Discover 25 Must-See Birds of The Gambia

Explore identification guides, habitats and the best places to find The Gambia’s most sought-after birds.

(in our opinion)

Select a bird image or species name to open its identification and birdwatching guide.

Adult Egyptian Plover on the edge of waterway

Secretive White-backed Night Heron

Pel’s Fishing Owl on the lookout for prey

the elusive and secretive African Finfoot

Standard-winged Nightjar at rest on the ground

Egyptian Plover

White-backed Night Heron

Pel’s Fishing Owl

African Finfoot

Standard-winged Nightjar

Northern Carmine Bee-eater on its regular perch on the lookout for its next winged vprey

GIANT KINGFISHER usually secretive and under cover but here perched in full view

Shining-blue Kingfisher a truely dazeling gem of a bird

Malachite Kingfisher blink and all you see is a blue streak

Blue-bellied Roller sitting on its favourite perch keeping an eye out for its next meal

Northern Carmine Bee-eater

Giant Kingfisher

Shining-blue Kingfisher

Malachite Kingfisher

Blue-bellied Roller

Abyssinian Roller more often seen in flight but shown here perched

Violet Turaco a shy bird of dense woodland

Abyssinian Ground Hornbill as bold as brass walking out in the open

Bearded Barbet perched ready to feed

Yellow-crowned Gonolek a noisy bird with equisit colouration

Abyssinian Roller

Abyssinian Ground Hornbill

Yellow-crowned Gonolek

White Helmetshrike a stikingly coulored bird, not easy to spot

African Paradise Flycatcher a flamboyantly coloured flycatcher with long tail streamers on this male

Black-faced Firefinch a small subtally coloured finch

Oriole Warbler more often heard than seen.

African Fish Eagle perched beside the River Gambia

White Helmetshrike

African Paradise Flycatcher

Black-faced Firefinch

African Fish Eagle

Exclamatory Paradise Whydah a super flamboyant bird in its breading plumage

Four-banded Sandgrouse a handsome ground bird which when flushed explodes into the air before dissapearing into the distance

Bronze-winged Courser a super bird to see, this one on the ground near vegitation that its colouration resembles

Greater Painted-snipe a beutiful snipe of water surrounded by trees

African Pygmy Goose a stunning tiny goose pictured on open water

Exclamatory Paradise Whydah

Four-banded Sandgrouse

Bronze-winged Courser

Greater Painted-snipe

African Pygmy Goose