Nigeria

SUB-REGION
West Africa

SIZE
923,770 km²

BIRDS AND BIRDING

SPECIES
Diversity
Strongly Afrotropical avifauna
Approximately 920 recorded species (7th longest bird list of any country in the ABC region)

Endemics (E)
Ibadan Malimbe (EN)

Near-endemics (NE)
Anambra Waxbill
Jos Plateau Indigobird

Birds best found in two territories but occurring in more (B2)
Cameroon Olive Pigeon
Western Greenbul
Cameroon Olive Greenbul
Black-capped Woodland Warbler
Green Longtail
White-tailed Warbler
Cameroon Sunbird
Shelley’s Oliveback

Proposed new species or splits not yet accepted by IOC
Black-shouldered Nightjar
Verreaux’s Turaco
West African Pied Hornbill
Congo Pied Hornbill
Western Piping Hornbill
Eastern Piping Hornbill
Western Little Hornbill
Eastern Long-tailed Hornbill
Eastern Yellow-spotted Barbet
Eastern Yellow-billed Barbet
Togo Yellow-billed Barbet
Plain-backed Woodpecker
Johnston’s Woodpecker (B2)
Brown-necked Parrot
Petit’s Saw-wing
Western Green Crombec
Brown-backed Cisticola (1/2)
Western Stout Cisticola
Western Buff-throated Apalis
Black-crowned Capuchin Babbler
African Scrub Robin
Western Forest Robin
Volcano Sunbird (B2)
Neumann’s Weaver
Black-faced Quailfinch
Grey Firefinch
Cameroon Pipit (1/2)
Bannerman’s Pipit

National bird
Black Crowned Crane (EW in Nigeria)

MAIN HABITATS
Lowland forest, montane forest, savannas, Guinea woodlands
BIRD AREAS
Cameroon and Gabon lowlands Endemic Bird Area (EBA)
Cameroon mountains EBA
Lower Niger valley Secondary Area (SA)
South-west Nigeria SA
27 Important Bird Areas (IBAs)

BIRDING SITES
Emerald Forest Reserve for Ibadan Malimbe
Niger Delta for Anambra Waxbill
Jos Plateau for the indigobird and Rock Firefinch plus Stone Partridge, Freckled Nightjar (ESS pallidogriseus), Adamawa Turtle Dove, Forbes’s Plover, Sun Lark, Red-capped Lark (ESS rufipecta), Anteater Chat, Rock-loving Cisticola, Long-tailed Glossy Starling, Neumann’s Starling, Lavender Waxbill, Black-rumped Waxbill, Black-bellied Firefinch and Gosling’s Bunting
Obudu Plateau and Mambilla Plateau for the other 1/2 and B2 species listed above plus Lemon Dove, White-crested Turaco, Bar-tailed Trogon, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Western Tinkerbird (coryphaea), Tullberg’s Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Wattle-eye, Mountain Sooty Boubou, Grey Cuckooshrike, Petit’s Cuckooshrike, Mackinnon’s Shrike, White-bellied Crested Flycatcher, Rwenzori Hill Babbler, Black-collared Apalis, Black-throated Apalis (bambuluensis), Grey Apalis, Banded Prinia, Forest White-eye, Grey-chested Babbler, Waller’s Starling (preussi), Crossley’s Ground Thrush, Brown-backed Scrub Robin, African Dusky Flycatcher (poensis), White-bellied Robin-Chat (roberti), African Stonechat (salax), Sooty Chat, Orange-tufted Sunbird, Black-billed Weaver (melanogaster), Dark-backed Weaver (tephronotus), Brown-capped Weaver, Yellow Bishop (phoenicomerus), Marsh Widowbird, Red-faced Crimsonwing (reichenovii), Grey-headed Oliveback, Black-crowned Waxbill, Dybowski’s Twinspot, Oriole Finch and Thick-billed Seedeater (burtoni)
Cross River National Park (NP) for lowland forest species including Black Guineafowl, Sabine’s Spinetail, Fernando Po Swift, Afep Pigeon, Nkulengu Rail, Congo Serpent-Eagle, Sjöstedt’s Barred Owlet, Bare-cheeked Trogon, Blue-moustached Bee-eater, Lyre-tailed Honeyguide, Brown-eared Woodpecker, Yellow-crested Woodpecker, Gabon Woodpecker (reichenowi), White-spotted Wattle-eye, Pink-footed Puffback (boydi), Lühder’s Bushshrike, Eastern Wattled Cuckooshrike, Grey-necked Rockfowl, Forest Swallow, Golden Greenbul, Yellow-lored Bristlebill, Sjöstedt’s Greenbul, Eastern Bearded Greenbul, White-bearded Greenbul, Xavier’s Greenbul, Fraser’s Rufous Thrush, Yellow-footed Flycatcher, Lowland Akalat, Johanna’s Sunbird and Rachel’s Malimbe
Chad Basin NP for arid savanna species including Clapperton’s Spurfowl, Golden Nightjar, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, African Collared Dove, Quail-plover, Black-headed Lapwing, Scissor-tailed Kite, Blue-naped Mousebird, African Green Bee-eater, Yellow-breasted Barbet, Grey-headed Batis, Grey-backed Fiscal, Sennar Penduline Tit, Red-pate Cisticola, Cricket Warbler, Buff-bellied Warbler, Chestnut-bellied Starling, Black Scrub Robin, Sudan Golden Sparrow, White-billed Buffalo Weaver, Speckle-fronted Weaver and Sahel Paradise Whydah
Yankari Game Reserve for Standard-winged Nightjar, Violet Turaco, Savile’s Bustard, Four-banded Sandgrouse, Beaudouin’s Snake-Eagle, Grasshopper Buzzard, Black Scimitarbill, Northern Red-billed Hornbill, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Blue-bellied Roller, Red-throated Bee-eater, Bearded Barbet, Fine-spotted Woodpecker, Fox Kestrel, Senegal Parrot, Yellow Penduline Tit, Dorst’s Cisticola, Rufous Cisticola, White-crowned Robin-Chat, Bronze-tailed Starling, Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Sahel Bush Sparrow, Exclamatory Paradise Whydah and Brown-rumped Bunting

