


Top 20 Most Common Bird in Marrakech-Safi
Within the varied ecosystems of Marrakech-Safi, from the snow-capped High Atlas mountains to vibrant coastal areas, 20 diverse bird species have found a sanctuary. These birds, each unique, exhibit fascinating characteristics, from their striking plumage to migratory habits and specialized adaptations suited to the Moroccan climate. One can only admire their biogeographical diversity in this North African haven.

Most Common Bird

1. Common Chaffinch
The common Chaffinch has a varied diet, mainly feeding on seeds and berries, but also eating insects, allowing it to thrive in different habitats. The Common Chaffinch is also known for its melodic song, with the males being particularly vocal during the breeding season. Their songs can often be heard in the spring and early summer.


2. 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.


3. Eurasian Blackbird
Unafraid of humans, the dark-winged eurasian Blackbird has gained a great deal of cultural significance, mentioned in popular nursery rhymes and songs across the world. Elegant and with an appealing song, they can be aggressive when they are in their breeding period.

4. White Wagtail
The white Wagtail is the national bird of Latvia and is featured in traditional folk songs and placed on some postage stamps. These birds can be found in most habitat types besides deserts. As their name suggests, they exhibit a characteristic tail-wagging behavior as they search along the ground and nearby waterways for insects to eat.

5. Red-billed Chough
The adult of the "nominate" subspecies of the red-billed chough, P. p. pyrrhocorax, is 39–40 centimetres (15–16 inches) in length, has a 73–90 centimetres (29–35 inches) wingspan, and weighs an average 310 grammes (10.9 oz). Its plumage is velvet-black, green-glossed on the body, and it has a long curved red bill and red legs. The sexes are similar (although adults can be sexed in the hand using a formula involving tarsus length and bill width) but the juvenile has an orange bill and pink legs until its first autumn, and less glossy plumage. The red-billed chough is unlikely to be confused with any other species of bird. Although the jackdaw and Alpine chough share its range, the jackdaw is smaller and has unglossed grey plumage, and the Alpine chough has a short yellow bill. Even in flight, the two choughs can be distinguished by Alpine's less rectangular wings, and longer, less square-ended tail. The red-billed chough's loud, ringing chee-ow call is clearer and louder than the similar vocalisation of the jackdaw, and always very different from that of its yellow-billed congener, which has rippling preep and whistled sweeeooo calls. Small subspecies of the red-billed chough have higher frequency calls than larger races, as predicted by the inverse relationship between body size and frequency.


6. Common Wood Pigeon
Although primarily found in woods, the common Wood Pigeon is a large and bulky pigeon that is often seen in towns and cities. Those who inhabit urban areas are quite tame, approachable, and comfortable around humans. This pigeon is a popular game bird, particularly during its migration journeys. Its distinctive call can be heard year-round, particularly at dawn. This ground-dwelling bird gathers in large flocks that feed together.

7. Great Tit
Great Tit is a small and plump bird, with a thick black line running through its bright yellow face. It is a common sight in gardens, woodlands, and parks. It is often seen foraging for food in an acrobatic way. Well known for its intelligence, it has been observed using tools, solving problems, and even counting up to five.


8. Black Redstart
The black Redstart is a small flycatcher that was once present only in natural habitats such as cliffs and rocky, mountainous areas, but now it also inhabits industrial sites, buildings, and rooftops. Although this bird is a remarkable singer, it is quite quiet. The species is very variable in appearance, and dines on insects.

9. European Serin
A small songbird with a stubby bill, the european Serin is often seen in parks, forest edges, and agricultural fields. It is a talkative bird that often sings from manmade perches like fence posts and electrical wires. While the songbird does feed on invertebrates, it prefers seeds and may visit backyard feeders.

