List of birds of Zambia
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List of birds of Zambia
Zambia has been a well-kept secret by those who live there and those who visit. However, this is changing rapidly as increasing numbers of birders and Eco tourists are discovering this wonderful country. Zambia is safe and very friendly. It is accessible and the infrastructure is reasonable. It still supports huge areas of wilderness and it holds 750 species of bird, many of which are difficult to see anywhere else. Amongst its attractions are the spectacular Victoria Falls and some of the very best game-viewing safaris anywhere in the world. For birders, highlights include endless miombo woodland full of tantalizing bird parties, vast wetlands, sweeping grasslands, the most southerly tracts of the great equatorial forests, and some remote and challenging montane wilderness areas.
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- Abdim’s stork
- Abyssinian thrush
- Afep pigeon
- 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 goshawk
- African grass-owl
- African gray flycatcher
- African gray hornbill
- African green-pigeon
- African harrier-hawk
- African hawk eagle
- African hill babbler
- African hobby
- African jacana
- African marsh-harrier
- African palm-swift
- African paradise flycatcher
- African penduline tit
- 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 thrush
- African wood owl
- African yellow warbler
- African yellow white-eye
- Allen’s gallinule
- Alpine swift
- Amethyst sunbird
- Amur falcon
- Anchieta’s barbet
- Anchieta’s sunbird
- Angola lark
- Angola swallow
- Arnot’s chat
- Arrow-marked babbler
- Ashy flycatcher
- Ashy tit
- Augur buzzard
- Ayres’s hawk eagle
- Babbling starling
- Baglafecht weaver
- Baillon’s crake
- Bamboo warbler
- Banded martin
- Banded snake eagle
- Bank swallow
- Bannerman’s sunbird
- Baratt’s warbler
- Bare-faced go-away bird
- Barn owl
- Barn swallow
- Barred long-tailed cuckoo
- Barred wren-warbler
- Bar-tailed godwit
- Bar-tailed trogon
- Bar-throated apalis
- Bar-winged weaver
- Bat hawk
- Bateleur
- Bates’s sunbird
- Bat-like spine-tail
- Bearded scrub robin
- Bearded vulture
- Bearded woodpecker
- Bennett’s woodpecker
- Bertram’s weaver
- Black coucal
- Black crake
- Black crowned tchagra
- Black cuckoo
- Black cuckoo-shrike
- Black goshawk
- Black heron
- Black kite
- Black scimitar-bill
- Black stork
- Black-and rufous swallow
- Black-and-white mannikin
- Black-and-white shrike-flycatcher
- Black-backed barbet
- Black-backed puffback
- Black-bellied bustard
- Black-bellied plover
- Black-bellied seed-cracker
- Black-bellied starling
- Black-browed mountain greenbul
- Black-cheeked lovebird
- Black-chested prinia
- Black-chested snake-eagle
- Black-collared barbet
- Black-collared bulbul
- Black-crowned night heron
- Black-eared seedeater
- Black-faced canary
- Black-faced waxbill
- Black-fronted bulbul
- Black-fronted bush-shrike
- Black-headed apalis
- Black-headed gull
- Black-headed heron
- Black-headed paradise flycatcher
- Black-headed weaver
- Black-lored cisticola
- Black-necked eremomela
- Black-rumped buttonquail
- Blacksmith plover
- Black-tailed godwit
- Black-tailed waxbill
- Black-throated canary
- Black-throated wattle-eye
- Black-winged bishop
- Black-winged kite
- Black-winged pratincole
- Black-winged stilt
- Blue malkoha
- Blue quail
- Blue sawwing
