


Top 18 Most Common Bird in Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea is known for its tropical climate and diverse biomes, providing a rich habitat for a variety of bird species. Among the 18 most common, often spotted in Equatorial Guinea, are birds with striking plumage, unique vocalization patterns, and exceptional adaptability to the region's conditions. Each species showcases a testament to nature's remarkable resilience and diversity in this part of the world.

Most Common Bird

1. Pied Crow
It is approximately the size of the European carrion crow or a little larger (46–50 cm in length) but has a proportionately larger bill, slightly longer tail and wings, and longer legs. As its name suggests, its glossy black head and neck are interrupted by a large area of white feathering from the shoulders down to the lower breast. The tail, bill and wings are black too. The eyes are dark brown. The white plumage of immature birds is often mixed with black. It resembles the white-necked and thick-billed ravens but has a much smaller bill.


2. Black Kite
Black Kite is a bird of prey known for its aerial skills and hunting ability. Its striking appearance makes it a fascinating species to observe, and it can often be seen soaring through the skies. Black Kite is highly adaptable and can be found in a variety of habitats, making it a common sight in many areas.


3. Village Weaver
The village weaver is a stocky 15–17 cm bird with a strong conical bill and dark reddish eyes. In the northern part of its range, the breeding male has a black head edged by chestnut (typically most distinct on the nape and chest). Towards the southern part of its range, the amount of black and chestnut diminish, and the breeding males of the southernmost subspecies only have a black face and throat, while the nape and crown are yellow. In all subspecies the breeding male has a black bill, black and yellow upperparts and wings, and yellow underparts. The non-breeding male has a yellow head with an olive crown, grey upperparts and whitish underparts. The wings remain yellow and black. The adult female has streaked olive upperparts, yellow and black wings, and pale yellow underparts. Young birds are like the female but browner on the back.


4. Black-and-white Mannikin

5. Cattle Egret
Cattle Egrets are short, thick-necked egrets. Their name refers to their preference to follow along with livestock as they forage in fields. Cattle Egrets were native only to Africa until the late 1800s when they somehow made their way throughout the Americas. They can often be found along airport runways waiting for planes to take off and blow insects out of the grass and weeds. They also follow behind farm equipment and do the same thing.

6. Palm-nut Vulture
This is a nearly unmistakable bird as an adult. At 1.3–1.7 kg (2.9–3.7 lb), 60 cm (2.0 ft) long and 150 cm (4.9 ft) across the wings, this is the smallest Old World vulture. Its plumage is all white except for black areas in its wings and tail. It has a red patch around each eye. The juvenile, which takes 3–4 years to mature, is brown with yellow eye-patches. In flight, this species resembles an eagle more than a typical vulture, and it can sustain flapping flight, so it does not depend on thermals. With its extensive white plumage, and black wing- and tail-feathers, the adult palm-nut vulture can be crudely mistaken for both the African fish-eagle and the Egyptian vulture, but clearly lacks the chestnut body of the former and the white tail of the latter The sexes are identical in appearance, with the female being the same size as the male. Juveniles on the other hand are predominately brown with partially black wings and take a lengthy three to four years to make the transition into the adult plumage


7. Woodland Kingfisher
This is a medium-sized kingfisher, 23 cm (9.1 in) in length. The adult has a bright blue back, wing panel and tail. Its head, neck and underparts are white, and its shoulders are black. The flight of the woodland kingfisher is rapid and direct. The large bill has a red upper mandible and black lower mandible. The legs and feet are dark grey. Some birds may have greyish heads, causing confusion with mangrove kingfisher. However, the lores are dark, creating a dark stripe through the eye (the stripe does not extend through the eye in mangrove kingfisher), and the underwing, primaries and secondaries are black with white underwing coverts (there is a black carpal patch on the white coverts in mangrove kingfisher). The inner webs of the base of the flight feathers are white, creating an indistinct white wingbar (white completely absent from wings in mangrove kingfisher). The breast is white (tends to be much greyer in mangrove kingfisher). The sexes are similar, but juveniles are duller than adults and have a brown bill. The call of this noisy kingfisher is a loud trill sounding like a nail run down the teeth of a comb.


8. Grey Heron
The grey Heron is a very common species to come across in marine, brackish, and freshwater ecosystems; these habitats must have at least four months of warm weather or else these birds will migrate for new breeding grounds. The grey Heron hunts by wading through shallow waters looking for fish and various invertebrates; their natural diet helps control some aquatic species populations.

9. Northern Grey-headed Sparrow
The northern grey-headed sparrow (Passer griseus), also known as the grey-headed sparrow, is a species of bird in the sparrow family Passeridae, which is resident in much of tropical Africa. It occurs in a wide range of open habitats, including open woodlands and human habitation, often occupying the same niche as the house sparrow does in Eurasia. The adult northern grey-headed sparrow has a pale grey head with a white moustache stripe, pale brown upperparts, whitish underparts and chestnut wings with a small white shoulder patch. The sexes are similar, but young birds are slightly duller and lack the white wing patch. There are three subspecies, differing in plumage tone, especially with regard to the darkness of the head. This sparrow is mainly resident in its range, but there is some seasonal movement, and flocks of up to 50 birds form outside the breeding season. It builds a cup nest in trees, thatch, or old nests of other birds; 2–4 eggs are laid. This species feeds principally on seeds and grain, like other sparrows, but will readily take insects including termites, especially when feeding young. The calls include cheeps and chirps, and the typical sparrow churring alarm call. The northern grey-headed sparrow is replaced in eastern and southern Africa by very similar birds that are sometimes considered races of this species: Swainson's sparrow, the parrot-billed sparrow, the Swahili sparrow, and the southern grey-headed sparrow. According to phylogenetic studies by Arnaiz-Villena et al., this species is indeed related to the other grey-headed sparrows, and these species together are most closely related within genus Passer to the house sparrow and allies.


