List of birds of South Africa
Home » African Safari Destinations » South Africa Safaris, Tours & Holidays » List of birds of South Africa
List of birds of South Africa
South Africa (officially the Republic of South Africa or RSA) is arguably the best value destination on the entire continent. The outstanding infrastructure, great accommodation, excellent food, wonderful South African hospitality, spectacular and varied scenery, and the presence of Africa’s big and small mammals makes it one of the most pleasant countries in the world to bird in.
As of April 2020, South Africa recognizes 870 bird species (this bird count includes eight species occurring only on the Prince Edward Islands, which are two remote Sub-Antarctic Islands belonging to South Africa comprised of Prince Edward Island and the larger Marion Island).
| Overview |
| Size & Location |
| How to get there |
| Activities |
| Areas of interest |
| When to visit |
| Where to stay |
- Abdim’s stork
- African barred owlet
- African black duck
- African black-headed oriole
- 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 oriole
- African golden weaver
- African goshawk
- African grass-owl
- African gray hornbill
- African green pigeon
- African harrier-hawk
- African hawk eagle
- African hobby
- African jacana
- African marsh-harrier
- African openbill
- African oystercatcher
- African palm-swift
- African paradise flycatcher
- African penduline tit
- African penguin
- African pied starling
- 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 shrike flycatcher
- African skimmer
- African snipe
- African spoonbill
- African spotted creeper
- African stonechat
- African swamphen
- African swift
- African wood owl
- African yellow warbler
- African yellow white-eye
- Agulhas lark
- Allen’s gallinule
- Alpine swift
- American golden plover
- Amethyst sunbird
- Amur falcon
- Antarctic petrel
- Antarctic prion
- Antarctic tern
- Arctic tern
- Arnot’s chat
- Arrow-marked babbler
- Ashy flycatcher
- Ashy tit
- Asian dowitcher
- Atlantic petrel
- Augur buzzard
- Australasian gannet
- Ayres’s hawk eagle
- Baillon’s crake
- Baird’s sandpiper
- Banded martin
- Banded snake eagle
- Bank cormorant
- Bank swallow
- Baratt’s warbler
- Barau’s petrel
- Barlow’s lark
- Barn owl
- Barn swallow
- Barred long-tailed cuckoo
- Barred wren warbler
- Bar-tailed godwit
- Bar-tailed trogon
- Bar-throated apalis
- Basra reed warbler
- Bat hawk
- Bateleur
- Bat-like spinetail
- Bearded scrub robin
- Bearded vulture
- Bearded woodpecker
- Bennett’s woodpecker
- Black bustard
- Black coucal
- Black crake
- Black crowned tchagra
- Black cuckoo
- Black cuckoo-shrike
- Black goshawk
- Black heron
- Black kite
- Black sawwing
- Black scimitar-bill
- Black skimmer
- 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-browed albatross
- Black-chested prinia
- Black-chested snake-eagle
- Black-collared barbet
- Black-crowned night heron
- Black-eared sparrow-lark
- Black-faced waxbill
- Black-fronted bulbul
- Black-fronted bush-shrike
- Black-headed canary
- Black-headed gull
- Black-headed heron
- Black-headed paradise flycatcher
- Black-napped tern
- Black-rumped buttonquail
- Blacksmith lapwing
- Black-tailed godwit
- Black-tailed waxbill
- Black-throated canary
- Black-throated wattle-eye
- Black-winged kite
- Black-winged kittiwake
- Black-winged lapwing
- Black-winged pratincole
- Black-winged stilt
- Blue bustard
- Blue crane
- Blue petrel
- Blue-breasted bee-eater
- Blue-breasted kingfisher
- Blue-cheeked bee-eater
- Blue-napped mouse bird
- Blue-spotted wood dove