- Blue-breasted bee-eater
- Blue-breasted kingfisher
- Blue-cheeked bee-eater
- Blue-napped mouse bird
- Blue-spotted wood-dove
- Bocage’s akalat
- Bocages’s weaver
- Bohm’s bee-eater
- Bohm’s flycatcher
- Bokmakierie
- Booted eagle
- Boulder chat
- Boulton’s batis
- Bradfield’s hornbill
- Brimstone canary
- Broad-billed roller
- Broad-billed sandpiper
- Broad-tailed paradise whydah
- Bronze mannikin
- Bronze sunbird
- Bronze-napped pigeon
- Bronze-winged courser
- Brown firefinch
- Brown parisoma
- Brown snake eagle
- Brown-chested lapwing
- 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
- Buff-throated apalis
- Buffy pipit
- Burchell’s sandgrouse
- Burchell’s starling
- Burnt-necked eremomela
- Bush pipit
- Cabanis’s bunting
- Cabanis’s greenbul
- Cape batis
- Cape bunting
- Cape clapper lark
- Cape crombec
- Cape crow
- Cape eagle-owl
- Cape grassbird
- Cape griffon
- Cape robin-chat
- Cape shoveler
- Cape sparrow
- Cape starling
- Cape teal
- Cape wagtail
- Capped wheatear
- Cardinal quelea
- Cardinal woodpecker
- Caspian plover
- Caspian tern
- Cassin’s flycatcher
- Cattle egret
- Chaplin’s apalis
- Chaplin’s barbet
- Chestnut wattle-eye
- Chestnut-backed sparrow-lark
- Chestnut-backed sparrow-weaver
- Chestnut-banded plover
- Chestnut-fronted helmet-shrike
- Chestnut-headed flufftail
- Chestnut-vented warbler
- Chinspot batis
- Chirinda apalis
- Chirping cisticola
- Churring cisticola
- Cinnamon-bracken warbler
- Cinnamon-breasted bunting
- Cloud cisticola
- Cloud-scraping cisticola
- Collared flycatcher
- Collared palm-thrush
- Collared pratincole
- Collared sunbird
- Common bulbul
- Common buzzard
- Common cuckoo
- Common flycatcher
- Common grasshopper-warbler
- Common greenshank
- Common house-martin
- Common myna
- Common ostrich
- Common quail
- Common redshank
- Common sandpiper
- Common scimitar-bill
- Common snipe
- Common square-tailed drongo
- Common swift
- Common tern
- Common waxbill
- Common-ringed plover
- Compact weaver
- Copper sunbird
- Coppery-tailed coucal
- Coqui francolin
- Corn crake
- Crested barbet
- Crested francolin
- Crested guineafowl
- Crimson-breasted gonolek
- Crimson-rumped waxbill
- Croaking cisticola
- Crowned eagle
- Crowned hornbill
- Crowned lapwing
- Curlew sandpiper
- Cut-throat
- Dark-chanting goshawk
- Delegorgue’s pigeon
- Denham’s bustard
- Desert cisticola
- Dickinson’s kestrel
- Dideric cuckoo
- Double-banded courser
- Double-banded sandgrouse
- Dusky lark
- Dusky-turtle dove
- Dwarf bittern
- Eared grebe
- Eastern clapper-lark
- Eastern double-collared sunbird
- Eastern miombo sunbird
- Eastern mountain greenbul
- Eastern nicator
- Eastern olivaceous warbler
- 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 scop’s owl
- Eurasian wryneck
- European bee-eater
- European honey buzzard
- European roller
- Ever-green forest warbler
- Fairy flycatcher
- Familiar chat
- Fan-tailed grass-bird
- Fan-tailed widowbird
- Fascinated snake-eagle
- Fawn-breasted waxbill
- Fawn-colored lark
- Fiery-necked nightjar
- Fischer’s sparrow-lark
- Flappet lark
- Forbe’s plover
- Forest double-collared sunbird
- Forest weaver
- Fork-tailed drongo
- Four-colored bush-shrike
- Franklin’s gull
- Freckled nightjar
- Fulleborn’s boubou
- Fulleborn’s longclaw
- Fulvous whistling duck
- Gabar goshawk
- Gabon boubou
- Garden warbler
- Garganey
- Giant kingfisher
- Glossy ibis
- Golden breasted bunting
- Golden pipit