10. Moussier's Redstart
Moussier's redstart (Phoenicurus moussieri) is a small passerine bird in the genus Phoenicurus (redstarts), formerly classed as a member of the thrush family (Turdidae), but is now classified as an Old World flycatcher (Muscicapidae). It is an endemic resident breeder in the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa. Its habitat is open woodland in rocky areas from sea level up to 3000 m altitude in the mountains. It is the smallest redstart, only 12 cm long and 14–15 g weight. The male has a black head with a broad white stripe running above each eye and down the side of the neck. The upperparts are black other than a white wing patch, and the rich chestnut tail, from which it and other redstarts get their names (start is an old word for tail). The underparts are a rich orange-red. The female has a pale brown head and upperparts, and the underparts are a paler orange than the male, although generally redder than the underparts of the similar but larger female common redstart. It is named after Jean Moussier (1795–1850) who was an amateur naturalist and a surgeon in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars.


11. House Bunting
The house bunting (Emberiza sahari) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. It is a resident breeder of dry country from northwestern Africa from Morocco south to Mali and east to Chad. In Morocco, the species has expanded from the Atlas Mountains northwards since the 1960s, and has recently reached Tangier and Tétouan on the southern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. The house bunting breeds around human habitation, laying two to four eggs in a nest in a hole in a wall or building. Its natural food consists seeds, or when feeding young, insects. It is 14 cm long, similar in size to the striolated bunting and smaller than the rock bunting. The breeding male has a sandy orange-brown body and a grey head slightly dark-streaked but without the white supercilium that the striolated bunting has. The female's head has a brown tint to the grey, and more diffused streaking. The house bunting has recently been split from the closely related striolated bunting, of which it used to be treated as a subspecies, Emberiza striolata sahari. The striolated bunting has stronger facial striping and a paler belly than the house bunting. The incubation period of the clutch of three eggs is 12–14 days. The song, given from a perch, is similar to but weaker than that of the common chaffinch. In Morocco, the species is traditionally regarded as sacred, and has become very tame, freely entering and feeding inside houses, shops and mosques.


12. Eurasian Collared-dove
This plump, pretty dove with a square-tipped tail is known for bobbing its head and flicking its tail while walking. Though nice to look at, many people are not pleased at the sight of a eurasian Collared-dove walking along. In North America they are considered an invasive species, and one that carries a disease-creating parasite that can spread to native dove populations through birdbaths, feeders, or even through hawks preying on them.

13. Black Wheatear
The black wheatear (Oenanthe leucura) is a wheatear, a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher of the Muscicapidae. This large 16–18 cm long wheatear breeds on cliffs and rocky slopes in western north Africa and Iberia. It is largely resident and nests in crevices in rocks laying 3-6 eggs. The male of this species is all black except a white rump and mainly white tail. The female is similar, but dark brown rather than black. The similar white-crowned wheatear, Oenanthe leucopyga, also breeds in the African part of the black wheatear's range, but the black wheatear has a black inverted "T" on its white tail, whereas white-crowned has only a black centre to its tail. The black wheatear never has a white crown, but young white-crowned wheatears also lack this feature. The food of this wheatear is mainly insects. It has a loud thrush-like song.


14. Sardinian Warbler
The Sardinian warbler (Curruca melanocephala) is a common and widespread typical warbler from the Mediterranean region. Like most Curruca species, it has distinct male and female plumages. The adult male has a grey back, whitish underparts, black head, white throat and red eyes. Plumages are somewhat variable even in the same locality, with the intensity of a reddish hue on upper- and/or underside varies from absent to (in some subspecies) pronounced. The female is mainly brown above and buff below, with a grey head. The Sardinian warbler's song is fast and rattling, and is very characteristic of the Mediterranean areas where this bird breeds.


15. African Blue Tit
Found in temperate woodlands and gardens, the african Blue Tit is a small bird with a sharp beak. Look out for the bright blue on the crown and back, which marks the difference between it and the Eurasian blue tit. This bird has a wide variation of songs you may hear.

