List of Birds of Namibia

Namibia Birding Safari is a must for any keen birder! Indeed, the birds, other wildlife, landscapes, and vast open spaces will touch your soul. Our itinerary covers the best birding and wildlife venues of Central and Northern Namibia. From the great orange sand dunes of Sossusvlei to the plains of Etosha, each day delivers new wonders. And, while Namibia’s bird list is not as big as those of more verdant countries, it’s packed with near-endemics and specials. In short, it’s simply unique in every way

If you’re looking for the highlights of birding in Namibia, start with Etosha National Park in the early months of the year, when the vast saltpan there fills with water. Great flocks of blue cranes descend to feed, and flamingos arrive to breed. For Namibia’s best birding area, seek out the Caprivi Strip, where dry Kalahari areas stand beside the waterways and swamps of the Okavango and Linyanti Rivers.

Beside Namibia’s coast, around Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, birders will find not only Cape cormorants; greater and lesser flamingos, and colonies of eastern white pelicans – but also ‘specials’ like the endangered, ground-nesting Damara tern.

The only endemic bird species of Namibia, the dune lark, is highly localized in the Namib Desert – but bird-watchers will find an interesting array of birds in many areas.

Abdim’s stork
African barred owl
African black duck
African broadbill
African crake
African cuckoo
African cuckoo-hawk
African darter
African emerald cuckoo
African finfoot
African fish eagle
African golden oriole
African goshawk
African grass-owl
African gray hornbill
African green pigeon
African harrier-hawk
African hawk-eagle
African hobby
African jacana
African openbill
African oystercatcher
African palm swift
African paradise flycatcher
African penduline tit
African penguin
African pied wagtail
African pipit
African pitta
African pygmy-goose
African pygmy-kingfisher
African rail
African reed warbler
African sacred ibis
African scop’s owl
African skimmer
African snipe
African spoonbill
African stonechat
African swamphen
African swift
African wood-owl
African yellow white-eye
Allen’s gallinule
Alpine swift
American golden-plover
Amethyst sunbird
Amot’s chat
Amur falcon
Angola cave-chat
Angola swallow
Angola waxbill
Antarctic prion
Antarctic tern
Arctic tern
Arrow-marked babbler
Ashy flycatcher
Ashy tit
Atlantic petrel
Augur buzzard
Australasian gannet
Ayres’s hawk-eagle
Baillon’s crake
Baird’s sandpiper
Banded martin
Banded snake-eagle
Band-rumped storm-petrel
Bank cormorant
Bank swallow
Bare-cheeked babbler
Barlow’s lark
Barn owl
Barn swallow
Barred wren-warbler
Bar-tailed godwit
Bat hawk
Bateleur

Bat-like spinetail
Bearded scrub robin
Bearded vulture
Bearded Woodpecker
Benguela lark
Bennett’s woodpecker
Black coucal
Black crake
Black cuckoo
Black cuckoo shrike
Black goshawk
Black harrier
Black heron
Black kite
Black sawwing
Black stork
Black tern
Black tern
Black-backed puff back
Black-bellied bustard
Black-bellied plover
Black-bellied storm petrel
Black-browed albatross
Black-cheeked lovebird
Black-chested prinia
Black-chested snake-eagle
Black-collared barbet
Black-crowned tchagra
Black-crowned-night heron
Black-eared seedeater
Black-eared sparrow-lark
Black-faced babbler
Black-faced waxbill
Black-fronted bulbul
Black-headed canary
Black-headed gull
Black-headed heron
Black-headed oriole
Blacksmith lapwing
Black-tailed godwit
Black-throated canary
Black-winged kite
Black-winged pratincole
Black-winged stilt
Blue crane
Blue-cheeked bee-eater
Bokmakierie
Booted eagle
Bradfield’s hornbill
Bradfield’s swift
Bridled tern
Broad-billed prion
Broad-billed roller
Broad-billed sandpiper
Broad-tailed paradise whydah
Bronze mannikin
Bronze-winged courser
Brown booby
Brown firefinch
Brown skua
Brown snake-eagle
Brown-crowned tchagra
Brown-hooded kingfisher
Brown-necked parrot
Brubru
Buff-breasted sandpiper
Buffy pipit
Bulwer’s prion
Burchell’s courser
Burchell’s sandgrouse
Burchell’s starling
Burnt-necked eremomela
Cape bunting
Cape clapper lark
Cape cormorant
Cape crombec
Cape crow

