List of Birds of Somalia & Somaliland

Somalia, officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya on its southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen on its north, the Indian Ocean at its east, and Ethiopia to the west.

Somalia has the longest coastline on the continent. Somalia’s terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains, and highlands. In the far north, however, the rugged east-west ranges of the Karkaar Mountains lie at varying distances from the Gulf of Aden coast.

Major climatic factors are a year-round hot climate, seasonal monsoon winds, and irregular rainfall with recurring droughts. Mean daily maximum temperatures range from 30 °C to 40 °C (85–105 °F), except at higher elevations and along the east coast. Mean daily minimums usually vary from about 15 °C to 30 °C (60–85 °F). The southwest monsoon, a sea breeze, makes the period from about May to October the mildest season at Mogadishu. The December-February period of the northeast monsoon is also relatively mild, although prevailing climatic conditions in Mogadishu are rarely pleasant. The “Tangambili” periods that intervene between the two monsoons (October–November, and March-May) are hot and humid.

Abdim’s stork
Abyssinian ground hornbill
Abyssinian roller
Abyssinian scimitarbill
Abyssinian white-eye
African bare-eyed thrush
African barred owlet
African black-headed oriole
African collared dove
African crested-flycatcher
African cuckoo
African cuckoo-hawk
African darter
African desert warbler
African emerald cuckoo
African finfoot
African fish eagle
African golden oriole
African golden weaver
African goshawk
African gray flycatcher
African gray hornbill
African harrier-hawk
African hawk eagle
African hobby
African jacana
African marsh-harrier
African mourning dove
African openbill
African palm-swift
African paradise-flycatcher
African pied wagtail
African pipit
African pygmy goose
African pygmy kingfisher
African reed warbler
African scop’s owl
African silverbill
African skimmer
African spoonbill
African stonechat
African swamphen
African wood-owl
Allen’s gallinule
Alpine swift
Amethyst sunbird
Amur falcon
Antarctic prion
Arabian bustard
Arabian golden-sparrow
Archer’s buzzard
Archer’s lark
Arctic tern
Armenian gull
Ash’s lark
Ashy cisticola
Ashy flycatcher
Ayres’s hawk eagle
Baillon’s crake
Banded martin
Banded parisoma
Bank swallow
Barbary falcon
Barn owl
Barn swallow
Barred warbler
Bar-tailed godwit
Basra reed warbler
Bat hawk
Bateleur
Bat-like spinetail
Bearded scrub robin
Bearded woodpecker
Beautiful sunbird
Black boubou
Black crake
Black cuckoo

Black cuckoo shrike
Black goshawk
Black heron
Black kite
Black redstart
Black scimitarbill
Black scrub robin
Black stork
Black tern
Black-and-white mannikin
Black-and-white shrike-flycatcher
Black-backed puffback
Black-bellied bustard
Black-bellied plover
Black-bellied starling
Black-bellied storm petrel
Black-bellied sunbird
Black-billed wood hoopoe
Black-capped social-weaver
Black-chested snake-eagle
Black-crowned night-heron
Black-crowned sparrow-lark
Black-crowned tchagra
Black-eared wheatear
Black-faced firefinch
Black-faced sandgrouse
Black-headed apalis
Black-headed gull
Black-headed heron
Black-headed lapwing
Black-necked weaver
Blackstart
Black-tailed godwit
Black-throated barbet
Black-throated canary
Black-throated wattle-eye
Black-winged bishop
Black-winged kite
Black-winged lapwing
Black-winged pratincole
Black-winged stilt
Blue rock thrush
Blue throat
Blue-capped cordonbleu
Blue-cheeked bee-eater
Blue-napped mouse bird
Bonelli’s eagle
Booted eagle
Booted warbler
Boran cisticola
Bridled tern
Bristle-crowned starling
Broad-billed roller
Broad-billed sandpiper
Bronze mannikin
Bronze-winged courser
Brown bobby
Brown noddy
Brown skua
Brown snake eagle
Brown woodland warbler
Brown-breasted barbet
Brown-headed parrot
Brown-hooded kingfisher
Brown-necked raven
Brown-rumped seed-eater
Brown-tailed chat
Brubru
Bruce’s green pigeon
Buff-crested bustard
Buff-spotted flufftail
Cape crow
Cape petrel
Capped wheatear
Cardinal woodpecker
Caspian gull
Caspian plover

