• White-backed vulture
• White-bellied bustard
• White-billed buffalo-weaver
• White-billed starling
• White-browed coucal
• White-cheeked tern
• White-cheeked turaco
• White-collared pigeon
• White-eyed gull
• White-faced whistling duck
• White-fronted black-chat
• White-fronted plover
• White-headed vulture
• White-rumped babbler
• White-rumped seed-eater
• White-rumped swift
• White-shouldered black-tit
• White-tailed lapwing
• White-tailed wheatear
• White-throated bee-eater
• White-throated robin
• White-winged black tit
• White-winged cliff-chat
• White-winged tern
• Willow warbler
• Wire-tailed swallow
• Wood sandpiper
• Woodchat shrike
• Woodland kingfisher
• Woolly-necked stork
• Yellow-bellied eremomela
• Yellow-billed duck
• Yellow-billed ox-pecker
• Yellow-billed stork
• Yellow-billed waxbill
• Yellow-breasted barbet
• Yellow-crowned canary
• Yellow-fronted canary
• Yellow-necked spurfowl
• Yellow-rumped serin
• Yellow-shouldered widowbird
• Yellow-spotted petronia
• Yellow-throated sandgrouse
• Zitting cisticola

Best time for Birding in Eritrea

From February to April and September to November) there are significant numbers of birds moving through Eritrea, so coastal watching turns up significantly more species, and raptor counts along the escarpment edge are also higher.