Cape francolin
Cape gannet
Cape griffon
Cape lark
Cape petrel
Cape robin-chat
Cape shoveler
Cape sparrow
Cape starling
Cape teal
Cape wagtail
Cape weaver
Cape-eagle owl
Capped wheatear
Cardinal quelea
Cardinal Woodpecker
Carp’s tit
Caspian Plover
Caspian tern
Cattle egret
Chat flycatcher
Chestnut weaver
Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
Chestnut-banded plover
Chestnut-vented warbler
Chinspot batis
Chirping cisticola
Cinderella waxbill
Cinnamon-breasted bunting
Citrine wagtail
Collared flycatcher
Collared palm thrush
Collared pratincole
Collared Sunbird
Common bulbul
Common buzzard
Common cuckoo
Common greenshank
Common house-martin
Common myna
Common ostrich
Common quail
Common redshank
Common sandpiper
Common scimitarbill
Common swift
Common tern
Common waxbill
Common-ringed plover
Copper sunbird
Coppery-tailed coucal
Coqui francolin
Corncrake
Cory’s shearwater
Crested barbet
Crested francolin
Crested guineafowl
Crimson-breasted gonolek
Croaking cisticola
Crowned cormorant
Crowned eagle
Crowned hornbill
Crowned lapwing
Curlew sandpiper
Cut-throat
Damara red-billed hornbill
Damara tern
Dark-chanting goshawk
Denham’s bustard
Desert cisticola
Dickinson’s kestrel
Diderick cuckoo
Double-banded courser
Double-banded sandgrouse
Dune lark
Dunlin
Dusky lark

Dusky sunbird
Dwarf bittern
Eared grebe
Eastern clapper lark
Eastern nicator
Eastern paradise whydah
Egyptian goose
Egyptian vulture
Elegant tern
Eleonora’s falcon
Emerald-spotted wood-dove
Eurasian curlew
Eurasian golden oriole
Eurasian hobby
Eurasian hoopoe
Eurasian moorhen
Eurasian nightjar
Eurasian oystercatcher
Eurasian reed warbler
Eurasian-marsh harrier
European bee-eater
European honey-buzzard
European roller
European starling
European storm-petrel
European turtle dove
Fairy flycatcher
Fairy prion
Familiar chat
Fan-tailed widowbird
Fawn-colored lark
Fiery-necked nightjar
Fiscal flycatcher
Flappet lark
Fork-tailed drongo
Franklin’s gull
Freckled nightjar
Fulvous whistling duck
Gabar goshawk
Gabon boubou
Garden warbler
Garganey
Giant kingfisher
Glossy ibis
Golden pipit
Golden-breasted bunting
Golden-tailed woodpecker
Goliath heron
Gray go-away-bird
Gray heron
Gray kestrel
Gray petrel
Gray tit
Gray wagtail
Gray’s lark
Gray-backed sparrow-lark
Gray-crowned crane
Gray-headed albatross
Gray-headed bushshrike
Gray-headed kingfisher
Gray-hooded gull
Gray-rumped swallow
Gray-tit flycatcher
Great bittern
Great cormorant
Great crested grebe
Great egret
Great rufous sparrow
Great shearwater
Great snipe
Great white pelican
Greater Blue-eared starling
Greater crested tern
Greater francolin
Greater honeyguide
Greater kestrel
Greater reed warbler

