SUB-REGION
South-Central Africa
SIZE
799,380 km²
BIRDS AND BIRDING
SPECIES
Diversity
Strongly Afrotropical avifauna
Approximately 750 recorded species
Endemics (E)
Namuli Apalis (EN)
Near-endemics (NE)
Woodwards’ Batis
Neergaard’s Sunbird
Pink-throated Twinspot
Birds occurring in only two territories of the ABC region but not NE (1/2), including endemic subspecies (ESS)
Kretschmer’s Longbill
Roberts’s Warbler | Briar Warbler
Chirinda Apalis
Long-billed Forest Warbler | Long-billed Tailorbird (ESS sousae)
Red-capped Forest Warbler | African Tailorbird
Dapple-throat (ESS orostruthus)
Brown Scrub Robin
Thyolo Alethe | Cholo Alethe (ESS namuli)
Birds best found in two territories but occurring in more (B2)
Stierling’s Woodpecker
Malawi Batis
Olive-headed Weaver
Vincent’s Bunting
Proposed new species or splits not yet accepted by IOC
Kirk’s Francolin
Grey-breasted Green Pigeon
Steppe Whimbrel (BT)
Cape Gull
Ngami Owlet
Southern Olive Woodpecker
Grey-headed Parrot
East African Pitta
Four-colored Bushshrike
Anchieta’s Tchagra
Eastern Saw-wing
African Reed Warbler
Mozambique Forest Warbler (E)
Maputaland Scrub Robin (1/2)
Southern Olive-flanked Ground Robin (1/2)
Red-backed Mannikin
Spectacled Quailfinch
Other taxa of interest, including ESS
Common Ostrich
African Pygmy Goose
Cape Shoveler
Southern Crested Guineafowl
Blue Quail
Shelley’s Francolin
Natal Spurfowl
Hildebrandt’s Spurfowl
Swainson’s Spurfowl
Scarce Swift
Böhm’s Spinetail | Bat-like Spinetail
Forbes-Watson’s Swift
Livingstone’s Turaco
Purple-crested Turaco
Red-crested Bustard
Green Malkoha
Thick-billed Cuckoo
Barred Long-tailed Cuckoo
Double-banded Sandgrouse
Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon
Lesser Moorhen
Wattled Crane
Lesser Jacana
Crab-plover
Madagascar Pratincole
Hartlaub’s Gull
Saunders’s Tern
Sooty Tern
Roseate Tern
Great Frigatebird
Cape Gannet
Red-footed Booby
Eurasian Bittern | Great Bittern (capensis)
Malagasy Pond Heron
Dimorphic Egret
African Cuckoo-Hawk
Southern Banded Snake Eagle
Rufous-breasted Sparrowhawk
Bar-tailed Trogon
Southern Ground Hornbill
Southern Red-billed Hornbill
Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
Pale-billed Hornbill
Trumpeter Hornbill
Silvery-cheeked Hornbill
Racket-tailed Roller
Mangrove Kingfisher
Böhm’s Bee-eater
Olive Bee-eater | Madagascar Bee-eater
Southern Carmine Bee-eater
White-eared Barbet
Whyte’s Barbet
Green Barbet (belcheri)
Green Tinkerbird
Acacia Pied Barbet
Brown-breasted Barbet
Pallid Honeyguide
Bennett’s Woodpecker
Speckle-throated Woodpecker | Reichenow’s Woodpecker
Little Spotted Woodpecker | Green-backed Woodpecker
Dickinson’s Kestrel
Taita Falcon
Brown-headed Parrot
Lilian’s Lovebird
African Broadbill
Cape Batis (dimorpha)
Pale Batis
Black-throated Wattle-eye
Black-fronted Bushshrike
Olive Bushshrike
Bokmakierie
Southern Boubou
Retz’s Helmetshrike
Chestnut-fronted Helmetshrike
Black-and-white Shrike-flycatcher
Grey Cuckooshrike
Magpie Shrike
Southern White-crowned Shrike
Souza’s Shrike
Southern Fiscal
Green-headed Oriole (ESS speculifer)
Common Square-tailed Drongo
Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher | African Crested Flycatcher
White-tailed Blue Flycatcher
White-tailed Crested Flycatcher
White-necked Raven
White-winged Black Tit
Southern Black Tit
Cinnamon-breasted Tit
Miombo Tit
Eastern Nicator
Dusky Lark
Sabota Lark
Fawn-colored Lark
Sombre Greenbul
