Top 20 Most Common Bird in Mombasa

The fork-tailed drongo is 25 cm long and has short legs. They are medium sized and usually weigh about 50 grams. Males are mainly glossy black, although their wings are duller. Females are similar but less glossy. It is large-headed with well-developed rictal and nasal bristles, which are used as sensory organs. The rectrices curve outwards, forming the forked tail for which the species is named. The hooked bill is black and heavy, and the eye is red.

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.

The sombre greenbul is 15–18 cm long, with mainly dull greyish olive-green plumage, paler on the underparts than above. There are variations in colour based on habitat range. Individuals located in southern Africa tend to be plain, olive-green. To the north, birds are yellower with greener upper parts. It has a white iris. The sexes are similar in plumage, but juveniles are even duller than the adult and have dark, grey eyes. There is no colour distinction among sexes. The subspecies A. i. hypoxanthus is much yellower below than the nominate subspecies. The sombre greenbul is a vocal species, and the most typical call is a monotonous, ringing phrase starting with a penetrating single whistle weeeewee, followed by a jumbled chortle and ending off with a rather plaintive, drawn out whistle willy. If agitated, a call of peeet peeet peeet repeatedly is likely to be heard.

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.

The black-bellied starling (Notopholia corusca) is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

The collared sunbird (Hedydipna collaris) is a bird species of the family Nectariniidae. The sunbirds are a group of very small Old World passerine birds which feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. Collared sunbird is in fact mainly insectivorous. Sunbird flight is fast and direct on their short wings. Most species can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, but usually perch to feed most of the time. The collared sunbird is a common breeder across most of sub-Saharan Africa. Two or three eggs are laid in a suspended nest in a tree. It is a seasonal migrant within its range. Collared sunbirds are tiny, only 9–10 cm long. They have short thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to nectar feeding. The adult male has glossy green upperparts and head with a yellow belly and narrow purple breast band. The female is a duller green above and entirely yellow below. This species is found in forests near water.

The red-eyed dove is a largish, stocky pigeon, typically 30 cm (12 inches) in length. Its back, wings and tail are pale brown. When flying, it shows blackish flight feathers. The head and underparts are dark vinous-pink, shading to pale grey on the face. There is a black hind neck patch edged with white. The legs and a patch of bare skin around the eye are red. The call is a loud doo-doo-du-du. Sexes are similar, but juveniles are duller than adults, and have scalloping on the body feathers. Red-eyed doves eat grass seeds, grains and other vegetation. They often forage on the ground.

They measure about 17 cm in length, and the sexes are similar though easily distinguishable. Adult males have the upperparts deep blue-black with a slight luster. The black cap subtends the red eye, the upperpart plumage is black-and-white, and the underparts pure white. Females have a black loral stripe and white supraloral feathering, with the ear coverts pale and the crown not solidly black. They also have greyer backs than males, and grey to buffy tones to the white plumage tracts. Immature birds resemble females, but have brownish bills and brown irides, while the upperparts and flanks are still greyer, and the underparts and edges of the wing feathers are yet more buffy. Intraspecific variation is clinal. Range, iris colour, wing markings and the female plumage assist in separating it from other puffback species.

The little bee-eater (Merops pusillus) is a near passerine bird species in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. They are residents in much of Sub-Saharan Africa. They should not be confused with the little green bee-eater, Merops orientalis. Migration is limited to seasonal movements depending on rainfall patterns. Members of this species, like other bee-eaters, are rich and brightly-coloured slender birds. They have green upper parts, yellow throats, black gorgets, and rich brown upper breasts fading to buffish ochre on the belly. Their wings are green and brown, and their beaks are black. They reach a length of 15–17 cm, which makes them the smallest African bee-eater. Sexes are alike. Often silent, their call is a soft "seep." These are abundant and tame birds, familiar throughout their range. There have been estimated to be between 60-80 million little bee-eaters. They breed in open country with bushes, preferably near water. Just as the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, who are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch. This species often hunts from low perches, maybe only a metre or less high. Before eating their meal, a bee-eater removes the sting by repeatedly hitting the insect on a hard surface. Unlike most bee-eaters, these are solitary nesters, making a tunnel in sandy banks, or sometimes in the entrance to an Aardvark den. They lay 4 to 6 spherical white eggs. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs. These birds roost communally, lined up on a tree branch.

