List of Birds of Malawi

Malawi is a relatively small country, only 94,000 km², compared with its principal neighbours Zambia (752,000 km²) and Mozambique (784,000 km²). It is also comparatively densely populated, with over 9 million people, more than in Zambia. Nevertheless, Malawi is a most worthwhile birding destination, with a diversity of accessible habitats and an excellent variety of species, including several near-endemics and an array of both Palearctic and Intra-African migrants too.

Malawi is dominated by its lake (formerly Lake Nyasa); which flanks the upper two-thirds of the country. The river Shire drains Lake Malawi southwards to enter the Zambezi in Mozambique. The western highlands, from the Nyika plateau in the North southwards, comprise the western flank of the African Rift Valley. Southern Malawi has a number of important isolated massifs and outcrops, notable for their residual montane rain forests, which harbour some of the country’s most notable species. These mountains include Mulanje, Cholo, Soche, Zomba and Chiradzulu.

Abdim’s stork
Abyssinian thrush
African barred owlet
African black duck
African black-headed oriole
African blue flycatcher
African broadbill
African crake
African crested flycatcher
African cuckoo
African cuckoo-hawk
African darter
African dusky flycatcher
African emerald cuckoo
African finfoot
African firefinch
African fish-eagle
African golden weaver
African golden-oriole
African goshawk
African grass-owl
African gray hornbill
African green pigeon
African harrier-hawk
African hawk-eagle
African hill babbler
African hobby
African jacana
African marsh harrier
African openbill
African palm-swift
African paradise flycatcher
African penduline-tit
African pied wagtail
African pipit
African pitta
African pygmy kingfisher
African pygmy-goose
African rail
African reed warbler
African sacred ibis
African scops-owl
African skimmer
African snipe
African spoonbill
African spotted creeper
African stonechat
African swamphen
African swift
African wood-owl
African yellow white-eye
African yellow-warbler
Allen’s gallinule
Alpine swift
Amethyst sunbird
Amot’s chat
Amur falcon
Anchieta’s sunbird
Angola swallow
Arrow-marked babbler
Ashy flycatcher
Augur buzzard
Ayres hawk-eagle
Babbling starling
Baglafeched weaver
Baillon’s crake
Banded martin
Banded snake eagle
Bank swallow
Bare-faced-go-away bird
Barn owl
Barn swallow
Barred long-tailed cuckoo
Barred warbler
Bar-tailed godwit
Bar-tailed trogon
Bar-throated apalis

Bartram’s weaver
Basra reed warbler
Bat hawk
Bateleur
Bat-like spinetail
Bearded scrub robin
Bearded woodpecker
Bennett’s woodpecker
Black coucal
Black crake
Black cuckoo
Black cuckooshrike
Black goshawk
Black heron
Black kite
Black sawwing
Black stork
Black-and-white mannikin
Black-and-white shrike-flycatcher
Black-backed barbet
Black-backed puffback
Black-bellied bustard
Black-bellied plover
Black-browed eastern greenbul
Black-chested snake-eagle
Black-collared barbet
Black-crowned night-heron
Black-crowned tchagra
Black-eared seedeater
Black-fronted bush shrike
Black-headed apalis
Black-headed gull
Black-headed heron
Black-lored cisticola
Black-rumped buttonquail
Blacksmith lapwing
Black-tailed godwit
Black-tailed waxbill
Black-throated wattle-eye
Black-winged bishop
Black-winged kite
Black-winged pratincole
Black-winged stilt
Blue quail
Blue-cheeked bee-eater
Blue-spotted wood-dove
Bohm’s bee-eater
Bohm’s flycatcher
Booted eagle
Boulder chat
Brimstone canary
Broad-billed roller
Broad-billed sandpiper
Broad-tailed paradise-whydah
Bronze mannikin
Bronze sunbird
Bronze-winged courser
Brown firefinch
Brown parisoma
Brown snake eagle
Brown-breasted barbet
Brown-crowned tchagra
Brown-eared woodpecker
Brown-headed apalis
Brown-headed parrot
Brown-hooded kingfisher
Brown-necked parrot
Brubru
Buff-shouldered widowbird
Buff-spotted flufftail
Buffy pipit
Burnt-neck eremomela
Bush pipit
Cabanis’s bunting
Cabanis’s greenbul
Cape batis
Cape bunting

