Introduction

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC (previously Zaire) has a bird list consisting of 1,139 species following the ABC checklist mentioned below. This is probably the highest species count for any African country. Since 1996 a civil war and political instability have impacted the habitat adversely as well as limiting opportunities for visiting birders. There is much of interest for the birder to see in the DRC, so one can only hope that opportunities to visit will increase in the future.

The purpose of this document is to provide a summary of the DRC and its birds for birders interested in the country and potentially planning a visit. The information has been put together from a number of sources and it is intended to add new information as it becomes available. As such, readers are welcome to submit contributions by e-mail to info@africanbirdclub.org. You should note that the names of birds used in this document are those of the African Bird Club checklist.