The brown-hooded kingfisher is about 22 cm (8.7 in) long. The head is brown, with blackish streaks. There is a broad buffy collar above the brownish-black mantle. The wing coverts are mostly brownish-black, and the secondary flight feathers are turquoise. The rump is azure-blue. The chin is white, the breast is tawny with some dark streaks, and the belly is buffy. The beak is red, tipped brown, the legs are carmine, and the eyes are dark brown. The female has dark brown upperparts, and its underparts are more streaked than the male. The juvenile bird is duller, with scalloped whitish underparts. The subspecies differ in shade and streaking.

The white-browed coucal is a medium-sized species growing to 36 to 42 cm (14 to 17 in) in length. The sexes are similar, adults having a blackish crown and nape, a white supercilium, rufous-brown back, chestnut wings, blackish rump and black tail, glossed with green, with a white tip. The underparts are creamy-white, the eyes red, the beak black, and the legs and feet greyish-black or black. Juveniles have rufous streaking on the crown, a faint buff supercilium, barred upper parts and darker underparts.

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.

The yellow-bellied greenbul (Chlorocichla flaviventris) is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in eastern, southern and west-central Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and dry savanna.

Emerald-spotted wood dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 20 cm in length. Its back, hindneck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have green metallic patches. There are blackish bands on the lower back and tail. The forehead, crown and nape are bluish grey, fading to pinkish grey on the throat. The underparts are mauve-pink, becoming whiter on the belly. The bill of this dove is blackish with a red base. The sexes are similar, but the female may be slightly duller than the male. The immature has duller green spots and buff fringes to the feathers. When flying, black-billed wood dove is told from this species by its bright chestnut underwings. The call is in three parts: two soft long coos, followed by a series of slow descending coos lasting 10 seconds, and concluding with 4 seconds of rapid coos, which decrease in volume. This species shows some geographical variation in plumage, but differences are clinal, and emerald-spotted wood dove is now considered to be monotypic.

Little swifts are readily identified by their small size. Their wingspan is only 33 cm compared to 42 cm in the case of common swift. Their plumage is black except for a white throat and rump, the white rump patch extending onto the flanks. They have a short square tail, with all rectrices round-tipped. The flight is fluttering like that of a house martin, and the call is a high twittering. Like other swifts they are very short-legged. The legs are used for clinging to vertical surfaces only.

The tambourine dove (Turtur tympanistria) is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in woodlands and other thick vegetation in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Its range extends from Senegal east to Ethiopia and Kenya and southwards through eastern Africa to south-eastern South Africa, but it is absent from the drier areas of south-western Africa. There is a population on the Comoros Islands. This is very much a species of thick woodlands, including dense gardens and plantations of castor oil, cocoa and rubber. As such, this shy species is usually seen when flushed whilst feeding on the forest floor, The tambourine dove builds a frail stick nest low in a thicket or vine tangle, and lays two cream-coloured eggs. Both sexes incubate, although this task is performed mainly by the female, and the eggs hatch in 13 days with another 13–14 days to fledging. The chicks are fed regurgitated food. The tambourine dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 22 cm in length. The male has a white face with a black spot behind the eye, white underparts and a grey crown. Its back, hind neck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have large dark purple patches. The under tail is brown. The eye ring and feet are purple-red, and the bill is purple. The female is duller, and is white only on the belly, the face and breast being a pale grey-brown. The crown is grey-brown, without the blue-grey of the male. The juvenile resembles the female but has chestnut fringes to the feathers of the back, breast and flanks. Even in these plumages, this species is paler below than other small African doves. The tambourine dove's flight is fast and agile, and it tends to stay quite low when flushed. In flight it shows chestnut primary flight feathers and under wings. The call of this bird is a persistently repeated du-du-du-du-du. Tambourine dove is usually solitary, but is sometimes seen in family groups or with lemon doves. It is quite terrestrial, and usually forages on the ground for seeds and small fruits. It has a preference for seeds of the castor oil plant. It will on occasion eat small insects and molluscs.

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.