Cape crombec
Cape eagle-owl
Cape robin chat
Cape teal
Capped wheatear
Cardinal quelea
Cardinal woodpecker
Carp’s tit
Caspian plover
Cattle egret
Chapin’s apalis
Chest-nut fronted helmet shrike
Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
Chestnut-backed sparrow-weaver
Chestnut-headed flufftail
Chestnut-throated apalis
Chinspot batis
Cholo alethe
Churring cisticola
Cinnamon bracken warbler
Cinnamon-breasted bunting
Collared flycatcher
Collared palm thrush
Collared pratincole
Collared sunbird
Common bulbul
Common buzzard
Common cuckoo
Common green shank
Common house-martin
Common quail
Common red shank
Common sandpiper
Common scimitarbill
Common snipe
Common square-tailed drongo
Common swift
Common tern
Common waxbill
Common-ringed plover
Copper sunbird
Coppery-tailed coucal
Coqui francolin
Corn crake
Crested barbet
Crested francolin
Crested guineafowl
Crimson-rumped waxbill
Croaking cisticola
Crowned eagle
Crowned hornbill
Crowned lapwing
Curlew sandpiper
Cut-throat
Dark batis
Dark-chanting goshawk
Delegorgue’s pigeon
Denham’s bustard
Dickinson’s kestrel
Dideric cuckoo
Double-banded sandgrouse
Dusky lark
Dusky turtle dove
Dwarf bittern
East coast akalat
Eastern miombo sunbird
Eastern mountain greenbul
Eastern nicator
Eastern paradise-whydah
Egyptian goose
Egyptian vulture
Eleonora’s falcon
Emerald-spotted wood-dove
Eurasian blackcap
Eurasian curlew
Eurasian golden-oriole
Eurasian hobby

Eurasian hoopoe
Eurasian marsh-harrier
Eurasian moorhen
Eurasian nightjar
Eurasian reed warbler
Eurasian scops-owl
European bee-eater
European honey-buzzard
European roller
Evergreen forest warbler
Familiar chat
Fan-tailed grass bird
Fan-tailed widowbird
Fawn-breasted waxbill
Fiery-necked nightjar
Fischer’s sparrow lark
Flappet lark
Forest double-collared sunbird
Forest weaver
Fork-tailed drongo
Four-colored bush shrike
Freckled nightjar
Fulleborn’s boubou
Fulvous whistling duck
Gaba goshawk
Garden warbler
Garganey
Giant kingfisher
Glossy ibis
Golden pipit
Golden-breasted bunting
Golden-tailed woodpecker
Goliath heron
Gray crowned-crane
Gray cuckoo shrike
Gray heron
Gray kestrel
Gray tit-flycatcher
Gray wagtail
Gray-go-away-bird
Gray-headed bush shrike
Gray-headed kingfisher
Gray-hooded gull
Gray-olive greenbul
Gray-rumped swallow
Great cormorant
Great egret
Great reed warbler
Great snipe
Great white pelican
Greater blue-eared starling
Greater flamingo
Greater honeyguide
Greater painted-snipe
Greater sand-plover
Greater striped swallow
Greater white throat
Great-spotted cuckoo
Green barbet
Green indigobird
Green malkoha
Green sandpiper
Green tinkerbird
Green wood hoopoe
Green-backed camaroptera
Green-backed honeyguide
Green-backed twinspot
Green-backed woodpecker
Greencap eremomela
Green-headed oriole
Green-headed sunbird
Green-winged pytilia
Grosbeak weaver
Ground scraper-thrush
Gull-billed tern
Hadada ibis
Half-collared kingfisher