TIMING (Oct, Mar–Apr)
The north is probably best after the rains (Oct–Dec) and the south in the dry season (Feb–Apr)
Avoid the main rains (May–Sep)

RESOURCES
Apps
Birds of Africa (iOS or Android)

Field guides
Birds of Western Africa by Nik Borrow & Ron Demey (2014)
Common Birds of IITA by Taiye Adeyanju, Ulf Ottosson & Shiiwua Manu (2012)

Sounds
African Bird Sounds Vol 2: West and Central Africa by Claude Chappuis

Atlases
Nigerian Bird Atlas Project (NiBAP), a member of the African Bird Atlas Project

Further reading
Discovering Birds: an Introduction to the Birds of Nigeria by Anne Nason (1992)
The Birds of Nigeria: an Annotated Checklist by J H Elgood, J B Heignham, A M Moore, A M Nason, R E Sharland & N J Skinner (1994)
Comments on the Ornithology of Nigeria, including Amendments to the National List by Robert J Dowsett (2015)
Nigeria by Augustine U Ezealor in Important Bird Areas in Africa and Associated Islands: Priority Sites for Conservation edited by Lincoln D C Fishpool & Michael I Evans (2001)
Critical Sites for Biodiversity Conservation in Nigeria edited by Augustine U Ezealor (2002)
Kagoro Forest Conservation Study: Forest Outliers in Jema’s Division, Kaduna State, Nigeria by Roger Wilkinson & Roger Beecroft (1988)
A New Ornithological Institute in Nigeria by Juliet Vickery & Peter Jones (2002)
Articles in Malimbus (formerly the Bulletin of the Nigerian Ornithologists’ Society), The Nigerian Field, Bull. ABC, etc.

Websites
Finima Nature Park

Blogs
NiBAP Articles

Facebook groups
Nigerian Bird Atlas Project is the official Facebook group for NiBAP

ORGANISATIONS

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) is the BirdLife Partner in Nigeria

Ibadan Bird Club and Lekki Bird Club were both started by NCF and are just two of many more active bird clubs across Nigeria which are initiatives of NiBAP

The A. P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute (APLORI), an autonomous field station of the University of Jos, is the foremost ornithological research and conservation training centre in West Africa

Other bird or conservation organisations active in Nigeria include –
Nigerian Field Society (NFS)
Nigerian Environmental Study Action Team (NEST)
Better Earth Foundation
Biodiversity Preservation Center
Mbe Mountain Conservation Initiative (MMCI)
Savanna Conservation Nigeria (SCN), formerly Yankari Initiative
Centre for Environmental Resources and Sustainable Ecosystems (CERASE)
Niger Delta Wetlands Centre (NDWC)
Centre for Education, Research & Conservation of Primates and Nature (CERCOPAN)
Eden Creation Care Initiative (A Rocha International)
Africa Nature Investors (ANI) Foundation (Nigeria): Gashaka-Gumti
WCS Nigeria

The IITA Forest Center at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture headquarters in Ibadan also has a focus on birds