- Golden-tailed woodpecker
- Goliath heron
- Gray crowned crane
- Gray cuckoo-shrike
- Gray go-away-bird
- Gray heron
- Gray kestrel
- Gray tit-flycatcher
- Gray wagtail
- Gray-backed sparrow-lark
- Gray-headed bush-shrike
- Gray-headed kingfisher
- Gray-hooded gull
- Gray-olive greenbul
- Gray-rumped swallow
- Gray-winged robin-chat
- Great bittern
- Great cormorant
- Great crested grebe
- Great egret
- Great reed warbler
- 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 swamp warbler
- Greater whitethroat
- Green indigobird
- Green malkoha
- Green sandpiper
- Green wood hoopoe
- Green-backed camaroptera
- Green-backed honeyguide
- Green-backed twinspot
- Green-backed woodpecker
- Greencap eremomela
- Green-headed sunbird
- Green-throated sunbird
- Green-winged pytilia
- Grim-wood’s longclaw
- Grosbeak weaver
- Ground scraper thrush
- Gull-billed tern
- Gurney’s sugarbird
- Hadada ibis
- Half-collared kingfisher
- Hamerkop
- Harlequin quail
- Hartlaub’s babbler
- Helmeted guineafowl
- Hildebrandt’s francolin
- Himalayan cuckoo
- Holub’s golden-weaver
- Honeyguide greenbul
- Hooded vulture
- Horus swift
- Hottentot teal
- House sparrow
- Icterine warbler
- Intermediate egret
- Isabelline wheatear
- Jack snipe
- Jameson’s firefinch
- Joyful greenbul
- Kalahari scrub-robin
- Katanga masked weaver
- Kitilitz’s plover
- Klaas’s cuckoo
- Knob-billed duck
- Kori bustard
- Kurrichane thrush
- Lanner falcon
- Lappet-faced vulture
- Lark-like bunting
- Latakoo lark
- Laughing dove
- Laura’s woodland-warbler
- Least honeyguide
- 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 sand plover
- Lesser striped swallow
- Lesser swamp warbler
- Lesser yellowlegs
- Lesser-spotted eagle
- Levaillant’s cisticola
- Levaillant’s cuckoo
- Lilac-breasted roller
- Lilian’s lovebird
- Little bee-eater
- Little bittern
- Little crake
- Little egret
- Little grebe
- Little greenbul
- Little sparrow hawk
- Little stint
- Little swift
- Little tern
- Little-ringed plover
- Little-rush warbler
- Livingstone’s flycatcher
- Lizard buzzard
- Locust finch
- Long-billed pipit
- Long-billed tailor-bird
- Long-crested eagle
- Long-legged buzzard
- Long-tailed cormorant
- Long-tailed widowbird
- Long-toed lapwing
- Luapula cisticola
- Maccoa duck
- Madagascar bee-eater
- Madagascar cuckoo
- Madagascar pond-heron
- Magpie mannikin
- Magpie shrike
- Malachite kingfisher
- Malachite sunbird
- Mangrove kingfisher
- Marabou stork
- Mariqua flycatcher
- Mariqua sunbird
- Marsh owl
- Marsh sandpiper
- Marsh tchagra
- Marsh warbler
- Marsh widowbird
- Martial eagle
- Meves’s starling
- Meyer’s parrot
- Miombo barbet
- Miombo rock-thrush
- Miombo scrub-robin
- Miombo tit
- Miombo wren warbler
- Mocking cliff-chat
- Monotonous lark
- Montagu’s harrier
- Montane blue swallow
- Montane double-collared sunbird
- Mosque swallow
- Mottled spine-tail
- Mottled swift
- Mountain buzzard
- Mountain pipit
- Mountain wagtail
- Mountain yellow warbler
- Mourning collared dove
- Moustached grass-warbler
- Moustached tinkerbird
- Namaqua dove
- Namaqua sandgrouse
- Narina trogon
- Natal spurfowl
- Northern carmine bee-eater
- Northern fiscal
- Northern gray-headed sparrow
- Northern pintail
- Northern shoveler
- Northern wheatear
- Olive bush-shrike
- Olive long-tailed cuckoo
- Olive sunbird
- Olive thrush
- Olive woodpecker
- Olive-flanked robin-chat
- Olive-headed weaver
- Olive-tree warbler