- Bohm’s bee-eater
- Bokmakierie
- Booted eagle
- Botha’s lark
- Boulder chat
- Bradfield’s hornbill
- Bradfield’s swift
- Bridled tern
- Brimstone canary
- Broad-billed prion
- Broad-billed roller
- Broad-billed sandpiper
- Broad-tailed paradise whydah
- Bronze mannikin
- Bronze-winged courser
- Brown booby
- Brown noddy
- Brown scrub robin
- Brown skua
- Brown snake eagle
- Brown-crowned tchagra
- Brown-headed parrot
- Brown-hooded kingfisher
- Brown-necked parrot
- Brubru
- Brubru
- Buff-breasted sandpiper
- Buff-spotted flufftail
- Buff-streaked chat
- Buffy pipit
- Buller’s albatross
- Burchell’s courser
- Burchell’s glossy starling
- Burchell’s sandgrouse
- Burnt-neck eremomela
- Bush blackcap
- Bush pipit
- Cape batis
- Cape bulbul
- Cape bunting
- Cape canary
- Cape clapper-lark
- Cape cormorant
- Cape crombec
- Cape crow
- Cape eagle-owl
- Cape francolin
- Cape gannet
- Cape grassbird
- Cape griffon
- Cape lark
- Cape parrot
- Cape petrel
- Cape robin chat
- Cape rock thrush
- Cape rockjumper
- Cape shoveler
- Cape siskin
- Cape sparrow
- Cape starling
- Cape sugarbird
- Cape teal
- Cape wagtail
- Cape weaver
- Cape white-eye
- Capped wheatear
- Cardinal woodpecker
- Caspian plover
- Caspian tern
- Cattle egret
- Chat flycatcher
- Chatham albatross
- Chestnut weaver
- Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
- Chestnut-banded plover
- Chestnut-fronted helmet-shrike
- Chestnut-vented warbler
- Chinspot batis
- Chorister robin chat
- Chukar
- Cinnamon-breasted bunting
- Citrine wagtail
- Cloud cisticola
- Collared flycatcher
- Collared palm thrush
- Collared pratincole
- Collared sunbird
- Common bulbul
- Common buzzard
- Common chaffinch
- Common cuckoo
- Common greenshank
- Common house martin
- Common myna
- Common ostrich
- Common quail
- Common redshank
- Common redstart
- Common ringed plover
- Common sandpiper
- Common scimitar-bill
- Common square-tailed drongo
- Common swift
- Common tern
- Common waxbill
- Coqui francolin
- Corn crake
- Cory’s shearwater
- Crab plover
- Crested barbet
- Crested francolin
- Crested guineafowl
- Crimson-breasted gonolek
- Croaking cisticola
- Crowned cormorant
- Crowned eagle
- Crowned hornbill
- Crowned lapwing
- Curlew sandpiper
- Cut-throat
- Damara tern
- Dark-chanting goshawk
- Delegorgue’s pigeon
- Denham’s bustard
- Desert cisticola
- Dickinson’s kestrel
- Dideric cuckoo
- Double-banded courser
- Double-banded sandgrouse
- Drakensburg prinia
- Drakensburg rockjumper
- Drakensburg siskin
- Dunlin
- Dusky lark
- Dusky sunbird
- Dwarf bittern
- Eared grebe
- Eastern clapper lark
- Eastern long-billed lark
- Eastern nicator
- Eastern paradise whydah
- Egyptian goose
- Egyptian vulture
- Elegant tern
- 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 oystercatcher
- Eurasian reed warbler
- Eurasian scop’s owl
- European bee-eater
- European honey buzzard
- European pied flycatcher
- European roller
- European starling
- European storm petrel
- European turtle dove
- Fairy flycatcher
- Fairy prion
- Familiar chat
- Fan-tailed grassbird
- Fan-tailed widowbird
- Fascinated snake-eagle
- Fawn-colored lark
- Fiery-necked nightjar
- Fiscal flycatcher
- Flappet lark
- Flesh-footed shearwater
- Forest canary
- Forest weaver
- Fork-tailed drongo
- Four-colored bush-shrike
- Franklin’s gull
- Fulleborn’s boubou
- 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 cuckoo-shrike
- Gray go-away bird
- Gray heron
- Gray petrel
- Gray tit
- Gray tit flycatcher
- Gray wagtail
- Gray-backed sparrow-lark
- Gray-backed storm petrel
- Gray-crowned crane