Black-browed Greenbul
Olive-headed Greenbul
Stripe-cheeked Greenbul
Lowland Tiny Greenbul | Tiny Greenbul
Grey-olive Greenbul
Fischer’s Greenbul
Placid Greenbul
Yellow-streaked Greenbul (vincenti)
Mascarene Martin
White-throated Swallow
Blue Swallow
Cape Grassbird
Red-faced Crombec
Long-billed Crombec | Cape Crombec
Red-capped Crombec
Livingstone’s Flycatcher
Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler (ESS quelimanensis)
Barratt’s Warbler
Evergreen Forest Warbler
Cinnamon Bracken Warbler
Lazy Cisticola
Wailing Cisticola (ESS oreobates)
Rufous-winged Cisticola
Levaillant’s Cisticola
Neddicky | Piping Cisticola
Cloud Cisticola
Pale-crowned Cisticola
Wing-snapping Cisticola
Red-winged Prinia
Bar-throated Apalis
Rudd’s Apalis (ESS ruddi)
White-winged Apalis
Black-headed Apalis (ESS tenebricosa + addenda)
Stierling’s Wren-Warbler (ESS olivascens)
Green-capped Eremomela
Burnt-necked Eremomela
African Hill Babbler (stictigula)
Cape White-eye
Gurney’s Sugarbird
Yellow-bellied Hyliota
Southern Hyliota
African Spotted Creeper
Black-bellied Starling
Cape Starling
Miombo Blue-eared Starling
Meves’s Starling
Burchell’s Starling
Boulder Chat
Orange Ground Thrush
Spotted Ground Thrush
Groundscraper Thrush
Olive Thrush (milanjensis + swynnertoni)
Kurrichane Thrush
Bearded Scrub Robin
Miombo Scrub Robin
Grey Tit-Flycatcher
Fiscal Flycatcher
African Dusky Flycatcher
Böhm’s Flycatcher
White-chested Alethe
White-throated Robin-Chat
Swynnerton’s Robin
White-starred Robin
East Coast Akalat (ESS gunningi)
Collared Palm Thrush
Cape Rock Thrush
Miombo Rock Thrush
Arnot’s Chat
Plain-backed Sunbird (reichenowi)
Anchieta’s Sunbird
Western Violet-backed Sunbird
Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird
Grey Sunbird | Mouse-colored Sunbird
Bronzy Sunbird
Eastern Miombo Sunbird (ESS amicorum)
Forest Double-collared Sunbird (bensoni)
Shelley’s Sunbird
Purple-banded Sunbird
White-bellied Sunbird | White-breasted Sunbird
Copper Sunbird
Swahili Sparrow
Yellow-throated Bush Sparrow
Red-billed Buffalo Weaver
Bertram’s Weaver
Eastern Golden Weaver | African Golden Weaver
Southern Brown-throated Weaver
Southern Masked Weaver
Dark-backed Weaver | Forest Weaver
Zanzibar Red Bishop
Magpie Mannikin
Yellow-bellied Waxbill
Swee Waxbill
Green Twinspot | Green-backed Twinspot
Red-faced Crimsonwing
Grey Waxbill | Black-tailed Waxbill
Locust Finch
Cut-throat Finch
Violet-eared Waxbill
Blue Waxbill | Southern Cordon-bleu
Lesser Seedcracker
Orange-winged Pytilia
Red-throated Twinspot | Peters’s Twinspot
Jameson’s Firefinch
Purple Indigobird
Dusky Indigobird
Zambezi Indigobird | Green Indigobird
Shaft-tailed Whydah
Long-tailed Paradise Whydah
Broad-tailed Paradise Whydah
Cuckoo-finch | Parasitic Weaver
Cape Longclaw | Orange-throated Longclaw
Rosy-throated Longclaw
Nicholson’s Pipit
Wood Pipit | Woodland Pipit
Buffy Pipit
Striped Pipit
Short-tailed Pipit
Bushveld Pipit | Bush Pipit
Southern Citril
Lemon-breasted Canary | Lemon-breasted Seedeater
Reichard’s Seedeater
Streaky-headed Seedeater
Black-eared Seedeater
Cape Canary
Cabanis’s Bunting
MAIN HABITATS
Coastal lowland forest, montane forest, miombo woodland, floodplain grassland
BIRD AREAS
Eastern Zimbabwe mountains Endemic Bird Area (EBA)
South African forests EBA
South-east African coast EBA
Tanzania – Malawi mountains EBA
16 Important Bird Areas
BIRDING SITES