10. Pied Kingfisher
This is a medium-sized kingfisher, about 25 cm (9.8 in) long with a white with a black mask, a white supercilium and black breast bands. The crest is neat and the upperparts are barred in black. Several subspecies are recognized within the broad distribution. The nominate race is found in sub-Saharan Africa, extending into West Asia. The subspecies syriacus is a larger northern bird similar to the nominate subspecies (following Bergmann's rule). Subspecies leucomelanura is found from Afghanistan east into India, Thailand and Southeast Asia. The subspecies travancoreensis of the Western Ghats is darker with the white reduced. The subspecies C. r. insignis is found in Hainan and southeastern China and has a much larger bill. Males have a narrow second breast-band while females have a single broken breast band.


11. Fraser's Eagle-owl

12. Barn Swallow
A familiar sight in rural and semi-open areas, the small barn Swallow can often be spotted by its distinctly graceful flight as it travels low over fields. Seemingly unbothered by having human neighbors, they nest unafraid in barns, garages, beneath bridges or wharves. Interestingly enough, they have come to prefer these locations so much that you are unlikely to spot a nest in a place that is not a human-made structure.

13. Splendid Starling

14. Reed Cormorant
This is a small cormorant at 50–55 cm length and an 85 cm wingspan. It is mainly black, glossed green, in the breeding season. The wing coverts are silvery. It has a longish tail, a short head crest and a red or yellow face patch. The bill is yellow. Sexes are similar, but non-breeding adults and juveniles are browner, with a white belly. Some southern races retain the crest all year round.


15. Western Reef-heron
This bird has two plumage colour forms. There is an all-white morph and a dark grey morph; morphs can also occur with intermediate shades of grey which may be related to age or particoloured in grey and white. The white morph is similar in general appearance to the little egret, but has a larger yellower bill, extended yellow on thicker legs, and when foraging tends to be very active, sometimes also moving its wing or using it to shade the water surface. The grey morph has a whitish throat and is unlikely to be confused with any other species within the range of this egret with beak and legs similar to that of the white morph. During the breeding season the legs and facial skin are reddish. Breeding birds have two long feathers on the sides of the nape. The nominate subspecies gularis has a range from West Africa to Gabon, with some birds breeding in southern Europe. Subspecies schistacea (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828) breeds from the Persian Gulf along the coast of India to the east of the India Peninsula. The bill of gularis is more pointed while schistacea has the larger bill especially towards the base. The form on the eastern coast of South Africa is usually separated as the dimorphic egret Egretta dimorpha. The dark and white morph is thought to be controlled by a single allele with the dark character being incompletely dominant over the gene for white.


16. Hadada Ibis
The hadeda is a large (about 76 cm long), grey-to-partly brown species of ibis. Males and females are alike in plumage. It has a narrow, white, roughly horizontal stripe across its cheeks. This is sometimes called the "moustache" though it does not reach the mouth corners. The plumage over the wings has an iridescent purple sheen produced by optical microstructures within the feathers. The bird has blackish legs and a large grey-to-black bill but during the breeding season it has a red culmen on the basal half of the upper mandible. The upper surfaces of the toes are of a similar red during the onset of breeding. The wings are powerful and broad, enabling quick take-offs and easy manoeuvring through dense tree cover. It has an extremely loud and distinctive "haa-haa-haa-de-dah" call—hence the onomatopoetic name. The call is often heard when the birds are flying or are startled, or when the birds communicate socially, for example early in the morning in residential suburbs. While roosting they produce a single loud "haaaa". When foraging, their contact call is a low growl similar to that made by a young puppy.


17. Western Yellow Wagtail
A small bird, the western Yellow Wagtail lives up to its common name, Western Yellow Wagtail, as the bird is often seen wagging its tail feathers. It is on the red list for declining numbers in the UK. The bird spends the majority of its time running on the ground in meadows and wet pastures in search of small insects.

18. Bronze Mannikin
The bronze mannikin is one of the smallest munia species, measuring 9–10 cm in length and weighing 7–12 grams. The adult is a compact bird with a short black tail, and stubby black and pale grey (not distinctly bluish) mandibles. It is black to brownish black on the head, chin, throat and center of the chest, with some purple-green iridescence on the face and sides of the breast. It has greyish brown upper parts and white underparts with irregular barring on the flanks and rump. A small green iridescent patch is present on the outer scapular feathers, besides, especially in the western race, the sides of the lower breast. Wing coverts and remiges are bordered in a paler or warmer tone. The sexes are similar. Immature birds are dun brown above with buff head and underpart plumage. They moult into full adult plumage by age six months, when the males also begin to sing and exhibit breeding behaviour.