- Gray-headed albatross
- Gray-headed bush-shrike
- Gray-headed kingfisher
- Gray-hooded gull
- Gray-rumped swallow
- Gray-winged francolin
- Great bittern
- Great cormorant
- Great crested grebe
- Great crested tern
- Great egret
- Great frigatebird
- Great knot
- Great reed warbler
- Great rufous sparrow
- Great shearwater
- Great snipe
- Great spotted cuckoo
- Great white pelican
- Greater blue-eared starling
- Greater double-collared sunbird
- Greater flamingo
- Greater honeyguide
- Greater kestrel
- Greater painted snipe
- Greater sand plover
- Greater spotted eagle
- Greater striped swallow
- Greater white-throat
- Great-winged petrel
- Green barbet
- Green malkoha
- Green sandpiper
- Green wood hoopoe
- Green-backed camaroptera
- Green-backed twin-spot
- Greencap eremomela
- Green-winged pytilia
- Grosbeak weaver
- Ground scraper thrush
- Ground woodpecker
- Gull-billed tern
- Gurney’s sugarbird
- Hadada ibis
- Half-collared kingfisher
- Hamerkop
- Harlequin quail
- Hartlaub’s gull
- Helmeted guineafowl
- Holub’s golden weaver
- Hooded vulture
- Horus swift
- Hottentot teal
- Hottentot teal
- House crow
- House sparrow
- Hudsonian godwit
- Icterine warbler
- Indian peafowl
- Indian yellow-nosed albatross
- Intermediate egret
- Jameson’s firefinch
- Kalahari scrub robin
- Karoo bustard
- Karoo chat
- Karoo lark
- Karoo long-billed lark
- Karoo prinia
- Karoo scrub robin
- Karoo thrush
- Kelp gull
- Kerguelen petrel
- King penguin
- Kitilitz’s plover
- Klaas’s cuckoo
- Knob-billed duck
- Knysna turaco
- Knysna warbler
- Knysna woodpecker
- Kopje warbler
- Kori bustard
- Kurrichane thrush
- Lanner falcon
- Lappet-faced vulture
- Large-billed lark
- Lark-like bunting
- Latakoo lark
- Laughing dove
- Layard’s warbler
- Laysan albatross
- Leach’s storm petrel
- Lemon dove
- Lemon-breasted seedeater
- Lesser black-backed gull
- Lesser blue-eared starling
- Lesser crested tern
- Lesser flamingo
- Lesser frigatebird
- Lesser gray shrike
- Lesser honeyguide
- Lesser jacana
- Lesser kestrel
- Lesser masked weaver
- Lesser moorhen
- Lesser noddy
- Lesser sand plover
- Lesser swamp warbler
- Lesser yellowlegs
- Lesser-spotted eagle
- Lesser-striped swallow
- Levaillant’s cisticola
- Levaillant’s cuckoo
- Light-mantled albatross
- Lilac-breasted roller
- Little bee-eater
- Little bittern
- Little blue heron
- Little crake
- Little egret
- Little grebe
- Little ringed plover
- Little rush warbler
- Little sparrow hawk
- Little stint
- Little swift
- Little tern
- Livingstone’s flycatcher
- Livingstone’s turaco
- Lizard buzzard
- Long-billed pipit
- Long-crested eagle
- Long-legged buzzard
- Long-tailed cormorant
- Long-tailed jaeger
- Long-tailed widowbird
- Long-toed lapwing
- Long-toed stint
- Ludwig’s bustard
- Macaroni penguin
- Maccoa duck
- Madagascar bee-eater
- Madagascar cuckoo
- Madagascar pond-heron
- Magpie mannikin
- Magpie shrike
- Malachite kingfisher
- Malachite sunbird
- Mallard
- Mangrove kingfisher
- Manx shearwater
- Marabou stork
- Mariqua flycatcher
- Mariqua sunbird
- Marsh owl
- Marsh sandpiper
- Marsh tchagra
- Marsh warbler
- Martial eagle
- Masked booby
- Matsudaira’s storm petrel
- Meve’s glossy starling
- Meyer’s parrot
- Mocking cliff-chat
- Monotonous lark
- Montagu’s harrier
- Montane blue swallow
- Moseley’s rockhopper penguin
- Mosque swallow
- Mottled spinetail
- Mountain buzzard
- Mountain pipit
- Mountain wagtail
- Mountain wheatear
- Mourning collared dove
- Mouse-colored sunbird
- Mute swan
- Namaqua dove
- Namaqua sandgrouse
- Namaqua warbler
- Narina trogon