Mount Namuli, Mount Gorongosa, Chimanimani Mountains and Njesi Plateau for montane forest species
Zambezi River Delta/Coutada for coastal forest species, including Africa Pitta (longipennis)
TIMING (Aug–Sep, Dec)
Best at the end of the dry season, when most birds breed
African Pitta (longipennis) displays mostly in Dec
Avoid the main rains (Jan–Apr)
RESOURCES (see also South Africa)
Apps
Birds of Africa (iOS or Android)
Roberts Bird Guide 2 covers most species
Field guides
Birds of Africa South of the Sahara by Ian Sinclair & Peter Ryan (2010)
Birds of Southern Africa by Ber van Perlo (2009)
Sasol Birds of Southern Africa by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey, Warwick Tarboton, Niall Perrins, Dominic Rollinson & Peter Ryan (2020) is better for birds occurring south of the Zambezi River
Sounds
Southern African Bird Sounds by Guy Gibbon covers most species
Site guides
Southern African Birdfinder by Callan Cohen, Claire Spottiswoode & Jonathan Rossouw (2006)
Pelagic Birding Trips in the Southern Mozambique Channel by Peter G Ryan, John Graham & Andrew C Sutherland (2006)
A Productive Birding Transect from Highland Zimbabwe to Coastal Mozambique by Chris Lotz (2012)
Atlases
Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2 (SABAP2), a member of the African Bird Atlas Project
The Atlas of the Birds of Central Mozambique by Vincent Parker (2005)
The Atlas of the Birds of Sul do Save, Southern Mozambique by Vincent Parker (1999)
Further reading
Roberts – Birds of Southern Africa edited by P A R Hockey, W R J Dean & P G Ryan (2005) for species occurring south of the Zambezi River
Mozambique by Vincent Parker in Important Bird Areas in Africa and Associated Islands: Priority Sites for Conservation edited by Lincoln D C Fishpool & Michael I Evans (2001)
Birds of the Niassa Reserve, Mozambique by Vincent Parker (2005)
Birds of the Maputo Special Reserve, Mozambique by Vincent Parker & Fred de Boer (2000)
Birds of Inhaca Island, Mozambique by Fred de Boer & Carlos Bento (1999)
The Birds of Southern Mozambique by Phillip A Clancey (1996)
Articles in Scopus, Bull. ABC, etc.
Blogs
Maputo Special Reserve: Southern Mozambique’s Unknown Birding Gem by Dominic Rollinson (2021)
ORGANISATIONS
There is currently no BirdLife Partner in Mozambique
Bird or conservation organisations active in Mozambique include –
Associação Ambiente, Conservação e Educação Moçambique (AACEM)/Birds Mozambique
Association for the Conservation of Birds and Bats of Mozambique
Fórum Natureza em Perigo (FNP)/Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT)
Justiça Ambiental (JA!)
Associação Amigos da Floresta de Moçambique/Trees4Moz
Sociedade para a Gestão e Desenvolvimento da Reserva do Niassa (SGDRN)
Cabo Delgado Biodiversity and Tourism Project (Zoological Society of London)
Biofund – Fundação para a Conservação da Biodiversidade
Eden Reforestation Projects
Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation (BINCO)
Blue Ventures
African Safari Foundation (ASF)
Karingani
Peace Parks Foundation: Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area and Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation and Resource Area
FFS-IGF: Parque Nacional do Gilé
African Parks: Bazaruto
Carr Foundation: Parque Nacional da Gorongosa/Gorongosa National Park
Fauna & Flora International (FFI): Niassa Special Reserve
WCS Mozambique: Niassa Special Reserve
WWF Mozambique