Caspian tern
Cattle egret
Chestnut sparrow
Chestnut weaver
Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
Chestnut-billed sandgrouse
Chestnut-fronted helmet-shrike
Chestnut-headed sparrow-lark
Chestnut-napped francolin
Cinnamon-breasted bunting
Cinnamon-chested bee-eater
Clamorous reed warbler
Coastal cisticola
Collared kingfisher
Collared lark
Collared pratincole
Collared sunbird
Common bulbul
Common buzzard
Common chiffchaff
Common cuckoo
Common greenshank
Common house-martin
Common nightingale
Common quail
Common redshank
Common redstart
Common ringed plover
Common sandpiper
Common scimitarbill
Common snipe
Common square-tailed drongo
Common swift
Common tern
Common waxbill
Corn crake
Crab-plover
Cream-colored courser
Crested francolin
Crested guineafowl
Crested lark
Crimson-rumped waxbill
Croaking cisticola
Crowned hornbill
Crowned lapwing
Curlew sandpiper
Cut-throat
D’amaud’s barbet
Desert cisticola
Desert lark
Desert wheatear
Dideric cuckoo
Donaldson smith’s-nightjar
Donaldson-smith’s sparrow-weaver
Double-banded courser
Dunlin
Dusky turtle dove
Dwarf bittern
Eared greb
East coast boubou
Eastern black-headed batis
Eastern chanting-goshawk
Eastern nicator
Eastern olivaceous warbler
Eastern olive-sunbird
Eastern paradise-whydah
Eastern violet-backed sunbird
Eastern yellow-billed hornbill
Egyptian goose
Egyptian nightjar
Egyptian vulture
Eleonora’s falcon
Emerald-spotted wood-dove
Ethiopian boubou
Ethiopian swallow
Eurasian blackcap
Eurasian curlew

Eurasian golden oriole
Eurasian hobby
Eurasian hoopoe
Eurasian kestrel
Eurasian marsh-harrier
Eurasian moorhen
Eurasian nightjar
Eurasian oystercatcher
Eurasian reed warbler
Eurasian river 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 starling
Fan-tailed raven
Fan-tailed widowbird
Fasciated snake eagle
Fawn-colored lark
Fiery-necked nightjar
Fire-fronted bishop
Fischer’s greenbul
Fischer’s starling
Fischer’s turaco
Flappet lark
Flesh-footed shearwater
Forbes-watson’s swift
Forest weaver
Fork-tailed drongo
Four-colored bush shrike
Foxy lark
Fulvous whistling duck
Gabar goshawk
Gadwall
Gambaga flycatcher
Garden warbler
Garganey
Giant kingfisher
Gillett’s lark
Glossy ibis
Golden palm weaver
Golden pipit
Golden-breasted starling
Golden-tailed woodpecker
Goliath heron
Graceful prinia
Grasshopper buzzard
Gray cuckoo shrike
Gray heron
Gray wagtail
Gray wren-warbler
Gray-headed batis
Gray-headed bush shrike
Gray-headed gull
Gray-headed kingfisher
Gray-headed silverbill
Gray-headed social-weaver
Gray-headed sparrow
Grayish eagle-owl
Great cormorant
Great crested tern
Great egret
Great frigatebird
Great gray shrike
Great reed warbler
Great snipe
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 whitethroat
Great-spotted cuckoo
Green malkoha
Green sandpiper
Green wood hoopoe
Green-backed camaroptera
Green-backed woodpecker
Green-winged pytilia
Green-winged teal
Grosbeak weaver
Gull-billed tern
Hadada ibis
Hamerkop
Harlequin quail
Hartlaub’s bustard
Helmeted guineafowl
Hemprich’s hornbill
Herring gull
Heuglin’s bustard
Heuglin’s gull
Heuglin’s wheatear
Hooded vulture
Hooded wheatear
Hottentot teal
House crow
House sparrow
Hunter’s sunbird
Icterine warbler
Intermediate egret
Isabelline shrike
Isabelline wheatear
Jack snipe
Jouanin’s petrel
Kentish plover
Kerguelen petrel
Kitilitz’s plover
Klaas’s cuckoo
Knob-billed duck
Kori bustard
Kurdish wheatear
Lanner falcon
Lappet-faced vulture
Laughing dove
Lesser black-backed gull
Lesser blue-eared glossy starling
Lesser crested tern
Lesser cuckoo
Lesser flamingo
Lesser frigatebird
Lesser gray shrike
Lesser honeyguide
Lesser hoopoe-lark
Lesser kestrel
Lesser masked weaver
Lesser noddy
Lesser sand-plover
Lesser striped swallow
Lesser swamp warbler
Lesser whitethroat
Levaillant’s cuckoo
Lichtenstein’s sandgrouse
Lilac-breasted roller
Little bee-eater
Little bittern
Little brown bustard
Little crake
Little egret
Little grebe
Little owl
Little ringed plover
Little rock thrush
Little sparrow hawk
Little stint

