Birds in Rwanda
Our list for Rwanda has 63 bird species recorded regularly there: 23 residents, 16 summer visitors, 2 winter visitors, 15 passage migrants and 7 scarce visitors
The list comes from 320,000 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
- 63
- In October
- 45
- Common
- 11
- Busiest month
- Jul
This month: October
GBIF · OctMost likely
Arriving now
Share of all bird records in Rwanda 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 Rwanda
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pied Crow | ||||||||||||
| Fork-tailed Drongo | ||||||||||||
| Grey Heron | ||||||||||||
| Cattle Egret | ||||||||||||
| Spur-winged Goose | ||||||||||||
| Lesser Striped Swallow | ||||||||||||
| Little Egret | ||||||||||||
| African Jacana | ||||||||||||
| Great White Egret | ||||||||||||
| Common Sandpiper | ||||||||||||
| Great Cormorant | ||||||||||||
| European Bee-eater | ||||||||||||
| Barn Swallow | ||||||||||||
| Moorhen | ||||||||||||
| Kestrel | ||||||||||||
| Willow Warbler | ||||||||||||
| Egyptian Goose | ||||||||||||
| Blue-naped Mousebird | ||||||||||||
| Helmeted Guineafowl | ||||||||||||
| Squacco Heron | ||||||||||||
| House Sparrow | ||||||||||||
| African Marsh Harrier | ||||||||||||
| Little Grebe | ||||||||||||
| Purple Heron | ||||||||||||
| Yellow Wagtail | ||||||||||||
| Glossy Ibis | ||||||||||||
| Black-crowned Night-heron | ||||||||||||
| Buzzard | ||||||||||||
| Spotted Flycatcher | ||||||||||||
| Wood Sandpiper |
The year in Rwanda
Records by month| January | 17,978 |
|---|---|
| February | 22,133 |
| March | 25,652 |
| April | 18,024 |
| May | 27,281 |
| June | 26,999 |
| July | 55,785 |
| August | 20,535 |
| September | 22,738 |
| October | 26,494 |
| November | 22,732 |
| December | 33,594 |
July has the most records (56,000). Records follow birdwatchers as well as birds: a busy month means more people out looking, as well as more birds passing through.
By family
11 of 11How common
All 63 birds, A to Z
- African Jacana
- African Marsh Harrier
- Alpine Swift
- Barn Owl
- Barn Swallow
- Black-crowned Night-heron
- Blackcap
- Blue-naped Mousebird
- Booted Eagle
- Buzzard
- Cattle Egret
- Common Reed-warbler
- Common Sandpiper
- Common Snipe
- Common Swift
- Crowned Eagle
- Cuckoo
- Egyptian Goose
- European Bee-eater
- European Honey-buzzard
- Fork-tailed Drongo
- Fulvous Whistling-Duck
- Garden Warbler
- Glossy Ibis
Show all 63 birds
- Great Cormorant
- Great White Egret
- Green Sandpiper
- Greenshank
- Grey Heron
- Helmeted Guineafowl
- Hobby
- Hoopoe
- House Martin
- House Sparrow
- Kestrel
- Lanner Falcon
- Lesser Striped Swallow
- Little Bittern
- Little Egret
- Little Grebe
- Little Stint
- Moorhen
- Nightjar
- Osprey
- Peregrine Falcon
- Pied Crow
- Purple Heron
- Red-backed Shrike
- Rock Dove
- Sand Martin
- Sedge Warbler
- Shoebill
- Spotted Flycatcher
- Spur-winged Goose
- Squacco Heron
- Tree Pipit
- Western Marsh-harrier
- Wheatear
- Whinchat
- White-winged Tern
- Willow Warbler
- Wood Sandpiper
- Yellow Wagtail
Questions
3How many birds are on Birdfact's list for Rwanda?
63 species, each recorded regularly in Rwanda (in at least 3 of the 6 years 2019–2024): 23 residents, 16 summer visitors, 2 winter visitors, 15 passage migrants and 7 scarce visitors. The list includes only birds with a Birdfact species guide, so more species occur in Rwanda, and rarer vagrants are not listed.
What birds can I see in Rwanda in October?
45 species on our list for Rwanda are recorded regularly in October. Of these, the most often recorded are Pied Crow, European Bee-eater, Common Sandpiper, Grey Heron and Barn Swallow.
What are the most common birds in Rwanda?
Of the birds on our list, the ones birdwatchers record most often in Rwanda are Pied Crow, Fork-tailed Drongo, European Bee-eater, Spur-winged Goose 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