Birds in Nigeria
Our list for Nigeria has 69 bird species recorded regularly there: 11 residents, 2 summer visitors, 14 winter visitors, 30 passage migrants and 12 scarce visitors
The list comes from 98,000 birdwatchers' records from 2019–2024, shared through the eBird Observation Dataset on GBIF. A bird is listed when it was recorded in at least 3 of the 6 years and has a Birdfact species guide, so more species occur here than are listed; the months show when it is recorded most years.
- Species on our list
- 69
- In October
- 42
- Common
- 15
- Busiest month
- Oct
This month: October
GBIF · OctMost likely
Arriving now
Share of all bird records in Nigeria in October, 2019–2024. “Arriving now” are the birds whose share rises most from last month. Each month links to that month’s page.
The bird calendar for Nigeria
Month by monthWhen each bird is around, through the year. The darker the square, the closer that month is to the bird’s busiest. Filter by summer or winter visitors to see the seasons turn over.
| Bird | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cattle Egret | ||||||||||||
| Rose-ringed Parakeet | ||||||||||||
| Pied Crow | ||||||||||||
| Kestrel | ||||||||||||
| Little Weaver | ||||||||||||
| Bearded Barbet | ||||||||||||
| Lavender Waxbill | ||||||||||||
| Fork-tailed Drongo | ||||||||||||
| African Jacana | ||||||||||||
| European Pied Flycatcher | ||||||||||||
| Lanner Falcon | ||||||||||||
| Hoopoe | ||||||||||||
| Common Sandpiper | ||||||||||||
| Lesser Striped Swallow | ||||||||||||
| Little Egret | ||||||||||||
| Spotted Flycatcher | ||||||||||||
| Grey Heron | ||||||||||||
| Wood Warbler | ||||||||||||
| Willow Warbler | ||||||||||||
| Squacco Heron | ||||||||||||
| Great White Egret | ||||||||||||
| Senegal Thick-knee | ||||||||||||
| Whinchat | ||||||||||||
| Moorhen | ||||||||||||
| Yellow Wagtail | ||||||||||||
| Rock Dove | ||||||||||||
| White-bellied Bustard | ||||||||||||
| Whitethroat | ||||||||||||
| Barn Owl | ||||||||||||
| Helmeted Guineafowl |
The year in Nigeria
Records by month| January | 6,645 |
|---|---|
| February | 5,923 |
| March | 5,652 |
| April | 4,998 |
| May | 14,726 |
| June | 8,185 |
| July | 5,828 |
| August | 5,651 |
| September | 5,919 |
| October | 18,582 |
| November | 7,988 |
| December | 7,860 |
October has the most records (19,000). Records follow birdwatchers as well as birds: a busy month means more people out looking, as well as more birds passing through.
By family
12 of 12How common
All 69 birds, A to Z
- African Jacana
- Barn Owl
- Barn Swallow
- Bearded Barbet
- Black-crowned Night-heron
- Blackcap
- Blue-naped Mousebird
- Booted Eagle
- Cattle Egret
- Chiffchaff
- Common Redstart
- Common Reed-warbler
- Common Sandpiper
- Common Swift
- Common Tern
- European Bee-eater
- European Pied Flycatcher
- Fork-tailed Drongo
- Fulvous Whistling-Duck
- Garden Warbler
- Garganey
- Glossy Ibis
- Golden Oriole
- Great Cormorant
Show all 69 birds
- Great White Egret
- Green Sandpiper
- Greenshank
- Grey Heron
- Grey Parrot
- Helmeted Guineafowl
- Hoopoe
- House Martin
- House Sparrow
- Kestrel
- Lanner Falcon
- Lavender Waxbill
- Lesser Striped Swallow
- Little Bittern
- Little Egret
- Little Grebe
- Little Weaver
- Montagu's Harrier
- Moorhen
- Nightingale
- Osprey
- Peregrine Falcon
- Pied Crow
- Purple Heron
- Rock Dove
- Rose-ringed Parakeet
- Sanderling
- Sedge Warbler
- Senegal Thick-knee
- Spotted Flycatcher
- Spur-winged Goose
- Squacco Heron
- Tree Pipit
- Western Marsh-harrier
- Wheatear
- Whimbrel
- Whinchat
- White-bellied Bustard
- Whitethroat
- Willow Warbler
- Wood Sandpiper
- Wood Warbler
- Woodchat Shrike
- Wryneck
- Yellow Wagtail
Questions
3How many birds are on Birdfact's list for Nigeria?
69 species, each recorded regularly in Nigeria (in at least 3 of the 6 years 2019–2024): 11 residents, 2 summer visitors, 14 winter visitors, 30 passage migrants and 12 scarce visitors. The list includes only birds with a Birdfact species guide, so more species occur in Nigeria, and rarer vagrants are not listed.
What birds can I see in Nigeria in October?
42 species on our list for Nigeria are recorded regularly in October. Of these, the most often recorded are Cattle Egret, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Pied Crow, Kestrel and Little Weaver.
What are the most common birds in Nigeria?
Of the birds on our list, the ones birdwatchers record most often in Nigeria are Cattle Egret, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Pied Crow, Kestrel and Common Sandpiper.
Data: EOD – eBird Observation Dataset (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), accessed via GBIF.org, CC BY 4.0. Records from 2019–2024, aggregated and filtered by Birdfact. How these lists are made