- Natal francolin
- Neergaard’s sunbird
- Northern carmine bee-eater
- Northern fiscal
- Northern giant petrel
- Northern pintail
- Northern wheatear
- Olive bush-shrike
- Olive sunbird
- Olive thrush
- Olive woodpecker
- Olive-tree warbler
- Orange ground thrush
- Orange river francolin
- Orange river white-eye
- Orange-breasted sunbird
- Orange-throated longclaw
- Orange-winged pytilia
- Osprey
- Ovambo sparrow hawk
- Pacific golden plover
- Pale flycatcher
- Pale-billed hornbill
- Pale-chanting goshawk
- Pale-crowned cisticola
- 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 twin-spot
- Pied avocet
- Pied barbet
- Pied crow
- Pied cuckoo
- Pied kingfisher
- Pied wheatear
- Pink-backed pelican
- Pink-billed lark
- Pink-throated twin-spot
- Pin-tailed whydah
- Piping cisticola
- Plain martin
- Plain-backed pipit
- Plain-backed sunbird
- Pomarine jaeger
- Pririt batis
- Protea canary
- Purple gallinule
- Purple heron
- Purple indigobird
- Purple-banded sunbird
- Purple-crested turaco
- Pygmy falcon
- Quail-finch
- Racket-tailed roller
- Rameron pigeon
- Rattling cisticola
- Red knot
- Red lark
- 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-billed tropicbird
- Red-capped lark
- Red-capped robin chat
- Red-chested cuckoo
- Red-chested flufftail
- Red-collared widowbird
- Red-crested bustard
- Red-eyed dove
- Red-faced cisticola
- Red-faced mouse bird
- Red-footed booby
- Red-footed falcon
- Red-fronted tinkerbird
- Red-headed cisticola
- Red-headed finch
- Red-headed quelea
- Red-headed weaver
- Red-knobbed coot
- Red-necked buzzard
- Red-necked falcon
- Red-necked francolin
- Red-necked phalarope
- Red-necked stint
- Red-phalarope
- Red-tailed tropicbird
- Red-throated pipit
- Red-winged francolin
- Red-winged starling
- Retz’s helmet shrike
- Ring necked dove
- River warbler
- Rock kestrel
- Rock martin
- Rock pigeon
- Rock pratincole
- Rock-loving cisticola
- Roseate tern
- Rose-ringed parakeet
- Rosy starling
- Rosy-faced lovebird
- Rosy-throated longclaw
- Royal albatross
- Rudd’s apalis
- Rudd’s lark
- Ruddy turnstone
- Ruff
- Rufous-bellied heron
- Rufous-breasted sparrow-hawk
- Rufous-cheeked nightjar
- Rufous-chested swallow
- Rufous-crowned roller
- Rufous-eared warbler
- Rufous-napped lark
- Rufous-necked wryneck
- Rufous-tailed scrub robin
- Rufous-winged cisticola
- Ruppell’s griffon
- Sabine’s gull
- Sabota lark
- Saddle-billed stork
- Salvin’s albatross
- Salvin’s prion
- Sanderling
- Sandwich tern
- Scaly weaver
- Scaly-throated honeyguide
- Scarlet-chested sunbird
- Sclater’s lark
- Secretary bird
- Sedge warbler
- Senegal coucal
- Senegal lapwing
- Sentinel rock thrush
- Shaft-tailed whydah
- Shelley’s francolin
- Shikra
- Shinning-blue kingfisher
- Short-clawed lark
- Short-tailed pipit
- Short-toed rock thrush
- Sickle-winged chat
- Silvery-cheeked hornbill
- Slaty egret
- Slender-billed gull
- Slender-billed prion
- Small buttonquail
- Snowy egret
- Snowy sheathbill
- Sociable weaver
- Soft-plumaged petrel
- Sombre greenbul
- Sooty albatross
- Sooty falcon
- Sooty shearwater
- Sooty tern
- South African shelduck
- South African swallow
- South polar skua
- Southern anteater chat
- Southern black flycatcher
- Southern black-tit
- Southern bold ibis
- Southern boubou
- Southern brown-throated-weaver
- Southern carmine bee-eater
- Southern cordon-bleu
- Southern double-collared sunbird
- Southern fiscal
- Southern fulmar
- Southern giant petrel
- Southern gray-headed sparrow
- Southern ground hornbill
- Southern hyliota
- Southern masked weaver
- Southern penduline tit
