List of Birds of Malawi
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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.
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- 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
Best time for Birding in Malawi
Bird watching in Malawi is excellent throughout the year. The best time however is the Wet season, from November to April – this is when migratory birds are present. Wildlife viewing, however, is better in the Dry season (May to October).