Leave it to a bird nerd to try and sound all technical in this blog’s title. The term avifauna is synonymous with birds and Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique is home to more than 400 species. Gorongosa’s diversity can be attributed to the kaleidoscope of habitats within the park’s boundaries.
Gorongosa National Park protects a vast ecosystem defined, shaped, and given life by all the rivers that flow into Lake Urema. The Park is nestled in a 4,000-square-kilometer section of the Great African Rift system, Africa’s most dramatic geological feature. The Rift extends from Ethiopia to central Mozambique. Massive tectonic shifts began forming the Rift about 30 million years ago. Other warpings, uplifts, and sinkings of the earth’s crust over millennia shaped the plateaus on both sides and Gorongosa Mountain to the west. All that commotion, together with sun, wind, and rain at the surface, created a rich collection of soils. The result is an astounding number of plant species that support an array of animals.
During our four-night stay at Explore Gorongosa (July 3 – 7, 2010), we saw many of the park’s most famous residents (lions, elephants, and Nile crocodiles). In addition, baboons and warthogs made regular appearances during game drives and during our walking safari. For the majority in our group, those were the highlights. I guess you can go ahead and count me in there, too. The big cats rank at the top of my “favorites” list, and seeing elephants chomp on bark to release its sugary sap was a treat (for us and them).
However, if you’re constantly on the lookout for the big guys at Gorongosa, you’ll miss out on animals of the feathered variety. During our game drives and walk, I kept a keen eye out for the birds. They failed to disappoint.
Below is a checklist and some photos from our trip. Seventy-seven species isn’t a bad tally when added to all of the other wonderful displays of animal behavior we saw along the way.
- Pink-backed pelican
- Reed cormorant
- African darter
- Grey heron
- Great egret
- Little egret
- Cattle egret
- Hammerkop
- Wooly-necked stork
- African openbill
- Saddle-billed stork
- Marabou stork
- Yellow-billed stork
- African sacred ibis
- Glossy ibis
- Hadeda ibis
- African spoonbill
- White-faced duck
- Egyptian goose
- Spur-winged goose
- White-backed vulture
- Southern banded snake-eagle
- Bateleur
- African fish-eagle
- Lizard buzzard
- African harrier-hawk
- Dickinson’s kestrel
- Red-necked spurfowl
- Crested guineafowl
- Grey crowned crane
- African jacana
- Senegal lapwing
- Blacksmith lapwing
- African wattled lapwing
- Long-toed lapwing
- Black-winged stilt
- Water thick-knee
- Bronze-winged courser
- Collared pratincole
- Cape turtle-dove
- Grey go-away-bird
- Burchell’s coucal
- Barred owlet
- Spotted eagle-owl
- Mozambique nightjar
- Narina trogon
- Pied kingfisher
- Giant kingfisher
- Malachite kingfisher
- Striped kingfisher
- Brown-hooded kingfisher
- Grey-hooded kingfisher
- Little bee-eater
- Lilac-breasted roller
- African hoopoe
- Common scimitarbill
- African grey hornbill
- Crowned hornbill
- Greater honeyguide
- Bearded woodpecker
- Flappet lark
- Fork-tailed drongo
- Pied crow
- Kurrichane thrush
- Collared palm-thrush
- African paradise-flycatcher
- Rattling cisticola
- Yellow-throated longclaw
- Black-backed puffback
- Orange-breasted bush-shrike
- White-crested helmet-shrike
- Black-bellied starling
- Collared sunbird
- Spectacled weaver
- Red-headed weaver
- Red-billed quelea
- Blue waxbill