Greater striped swallow
Greater swamp warbler
Greater whitethroat
Greater-painted snipe
Greater-sand plover
Great-spotted coucal
Great-winged petrel
Green sandpiper
Green wood hoopoe
Green-backed camaroptera
Green-backed honeyguide
Greencap eremomela
Green-winged pytilia
Grosbeak weaver
Ground scrapper thrush
Gull-billed tern
Hadada ibis
Half-collared kingfisher
Hamerkop
Harlequin quail
Hartlaub’s babbler
Hartlaub’s francolin
Hartlaub’s gull
Helmeted guineafowl
Herero chat
Holube’s golden-weaver
Hooded vulture
Horus swift
Hottentot teal
House sparrow
Icterine warbler
Intermediate egret
Jackal buzzard
Jameson’s firefinch
Kalahari scrub-robin
Karoo bustard
Karoo chat
Karoo long-billed lark
Karoo prinia
Karoo thrush
Karoo-scrub robin
Kelp gull
Kentish plover
Kerguelen petrel
Kitilitz’s plover
Klaas’s cuckoo
Knob-billed duck
Kopje warbler
Kori bustard
Kurrichane thrush
Lanner falcon
Lappet-faced vulture
Large-billed lark
Lark-like bunting
Laughing dove
Layard’s warbler
Leach’s storm petrel
Lesser black-backed gull
Lesser blue-eared starling
Lesser crested tern
Lesser francolin
Lesser gray shrike
Lesser honeyguide
Lesser jacana
Lesser kestrel
Lesser masked-weaver
lesser moorhen
Lesser striped swallow
Lesser swamp warbler
Lesser-sand plover
Lesser-spotted eagle
Levaillant’s cisticola
Levaillant’s cuckoo
Lilac-breasted roller
Little bee-eater
Little bittern
Little egret slaty egret

Little grebe
Little rush-warbler
Little sparrow hawk
Little stint
Little swift
Little tern
Little-ringed plover
Lizard buzzard
Long-billed pipit
Long-crested eagle
Long-legged buzzard
Long-tailed cormorant
Long-tailed jaeger
Long-toed lapwing
Luapula cisticola
Ludwig’s bustard
Maccoa duck
Madagascar bee-eater
Magpie mannikin
Magpie shrike
Malachite kingfisher
Malachite sunbird
Manx shearwater
Marabou stork
Mariqua flycatcher
Mariqua sunbird
Marsh owl
Marsh sandpiper
Marsh warbler
Martial eagle
Meves’s starling
Meyer’s parrot
Monotonous lark
Montagu’s harrier
Montain pipit
Monteiro’s hornbill
Mosque swallow
Mountain wheatear
Mourning collared dove
Namaqua dove
Namaqua sandgrouse
Namaqua warbler
Narina trogon
Northern giant-petrel
Northern gray-headed sparrow
Northern pintail
Northern shoveler
Northern wheatear
Olive tree warbler
Olive woodpecker
Orange river francolin
Orange river white-eye
Orange-winged pytilia
Ortolan bunting
Osprey
Ovambo sparrow hawk
Pacific golden-plover
Pale flycatcher
Pale-chanting goshawk
Pale-winged starling
Pallid harrier
Palm-nut vulture
Parasitic jaeger
Parasitic weaver
Pearl-breasted swallow
Pearl-spotted owlet
Pectoral sandpiper
Pel’s fishing owl
Pennant-winged nightjar
Peregrine falcon
Peters’s twinspot
Pied avocet
Pied barbet
Pied crow
Pied Cuckoo
Pied kingfisher
Pink-backed pelican

Pink-billed lark
Pin-tailed whydah
Piping cisticola
Plain martin
Plain-backed pipit
Pomarine jaeger
Pririt batis
Purple heron
Purple indigobird
Purple-banded sunbird
Pygmy falcon
Quail finch
Racket-tailed roller
Rattling cisticola
Red knot
Red phalarope
Red-backed scrub-robin
Red-backed shrike
Red-billed buffalo-weaver
Red-billed duck
Red-billed firefinch
Red-billed francolin
Red-billed ox-pecker
Red-billed quelea
Red-capped crombec
Red-capped lark
Red-capped robin-chat
Red-chested cuckoo
Red-chested flufftail
Red-crested bustard
Red-eyed dove
Red-faced cisticola
Red-faced crombec
Red-faced mousebird
Red-footed booby
Red-footed falcon
Red-headed cisticola
Red-headed finch
Red-headed weaver
Red-knobbed coot
Red-necked falcon
Red-necked francolin
Red-necked phalarope
Red-throated pipit
Red-winged starling
Retz’s helmet shrike
Ring-necked dove
River warbler
Rock kestrel
Rock martin
Rock pigeon
Rock pratincole
Rock runner
Roseate tern
Ross’s turaco
Rosy-faced lovebird
Rosy-throated longclaw
Royal tern
Ruddy turnstone
Ruff
Rufous-bellied heron
Rufous-bellied tit
Rufous-cheeked nightjar
Rufous-chested swallow
Rufous-crowned roller
Rufous-eared warbler
Rufous-napped lark
Rufous-tailed palm-thrush
Ruppell’s bustard
Ruppell’s parrot
Sabine’s gull
Sabota lark
Saddle-bill stork
Salvin’s albatross
Sanderling
Sandwich tern
Scaly weaver
Scaly-throated honeyguide
Scarlet-chested sunbird

