Top 20 Most Common Bird in Kisumu
Situated on the northeastern shore of Lake Victoria, Kisumu boasts an incredibly diverse ecosystem, rich in avian life. The 20 most prevalent species here are remarkable for their unique adaptations, striking colors, or distinctive behaviors. Exploring this birdlife offers valuable insights into the ecological marvels of Kisumu, confirming its status as a biodiversity hotspot.
Most Common Bird
1. Hamerkop
Hamerkop is a medium-sized waterbird found in wetlands in Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar. It is known for its massive nests, which are usually built during the breeding season. During breeding, both parents feed the young and after 50 days of care, the chicks will grow up and leave the nest.
2. Red-chested Sunbird
3. 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.
4. Speckled Mousebird
The speckled mousebird is about 35 cm (14 inches) long, with the tail comprising approximately half the length, and weighs about 57 grams (2 oz). It is well-named, because it is dull-mousy brown in overall color on the back and on the head (including a prominent crest). The bill is black on the upper part and is a pinkish color on the lower part. The rare white-headed mousebird can be confused with this species, but the differently colored mandibles and the lack of a bare grey orbital patch render the Speckled species distinctive. The speckled mousebird is not known for its voice, as songbirds are, although it is a noisy creature. They make a warbling tsu-tsu call while in flight, and are known for their tisk-tisk alarm call while in flight.
5. Common Bulbul
The bill is fairly short and thin, with a slightly downcurving upper mandible. The bill, legs, and feet are black and the eye is dark brown with a dark eye-ring, which is not readily visible. It is about 18 cm in length, with a long tail. It has a dark brown head and upperparts. Sexes are similar in plumage.
6. 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.
7. Spur-winged Lapwing
These are conspicuous and unmistakable birds. They are medium-large waders with black crown, chest, foreneck stripe and tail. The face, the rest of the neck and belly are white and the wings and back are light brown. The bill and legs are black. Its striking appearance is supplemented by its noisy nature, with a loud did-he-do-it call. The bird's common name refers to a small claw or spur hidden in each of its wings.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. African Pied Wagtail
A striking black and white wagtail with black upperparts contrasting with white underparts, a white supercilium and a white patch in the folded wing. Juvenile birds are greyer, while birds of the nominate subspecies show grey flanks. They are 20 cm (7.9 in) long.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. African Palm Swift
This 16 cm long species is mainly pale brown in colour. It has long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The body is slender, and the tail is long and deeply forked, although it is usually held closed. The call is a loud, shrill scream. Sexes are similar, and young birds differ mainly in their shorter tails. Palm swifts have very short legs which they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces, since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground.
14. Rüppell's Starling
Rüppell's starling (Lamprotornis purpuroptera), also known as Rueppell's glossy-starling or Rueppell's long-tailed starling, is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
15. Malachite Kingfisher
16. Black-headed Weaver
Breeding males have a black head and yellow nuchal collar, which is absent in the golden-backed and Juba and golden-backed weavers. It also differs from the latter species and village weaver by its plain, greenish mantle plumage. The pale yellow underpart plumage is suffused with a variable amount of chestnut. The female and non-breeding male lack the black head, and resemble a female masked weaver, except that they have dark eyes and a darker bill. Their buffy breast plumage also distinguishes them from non-breeding golden-backed weavers.
17. African Thrush
The African Thrush has dark olive-grey upperparts. The underparts show a whitish evenly brown- streaked side throat, the breast is greyish brown and the flanks are pale buff-orange with this colour not extending on to the lower breast, the belly and vent are white. It has a yellow-orange bill. It weighs 46–78g and measures 21–23 cm in length.
18. Little Egret
The small size of the little Egret makes the bird easily recognizable among larger species that share the same range. The egret is seen almost anywhere there are small fish including marshes, estuaries, and rivers. The bird often searches for food by itself but prefers to build nests in communities, occasionally with other bird species.
19. Swamp Flycatcher
20. African Sacred Ibis
An adult individual is 68 cm (27 in) long with all-white body plumage apart from dark plumes on the rump. Wingspan is 112 to 124 cm (44 to 49 in) and body weight 1.35 to 1.5 kg (3.0 to 3.3 lb). Males are generally slightly larger than females. The bald head and neck, thick curved bill and legs are black. The white wings show a black rear border in flight. The eyes are brown with a dark red orbital ring. Sexes are similar, but juveniles have dirty white plumage, a smaller bill and some feathering on the neck, greenish-brown scapulars and more black on the primary coverts. This bird is usually silent, but occasionally makes puppy-like yelping noises, unlike its vocal relative, the hadada ibis.