Hamerkop
Harlequin quail
Helmeted guineafowl
Hildebrandt’s francolin
Holub’s golden weaver
Hooded vulture
Horus swift
Hottentot teal
House sparrow
Hunter’s cisticola
Icterine warbler
Intermediate egret
Jameson’s firefinch
Kittlitz’s plover
Klaas’s cuckoo
Knob-billed duck
Kurrichane thrush
Lanner falcon
Lappet-faced vulture
Laughing dove
Lemon dove
Lemon-breasted seedeater
Lesser black-backed gull
Lesser blue-eared starling
Lesser cuckoo
Lesser flamingo
Lesser gray shrike
Lesser honeyguide
Lesser jacana
Lesser kestrel
Lesser masked weaver
Lesser moorhen
Lesser seedcracker
Lesser spotted eagle
Lesser striped swallow
Lesser swamp warbler
Levaillant’s cisticola
Levaillant’s cuckoo
Lilac-breasted roller
Lillian’s lovebird
Little bee-eater
Little bittern
Little egret
Little grebe
Little greenbul
Little rush warbler
Little sparrow-hawk
Little stint
Little swift
Livingstone’s flycatcher
Livingstone’s turaco
Lizard buzzard
Locust finch
Long crested eagle
Long-billed pipit
Long-billed tailorbird
Long-tailed cormorant
Long-toed lapwing
Maccoa duck
Madagascar bee-eater
Madagascar cuckoo
Madagascar pond-heron
Magpie mannikin
Magpie shrike
Malachite kingfisher
Malachite sunbird
Marabou stork
Marsh owl
Marsh sandpiper
Marsh tchagra
Marsh warbler
Martial eagle
Mascarene martin
Meve’s starling
Meyer’s parrot
Miombo barbet
Miombo rock thrush

Miombo scrub robin
Miombo tit
Miombo-wren warbler
Mocking cliff-chat
Montagu’s harrier
Montane blue swallow
Montane Double-collared sunbird
Mosque swallow
Mottled spinetail
Mottled swift
Mountain buzzard
Mountain illadopsis
Mountain yellow-warbler
Mourning collared-dove
Mouse-colored sunbird
Mustached grass-warbler
Mustached tinkerbird
Namaqua dove
Narina trogon
Neumann’s starling
Northern fiscal
Northern gray-headed sparrow
Northern pintail
Northern shoveler
Northern wheatear
Olive bush shrike
Olive sunbird
Olive thrush
Olive woodpecker
Olive-flanked robin chat
Olive-headed weaver
Olive-tree warbler
Orange ground-thrush
Orange-winged pytilia
Oriole finch
Oustalet’s sunbird
Ovambo sparrow-hawk
Pacific bolden-plover
Pale batis
Pale flycatcher
Pale-billed hornbill
Pallid harrier
Pallid honeyguide
Palm nut-vulture
Parasitic weaver
Pearl-breasted swallow
Pearl-spotted owlet
Pel’s fishing owl
Pennant-winged nightjar
Peregrine falcon
Peters’s twinspot
Pied avocet
Pied crow
Pied cuckoo
Pied kingfisher
Pink-backed pelican
Pin-tailed whydah
Piping cisticola
Plain martin
Plain-backed pipit
Purple heron
Purple indigobird
Purple-banded sunbird
Purple-crested turaco
Quailfinch
Racket-tailed roller
Rameron pigeon
Rattling cisticola
Red-backed scrub robin
Red-backed shrike
Red-billed duck
Red-billed firefinch
Red-billed ox-pecker
Red-billed quelea
Red-capped crombec
Red-capped lark
Red-capped robin-chat

Red-chested cuckoo
Red-chested flufftail
Red-collared widowbird
Red-eyed dove
Red-faced cisticola
Red-faced crimsonwing
Red-faced crombec
Red-faced mouse bird
Red-footed falcon
Red-headed quelea
Red-headed weaver
Red-knobbed coot
Red-necked falcon
Red-necked spurfowl
Red-rumped swallow
Red-tailed shrike
Red-tufted sunbird
Red-winged francolin
Red-winged prinia
Red-winged starling
Reichard’s seedeater
Reichenow’s woodpecker
Retz’s helmet shrike
Ring-necked dove
River warbler
Rock kestrel
Rock martin
Rock pigeon
Rock pratincole
Rock-loving cisticola
Rosy-throated longclaw
Rosy-throated longclaw
Ruaha chat
Rudd’s apalis
Ruddy turnstone
Ruff
Rufous-bellied heron
Rufous-bellied tit
Rufous-breasted sparrow hawk
Rufous-chested swallow
Rufous-crowned roller
Rufous-naped lark
Rufous-tailed scrub robin
Rufous-winged cisticola
Rwenzori nightjar
Saddle-billed stork
Sanderling
Scaly francolin
Scaly-throated honeyguide
Scarce swift
Scarlet-chested sunbird
Schalow’s turaco
Secretary bird
Sedge warbler
Senegal coucal
Senegal lapwing
Sharpe’s akalat
Sharpe’s starling
Shelley’s francolin
Shelley’s greenbul
Shelley’s sunbird
Shikra
Short-tailed batis
Silvery-cheeked hornbill
Singing cisticola
Slender-billed starling
Small buttonquail
Sombre greenbul
Sooty falcon
Sooty tern
South African swallow
Southern black tit
Southern boubou
Southern brown-throated weaver