Schalow’s turaco
Sclater’s lark
Secretary bird
Sedge warbler
Senegal coucal
Shaft-tailed whydah
Sharp-tailed starling
Shelley’s sunbird
Shikra
Short-toed rock-thrush
Sickle-winged chat
Slender-billed prion
Small buttonquail
Sociable weaver
Soft-plumaged petrel
Sooty falcon
Sooty shearwater
South African ostrich
South African shelduck
South African swallow
South polar skua
Southern anteater-chat
Southern black tit
Southern brown-throated weaver
Southern carmine bee-eater
Southern cordonbleu
Southern double-collared sunbird
Southern fiscal
Southern fulmar
Southern giant-petrel
Southern gray-headed sparrow
Southern ground-hornbill
Southern masked weaver
Southern penduline tit
Southern pied babbler
Southern pochard
Southern red bishop
Southern red-billed hornbill
Southern white-faced owl
Southern yellow-billed hornbill
Southern-black flycatcher
Souza’s shrike
speckled pigeon
Spectacled weaver
Spike-heeled lark
spotted crake
Spotted eagle-owl
Spotted flycatcher
Spotted redshank
Spotted thick-knee
Spur-winged goose
Spur-winged lapwing
Squacco heron
Square-tailed nightjar
Stark’s lark
Steppe eagle
Stierling’s wren warbler
Streaky-breasted flufftail
Streaky-headed seedeater
Striated heron
Striped crake
Striped kingfisher
Subantarctic shearwater
Sulphur-breasted bushshrike
Swainson’s francolin
Swallow-tailed bee-eater
Swamp nightjar
Tambourine dove
Tawny eagle
Tawny flanked prinia
Temmnick’s courser
Temmnick’s stint
Terek sandpiper
Terrestrial brownbul
Thick-billed cuckoo
Three-banded courser
Three-banded plover
Thrush nightingale
Tinkling cisticola

Tractrac chat
Tree pipit
Tropical boubou
Trumpeter hornbill
Variable indigobird
Verraeux’s eagle
Verraeux’s eagle-owl
Village indigobird
Village weaver
Violet-backed starling
Violet-eared waxbill
Wahlberg’s eagle
Wahlberg’s honeyguide
Wandering albatross
Water thick-knee
Wattled crane
Wattled lapwing
Wattled starling
Western yellow wagtail
Whimbrel
Whinchat
Whiskered tern
White helmet shrike
White stork
White-backed duck
White-backed mouse bird
White-backed vulture
White-backed-night heron
White-bellied storm petrel
White-breasted cuckoo shrike
White-breasted sunbird
White-browed coucal
White-browed robin-chat
White-browed sparrow-weaver
White-capped albatross
White-chinned petrel
White-crowned shrike
White-faced whistling duck
White-fronted bee-eater
White-fronted plover
White-headed lapwing
White-headed vulture
White-necked raven
White-quilled bustard
White-rumped sandpiper
White-rumped swift
White-tailed shrike
White-tailed tropicbird
White-throated canary
White-throated swallow
White-winged tern
White-winged widowbird
Willow warbler
Wilson’s phalarope
Wilson’s storm-petrel
Wire-tailed swallow
Wood sandpiper
Woodland kingfisher
Woodland pipit
Wooly-necked stork
Yellow canary
Yellow-bellied greenbul
Yellow-bellied hyliota
Yellow-billed duck
Yellow-billed eremomela
Yellow-billed ox-pecker
Yellow-billed stork
Yellow-breasted apalis
Yellow-crowned bishop
Yellow-fronted canary
Yellow-legged gull
Yellow-nosed albatross
Yellow-rumped eremomela
Yellow-throated bush sparrow
Yellow-throated greenbul
Yellow-throated sandgrouse
Yellow-throated tinkerbird
Zebra waxbill
Zitting cisticola

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