- Orange ground thrush
- Orange-cheeked waxbill
- Orange-throated longclaw
- Orange-tufted sunbird
- Orange-winged pytilia
- Osprey
- Oustalet’s sunbird
- Ovambo sparrow hawk
- Pacific golden-plover
- Pale batis
- Pale flycatcher
- Pale-billed hornbill
- Pale-chanting goshawk
- Pale-crowned cisticola
- Pallid harrier
- Pallid honeyguide
- Pallid swift
- Palm-nut vulture
- Papyrus yellow warbler
- 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
- Plain-backed sunbird
- Prigogine’s sunbird
- Purple heron
- Purple indigobird
- Purple-banded sunbird
- Purple-crested turaco
- Purple-throated cuckoo-shrike
- Quail finch
- Racket-tailed roller
- Rameron pigeon
- 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 ox-pecker
- Red-billed quelea
- Red-billed spurfowl
- Red-capped crombec
- Red-capped lark
- Red-capped robin-chat
- Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
- Red-chested cuckoo
- Red-chested flufftail
- Red-chested korhaan
- Red-collared widowbird
- Red-eyed dove
- Red-faced cisticola
- Red-faced crimson-wing
- Red-faced crombec
- Red-faced mouse bird
- Red-footed falcon
- Red-headed finch
- Red-headed quelea
- Red-headed weaver
- Red-knobbed coot
- Red-necked buzzard
- Red-necked falcon
- Red-necked phalarope
- Red-necked spurfowl
- Red-rumped swallow
- Red-shouldered cuckoo-shrike
- Red-tailed bristle-bill
- Red-throated pipit
- Red-throated swallow
- Red-tufted sunbird
- Red-winged francolin
- Red-winged prinia
- Red-winged starling
- Reichard’s seedeater
- Retz’s helmet-shrike
- Ring-necked dove
- River warbler
- Roberts’s warbler
- Rock kestrel
- Rock martin
- Rock pigeon
- Rock pratincole
- Rock-loving cisticola
- Ross’s turaco
- Rosy-throated longclaw
- Ruaha chat
- Ruddy turnstone
- Ruff
- Rufous cisticola
- Rufous flycatcher thrush
- Rufous-bellied heron
- Rufous-bellied tit
- Rufous-breasted sparrow-hawk
- Rufous-cheeked nightjar
- Rufous-chested swallow
- Rufous-crowned roller
- Rufous-napped lark
- Rufous-necked wryneck
- Rufous-tailed rock-thrush
- Rufous-winged cisticola
- Ruppell’s griffon
- Rwenzori nightjar
- Sabota lark
- Saddle-billed stork
- Salvadori’s erememola
- Sanderling
- Scaly francolin
- Scaly weaver
- Scaly-throated honeyguide
- Scarce swift
- Scarlet-chested sunbird
- Schalow’s turaco
- Secretary bird
- Sedge warbler
- Senegal coucal
- Senegal lapwing
- Shaft-tailed whydah
- Sharpe’s akalat
- Sharpe’s starling
- Sharp-tailed starling
- Shelley’s francolin
- Shelley’s sunbird
- Shikra
- Shinning-blue kingfisher
- Shoebill stork
- Short-tailed pipit
- Siffling cisticola
- Silvery-cheeked hornbill
- Singing cisticola
- Slaty egret
- Slender-billed starling
- Slender-billed weaver
- Slender-tailed cisticola
- Small buttonquail
- Solitary sandpiper
- Sombre greenbul
- Sooty chat
- Sooty falcon
- Sooty flycatcher
- Sooty tern
- South African shelduck
- South African swallow
- Southern anteater-chat
- Southern black flycatcher
- Southern black-tit
- Southern boubou
- Southern brown-throated weaver
- Southern carmine bee-eater
- Southern citril
- Southern cordon-bleu
- Southern fiscal
- Southern gray-headed sparrow
- Southern ground hornbill
- Southern hyliota
- Southern masked weaver
- Southern pied babbler
- Southern pochard
- Southern red bishop
- Southern red-billed hornbill
- Southern white-faced owl
- Southern yellow-billed hornbill
- Souza’s shrike
- Speckled mouse bird
- Speckled pigeon