Southern carmine bee-eater
Southern citril
Southern cordonbleu
Southern fiscal
Southern gray-headed sparrow
Southern ground hornbill
Southern hyliota
Southern masked weaver
Southern pochard
Southern red bishop
Southern red-billed hornbill
Southern white-faced owl
Southern yellow-billed hornbill
Southern-black flycatcher
Souza’s shrike
Speckled mousebird
Speckled pigeon
Spectacled weaver
Spotted crake
Spotted eagle-owl
Spotted flycatcher
Spotted ground-thrush
Spotted redshank
Spotted thick-knee
Spot-throat
Spur-winged goose
Spur-winged lapwing
Squacco heron
Square-tailed nightjar
Steppe eagle
Stierling’s woodpecker
Stierling’s wren warbler
Stifling cisticola
Streaky-breasted flufftail
Striated heron
Stripe-cheeked greenbul
Striped crake
Striped flufftail
Striped kingfisher
Striped pipit
Stuhlmann’s sunbird
Sulphur-breasted bush shrike
Swahili sparrow
Swainson’s francolin
Swallow-tailed bee-eater
Taita falcon
Tambourine dove
Tawny eagle
Tawny-flanked prinia
Temmnick’s courser
Terek sandpiper
Terrestrial brownbul
Thick-billed cuckoo
Three-banded plover
Thrush nightingale
Tinkling cisticola
Tree pipit
Trilling cisticola
Tropical boubou
Trumpeter hornbill
Tufted duck
Variable indigobird
Variable sunbird
Verreaux’s eagle
Verreaux’s eagle-owl
Village indigobird
Village weaver
Vincent’s bunting
Violet-backed starling
Wahlberg’s eagle
Wahlberg’s honeyguide
Wailing cisticola
Waller’s starling
Water thick-knee

Wattled crane
Wattled lapwing
Wattled starling
Western miombo sunbird
Western violet-backed sunbird
Western yellow wagtail
Whimbrel
Whinchat
Whiskered tern
White helmet shrike
White stork
White wagtail
White-backed duck
White-backed night-heron
White-backed vulture
White-breasted cuckoo shrike
White-breasted sunbird
White-browed coucal
White-browed robin-chat
White-browed sparrow-weaver
White-chested alethe
White-eared barbet
White-eyed-slaty flycatcher
White-faced whistling duck
White-fronted bee-eater
White-fronted plover
White-headed buffalo-weaver
White-headed lapwing
White-headed sawwing
White-headed vulture
White-necked raven
White-rumped swift
White-starred robin
White-tailed blue flycatcher
White-tailed crested flycatcher
White-throated swallow
White-winged apalis
White-winged black tit
White-winged tern
White-winged widowbird
Whyte’s barbet
Willow warbler
Winding cisticola
Wing-snapping cisticola
Wire-tailed swallow
Wood sandpiper
Woodland kingfisher
Woodland pipit
Woodward’s batis
Woolly-necked stork
Yellow bishop
Yellow-bellied greenbul
Yellow-bellied hyliota
Yellow-bellied waxbill
Yellow-billed duck
Yellow-billed ox-pecker
Yellow-billed stork
Yellow-breasted apalis
Yellow-browed seedeater
Yellow-crowned canary
Yellow-fronted canary
Yellow-fronted tinkerbird
Yellow-mantled widowbird
Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
Yellow-streaked bulbul
Yellow-throated apalis
Yellow-throated bush sparrow
Yellow-throated greenbul
Yellow-throated longclaw
Yellow-throated woodland-warbler
Yrllow-bellied eremomela
Zebra waxbill
Zitting cisticola

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