Important Bird Areas
BirdLife International identified 14 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Côte d'Ivoire covering 23,553 km2, equivalent to 7.3% of the land-surface area of the country. The list of IBAs is as follows:
Comoé National Park
Mt Sangbé National Park
Mt Nimba Strict Nature Reserve
Guéoulé, Mt Glo, Mt Momi and Sangouiné Forest Reserves (to which nearby Mt Tonkoui could be added)
Mt Péko National Park
Marahoué National Park
Bossématié Forest Reserve
Cavally and Goin-Débé Forest Reserves
Lamto Ecological Research Station
Mabi and Yaya Forest Reserves
Taï National Park and Nzo Faunal Reserve
Yapo and Mambo Forest Reserves
Mopri Forest Reserve
Azagny National Park
Two sites should be added following recent data (a number of threatened species having been discovered in both): Banco National Park / Anguédédou Forest Reserve and Haute-Dodo Forest Reserve .
Three of these IBAs (Comoé National Park, Taï National Park and Mt Nimba) are also World Heritage sites.
Côte d'Ivoire has no Endemic Bird Area itself, but the Ivorian forest zone is part of the Upper Guinea forest block, which extends from Sierra Leone to Togo and is a biodiversity hotspot with many endemic species see species section. Taï National Park is of international importance since it is by far the largest primary forest block in Upper Guinea; it holds probably more than half the world's population of White-breasted Guineafowl Agelastes meleagrides, a heavily threatened Upper Guinea endemic.
The western highlands are of particular interest since they hold a number of species and sub-species found nowhere else in the country. These include Sierra Leone Prinia Prinia leontica (an Upper Guinea highland endemic known from a handful of sites), Rufous-naped Lark Mirafra africana henrici, Common Stonechat Saxicola torquatus nebularum (Upper Guinea highland endemic sub-species), African Black Swift Apus barbatus, Long-billed Pipit Anthus similis, Grey-winged Robin-Chat Cossypha polioptera and Broad-Taïled Warbler Schoenicla brevirostris.
No site of international importance for Palearctic migrants is known in Côte d'Ivoire and numbers of wintering waders are not high.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