16. Spotless Starling
The adult spotless starling is very similar to the common starling, but marginally larger (21–23 cm length; 70–100 g weight), and has darker, oily-looking black plumage, slightly purple- or green-glossed in bright light, which is entirely spotless in spring and summer, and only with very small pale spots in winter plumage, formed by the pale tips of the feathers. It also differs in having conspicuously longer throat feathers (twice the length of those on common starlings), forming a shaggy "beard" which is particularly obvious when the bird is singing. Its legs are bright pink. In summer, the bill is yellow with a bluish base in males and a pinkish base in females; in winter, it is duller, often blackish. Young birds are dull brown, darker than young common starlings, and have a black bill and brown legs. Confusion with the common starling is particularly easy during the winter, when common starlings are abundant throughout the spotless starling's range, but also in summer where their breeding ranges overlap in northeastern Spain and the far south of France. It can also be confused with the common blackbird (Turdus merula), which differs most obviously in its longer tail and lack of plumage gloss. Like the common starling, it walks rather than hops, and has a strong direct flight, looking triangular-winged and short-tailed. It is a noisy bird and a good mimic; its calls are similar to the common starling's, but louder.


17. Common Firecrest
The common firecrest is a small plump bird, 9 cm (3.5 in) in length with a wingspan of 13–16 cm (5.1–6.3 in), and weighs 4–7 grams (0.14–0.25 oz). It has bright olive-green upperparts with a bronze-coloured patch on each shoulder, and whitish underparts washed with brownish-grey on the breast and flanks. It has two white wingbars, a tiny black pointed bill, and brownish-black legs. The head pattern is striking, with a black eye stripe, long white supercilium, and a crest which is bright yellow in the female and mainly orange in the male. The sexes are very similar, apart from the crest colour, although the female is a little duller in plumage and on average slightly smaller. Juveniles have a grey tinge to the duller upperparts, and lack the coloured crown; the other head markings are present, but duller than in the adult. By their first winter, only the flight and tail feathers remain unmoulted, and the young birds are virtually indistinguishable from the adults in the field. This kinglet usually hops with its body held horizontally, and its flight is weak and whirring, with occasional quick evasive turns. Adult firecrests are unlikely to be confused with any other species; Pallas's warbler has a similar head and wing pattern, but its crown stripe is pale lemon, not bright yellow or orange, and its supercilium is also pale yellow, not bright white. The juvenile common firecrest might be confused with the goldcrest, but usually shows enough face pattern to distinguish it from its relative, which has a very plain face at all ages. The firecrest can also be separated from Pallas's warbler by the warbler's pale crown stripe and yellow rump. There is more likelihood of confusing the juvenile firecrest with the yellow-browed warbler, which has a similar head pattern; the warbler (an Asiatic species) has pale fringes to the feathers of the closed wing, a whitish belly and darker brown legs. The yellow-browed warbler also lacks the pale half circle present below the young firecrest's eye.


18. Common Kestrel
The common Kestrel is a small falcon found throughout much of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It feeds on small mammals, birds, and insects and is known for its ability to hover in the air to spot prey. It can be found in a variety of habitats. Some populations have declined due to habitat loss.


19. House Sparrow
Just as its name implies, the little house Sparrow socializes with humans more than any other bird species. Able to adapt and thrive in almost any habitat, excluding the extremes such as deserts and mountain peaks, this species was once restricted only to North Africa and Eurasia but now is found across the globe. Unfortunately, this opportunistic eater is not completely harmless—it can cause considerable damage to crops.

20. Rock Pigeon
The rock Pigeon is a wild ancestor of all domestic and feral pigeons, inhabiting coasts, cliffs, and caves. Pairs nest in rock crevices, often mating for life. They are known for their ability to fly very long distances to return to their homes, navigating using the sun's position and the earth's magnetic fields. Thanks to this ability, pigeons were used as messengers, particularly during World Wars I and II.