Little swift
Little tern
Lizard buzzard
Long-billed pipit
Long-crested eagle
Long-legged buzzard
Long-tailed cormorant
Long-tailed fiscal
Long-tailed nightjar
Madagascar bee-eater
Madagascar pond-heron
Madagascar pratincole
Magpie starling
Malachite kingfisher
Malindi pipit
Mangrove kingfisher
Marabou stork
Mariqua sunbird
Marsh sandpiper
Marsh warbler
Martial eagle
Mascarene petrel
Masked bobby
Masked shrike
Matsudaira’s storm petrel
Menetries’s warbler
Mombasa woodpecker
Montagu’s harrier
Mosque swallow
Mottled spinetail
Mourning wheatear
Mouse-colored penduline-tit
Mouse-colored sunbird
Namaqua dove
Narina trogon
Nile valley sunbird
Northern black flycatcher
Northern brownbul
Northern carmine bee-eater
Northern crombec
Northern grosbeak-canary
Northern masked-weaver
Northern pintail
Northern puffback
Northern red-billed hornbill
Northern shoveler
Northern wheatear
Northern white-faced owl
Nubian nightjar
Nubian woodpecker
Nyanza swift
Obbia lark
Olive-tree warbler
Orange bishop
Orange river francolin
Ortolan bunting
Osprey
Pacific golden-plover
Pale flycatcher
Pale prinia
Pale white-eye
Pallas’s gull
Pallid harrier
Pangani longclaw
Parasitic jaeger
Parrot-billed sparrow
Pearl-spotted owlet
Pectoral-patch cisticola
Pel’s fishing-owl
Pennant-winged nightjar
Peregrine falcon
Persian shearwater
Peters’s twinspot
Pied avocet
Pied crow
Pied cuckoo
Pied kingfisher

Pied wheatear
Pink-backed pelican
Pink-breasted lark
Pintail snipe
Pin-tailed whydah
Plain martin
Plain nightjar
Plain-backed pipit
Pomarine jaeger
Pringle’s puffback
Purple grenadier
Purple heron
Purple-banded sunbird
Pygmy batis
Pygmy falcon
Pygmy sunbird
Rameron pigeon
Rattling cisticola
Red knot
Red sea warbler
Red-and-yellow-barbet
Red-backed scrub robin
Red-backed shrike
Red-bellied parrot
Red-billed buffalo-weaver
Red-billed duck
Red-billed firefinch
Red-billed ox-pecker
Red-billed quelea
Red-billed tropical bird
Red-capped lark
Red-capped robin-chat
Red-cheeked cordonbleu
Red-chested cuckoo
Red-eyed dove
Red-faced crombec
Red-footed bobby
Red-footed falcon
Red-fronted barbet
Red-fronted prinia
Red-fronted tinker bird
Red-headed quelea
Red-headed weaver
Red-knobbed coot
Red-napped bush shrike
Red-necked falcon
Red-necked phalarope
Red-necked stint
Red-rumped swallow
Red-rumped waxbill
Red-shouldered cuckoo shrike
Red-tailed ant thrush
Red-tailed shrike
Red-throated pipit
Red-winged lark
Red-winged starling
Reichenow’s seed-eater
Retz’s helmet shrike
Ring-necked dove
Rock martin
Rock pigeon
Roseate tern
Rose-ringed parakeet
Rosy-patched bush shrike
Ruddy shelduck
Ruddy turnstone
Rueppell’s glossy starling
Rueppell’s weaver
Ruff
Rufous chatterer
Rufous-capped lark
Rufous-crowned roller
Rufous-napped lark
Rufous-tailed rock thrush
Rufous-tailed scrub robin
Ruppell’s griffon
Sabine’s gull