- Spectacled weaver
- Splendid starling
- Spot-breasted ibis
- Spot-flanked barbet
- Spotted crake
- Spotted eagle-owl
- Spotted flycatcher
- Spotted redshank
- Spotted thick-knee
- Spur-winged goose
- Spur-winged plover
- Squacco heron
- Square-tailed nightjar
- Steppe eagle
- Stierling’s woodpecker
- Stierling’s wren-warbler
- Stout cisticola
- Streaky seedeater
- Streaky-breasted flufftail
- Streaky-headed seedeater
- Striated heron
- Stripe-cheeked greenbul
- Striped crake
- Striped flufftail
- Striped kingfisher
- Striped pipit
- Sulphur-breasted bush-shrike
- Swainson’s spurfowl
- Swallow-tailed bee-eater
- Swamp flycatcher
- Swamp nightjar
- Swynnerton’s robin
- Tabora cisticola
- Taita falcon
- Tambourine dove
- Tanganyika masked weaver
- 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 babbler
- Thrush nightingale
- Tinkling cisticola
- Tree pipit
- Trilling cisticola
- Tropical boubou
- Trumpeter hornbill
- Variable indigobird
- Variable sunbird
- Vermiculated fishing-owl
- Verreaux’s eagle
- Verreaux’s eagle-owl
- Village indigobird
- Village weaver
- Vincent’s bunting
- Violet-backed starling
- Violet-eared waxbill
- Wahlberg’s eagle
- Wahlberg’s honeyguide
- Wailing cisticola
- Waller’s starling
- Water thick-knee
- Wattled crane
- Wattled lapwing
- Wattled starling
- Western citril
- Western miombo sunbird
- Western nicator
- Western reef heron
- Western violet-backed sunbird
- Western yellow wagtail
- Whimbrel
- Whinchat
- Whiskered tern
- Whistling cisticola
- White helmet shrike
- White stork
- White-backed duck
- White-backed night heron
- White-backed vulture
- White-bellied bustard
- White-bellied kingfisher
- White-breasted cuckoo-shrike
- White-breasted sunbird
- White-browed coucal
- White-browed robin-chat
- White-browed sparrow-weaver
- White-chested alethe
- White-chested tinkerbird
- White-chinned prinia
- White-crowned shrike
- White-eared barbet
- White-eyed slaty flycatcher
- White-faced whistling duck
- White-fronted bee-eater
- White-fronted plover
- White-headed lapwing
- White-headed sawwing
- White-headed vulture
- White-necked raven
- White-rumped swift
- White-spotted flufftail
- White-starred robin
- White-tailed blue flycatcher
- White-tailed crested flycatcher
- White-throated bee-eater
- White-throated blue-swallow
- White-throated francolin
- White-throated robin-chat
- White-throated swallow
- White-wagtail
- White-winged black-tit
- White-winged flufftail
- White-winged swamp warbler
- 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 canary
- Yellow-bellied greenbul
- Yellow-bellied hyliota
- Yellow-bellied reremomela
- Yellow-bellied waxbill
- Yellow-billed duck
- Yellow-billed ox-pecker
- Yellow-billed stork
- Yellow-breasted apalis
- Yellow-browed seedeater
- Yellow-crowned bishop
- Yellow-crowned canary
- Yellow-fronted canary
- Yellow-fronted tinkerbird
- Yellow-mantled widowbird
- Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
- Yellow-streaked bulbul
- Yellow-throated bush sparrow
- Yellow-throated greenbul
- Yellow-throated longclaw
- Yellow-throated sandgrouse
- Yellow-throated woodland warbler
- Zebra waxbill
- Zitting cisticola
Best time for Birding in Zambia
The best time to visit Zambia is between June and November when the weather is dry and the wildlife watching is sensational, but our month by month climate guide highlights the benefits of traveling out of season, too.
