Species

Red-throated Bee-eaters Merops bulocki

Malanville, north Benin
Sudan-Guinea Savanna

Photo: Agnès Gianotti

Country checklist and status

You can download and print a checklist for Benin.

The last published checklist for Benin was in A Contribution to the Distribution and Taxonomy of Afrotropical and Malagasy Birds (R.J. Dowsett & F. Dowsett-Lemaire 1993) which listed 425 species for which there was evidence. In the meantime, however, there has been more activity and several papers have been published in the past decade. Several birders have been active in the area and there has been more research in the literature plus the records of birders who have visited the area in the past. A provisional checklist of the Dahomey Gap and the W Park is available on request from the ABC Recorder pmclaffeysvd@yahoo.co.uk.

While it is difficult to speculate on exactly how many species might be found in the country, it seems probable that it is well over 600. The complete list for the whole of the Dahomey Gap and the W Park, which straddles the Benin and Niger border comes to 692 species. Birds of Africa (Vols. I-VII) has listed 18 species on its maps, which it considers likely to occur in Benin but for which there are as yet no field records. Mackworth-Praed & Grant 1973 suggest another 18 species for which there is no field evidence but which may occur. Borrow and Demey 2001 also mention several species for which there are no field records. The fact that they are overlooked rather than absent is, to some extent, confirmed by more recent work in the remnant forest islets of the south.

There are 120 species which occur in Togo, in the Niger sector of the W Park, or as pelagic visitors or vagrants in the Gulf of Guinea, for which there are no records in Benin. While many of these will definitely not occur, because of lack of suitable habitat and other reasons, several others seem likely to do so. There are, for instance, several Palearctic migrants which have been recorded in the surrounding countries for which there are as yet no records in Benin, but which almost certainly occur. The far north of the country, particularly the Benin sector of the W Park, is badly known and it is probable that several species typical of the arid savanna and recorded in the Niger sector of the W Park, will occur here as residents or intra-African migrants. While the warm waters of the Bight of Benin are poor in phytoplanktons and consequently relatively poor in birdlife, there are certainly observations to be made here. This is particularly so, perhaps, from April to October, when the area is subject to extreme meteorological conditions brought about by the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITZC), which occasionally brings pelagic species to the inshore waters.

The list then is beginning to take shape, but there is a lack of detail and a lot of work remains to be done to establish its full extent and to fill in the larger picture: breeding, migration, status etc. Trips by competent birders would clearly add a substantial amount of knowledge.

Endemic species

There are no endemic nor near endemic species in Benin

Threatened species

Last page update 1st March 2007