Sacred ibis
Saddle-billed stork
Salvadori’s weaver
Sanderling
Sandwich tern
Saunder’s tern
Scaly babbler
Scaly chatterer
Scaly-throated honeyguide
Scarlet-chested sunbird
Scissor-tailed kite
Secretary bird
Sedge warbler
Semi-collared flycatcher
Senegal coucal
Senegal lapwing
Shelley’s starling
Shikra
Shinning sunbird
Short-billed crombec
Short-eared owl
Short-tailed lark
Short-toed snake eagle
Shy albatross
Sidamo lark
Siffling cisticola
Silvery-cheeked hornbill
Singing bush lark
Slate-colored boubou
Slender-billed curlew
Slender-tailed nightjar
Small bee-eater
Small buttonquail
Sociable lapwing
Socotra cormorant
Somali bunting
Somali crombec
Somali crow
Somali fiscal
Somali golden-winged grosbeak
Somali long-billed lark
Somali ostrich
Somali pigeon
Somali short-toed lark
Somali sparrow
Somali starling
Somali thrush
Somali tit
Somali wheatear
Somber chat
Somber greenbul
Somber night jar
Sooty falcon
Sooty gull
Sooty tern
South polar skua
Southern black flycatcher
Southern pochard
Southern white-faced owl
Speckled mouse bird
Speckled pigeon
Speckle-fronted weaver
Speke’s weaver
Spotted crake
Spotted eagle owl
Spotted flycatcher
Spotted morning thrush
Spotted redshank
Spotted sandgrouse
Spotted thick-knee
Spur-winged lapwing
Squacco heron
Square-tailed nightjar
Standard-winged nightjar
Star-spotted nightjar
Steel-blue whydah
Steppe eagle

Straw-tailed whydah
Striated heron
Striolated bunting
Striped kingfisher
Sub-alpine warbler
Sulphur-breasted bush shrike
Superb starling
Swainson’s sparrow
Swinhoe’s storm petrel
Taita fiscal
Tambourine dove
Tawny eagle
Tawny pipit
Tawny-flanked prinia
Temmnick’s courser
Temmnick’s stint
Terek sandpiper
Terrestrial brownbul
Thekla lark
Thick-billed raven
Three-banded courser
Three-banded plover
Three-streaked tchagra
Thrush nightingale
Tiny cisticola
Tree pipit
Tropical shearwater
Tsavo sunbird
Tufted duck
Upcher’s warbler
Variable sunbird
Verreaux’s eagle
Verreaux’s eagle-owl
Village indigobird
Village weaver
Violet-backed starling
Violet-breasted sunbird
Vitelline masked weaver
Von der decken’s hornbill
Vulturine guineafowl
Wahlberg’s eagle
Wahlberg’s honeyguide
Waldrapp
Warsangli linnet
Water thick-knee
Wattled lapwing
Wattled starling
Wedge-tailed shearwater
Western orphean warbler
Western reef heron
Western yellow wagtail
Whimbrel
Whinchat
Whiskered tern
White helmet shrike
White stork
White wagtail
White-backed duck
White-backed vulture
White-bellied bustard
White-bellied canary
White-bellied-go away-bird
White-browed coucal
White-browed robin-chat
White-browed sparrow-weaver
White-cheeked tern
White-cheeked turaco
White-collared pigeon
White-crowned starling
White-eyed gull
White-faced storm petrel
White-faced whistling duck
White-fronted plover
White-headed buffalo-weaver
White-headed mouse bird
White-headed vulture
White-rumped babbler

Best time for Birding in Somalia & Somaliland

The following quote from where to Watch Birds in Africa by Nigel Wheatley summarizes the situation succinctly. “If Somalia was free from political strife and possessed a good infrastructure, it would be a popular birding destination, thanks to its fine selection of birds, which includes many north-east African specialties and ten endemics. Meanwhile, birders can only live in hope that one day they will be able to enjoy a birding trip to this little known country.”

Somaliland is a de facto independent region north-west of Somalia; Nevertheless, June is a good time to come if you’re interested in birding there.

RECOMMENDED AFRICAN SAFARIS

2 Day Akagera National Park Wildlife Safari