- Southern pied babbler
- Southern pochard
- Southern red bishop
- Southern red-billed hornbill
- Southern rockhopper penguin
- Southern white-faced owl
- Southern yellow-billed hornbill
- Speckled mouse bird
- Speckled pigeon
- Spectacled petrel
- Spectacled weaver
- Spike-heeled lark
- Spotted crake
- Spotted eagle-owl
- Spotted flycatcher
- Spotted ground thrush
- Spotted redshank
- Spotted thick-knee
- Spur-winged goose
- Squacco heron
- Square-tailed nightjar
- Stark’s lark
- Steppe eagle
- Stierling’s wren warbler
- Streaked shearwater
- Streaky-breasted flufftail
- Streaky-headed seedeater
- Striated heron
- Striped crake
- Striped flufftail
- Striped kingfisher
- Striped pipit
- Sub-antarctic shearwater
- Sulphur-breasted bush-shrike
- Swainson’s francolin
- Swallow-tailed bee-eater
- Swee waxbill
- Tahiti petrel
- Taita falcon
- 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
- Trac-trac chat
- Tree-pipit
- Tropical boubou
- Tropical shearwater
- Trumpeter hornbill
- Upcher’s warbler
- Variable indigobird
- Variable sunbird
- Vermiculated fishing-owl
- Verreaux’s eagle
- Verreaux’s eagle-owl
- Victorin’s warbler
- Village indigobird
- Village weaver
- Violet-backed starling
- Violet-eared waxbill
- Wahlberg’s eagle
- Wahlberg’s honeyguide
- Wailing cisticola
- Wandering albatross
- Water thick-knee
- Wattled crane
- Wattled lapwing
- Wattled starling
- Wedge-tailed shearwater
- Western yellow wagtail
- Whimbrel
- Whinchat
- Whiskered tern
- White browed coucal
- White helmet shrike
- White starred robin
- White stork
- White tern
- White wagtail
- White-backed duck
- White-backed night heron
- White-backed vulture
- White-bellied bustard
- White-bellied kingfisher
- White-bellied storm petrel
- White-breasted cuckoo-shrike
- White-breasted sunbird
- White-browed robin chat
- White-browed sparrow-weaver
- White-capped albatross
- White-cheeked tern
- White-chinned petrel
- White-crowned shrike
- White-eared barbet
- White-faced storm petrel
- White-faced whistling duck
- White-fronted bee-eater
- White-fronted plover
- White-headed lapwing
- White-headed petrel
- White-headed vulture
- White-necked raven
- White-quilled bustard
- White-rumped sandpiper
- White-rumped swift
- White-tailed swallow
- White-tailed tropic bird
- White-throated bee-eater
- White-throated canary
- White-throated robin
- White-throated robin chat
- White-throated swallow
- White-winged flufftail
- White-winged tern
- White-winged widowbird
- Willow warbler
- Wilson’s phalarope
- Wilson’s storm petrel
- Wing-snapping cisticola
- Wood sandpiper
- Woodland kingfisher
- Woodward’s batis
- Woolly-necked stork
- Yellow bishop
- Yellow canary
- Yellow-bellied eremomela
- Yellow-bellied greenbul
- Yellow-billed duck
- Yellow-billed ox-pecker
- Yellow-billed stork
- Yellow-breasted apalis
- Yellow-breasted pipit
- Yellow-crowned bishop
- Yellow-fronted canary
- Yellow-fronted tinkerbird
- Yellow-nosed albatross
- Yellow-rumped eremomela
- Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
- Yellow-streaked greenbul
- Yellow-throated bush-sparrow
- Yellow-throated longclaw
- Yellow-throated sandgrouse
- Yellow-throated woodland warbler
- Yellow-tufted pipit
- Zebra waxbill
- Zitting cisticola
Best time for birding in South Africa
The best time to visit South Africa is from May to September, as the cooler winter months in the northern regions bring superb conditions for viewing big game. It can be rainy from November to February, but this is the best time to travel for birding, and temperatures remain warm at 22°C-33°C.
