Top 20 Most Common Bird in Lagos

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.

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.

The laughing Dove is a small dove named after its distinctive laugh-like vocalization. This ground-feeding, non-migratory bird is a regular inhabitant of man-altered environments such as villages, gardens, and orchards. In cities, these doves tend to become quite confident. They pair for life and live in very small communities.

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.

The variable sunbird (or yellow-bellied sunbird), Cinnyris venustus (formerly Nectarinia venusta), is a sunbird. The sunbirds are a group of small Old World passerine birds which feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. 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 variable sunbird is a fairly common resident breeder in equatorial Africa. Two eggs are laid in a suspended nest in a tree. This species is found in open woodland and cultivation. Variable sunbirds are small, only 10 cm long. They have medium-length thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to their nectar feeding. The adult male has a glossy green head, throat and nape, and a maroon breast band. In most subspecies, the belly of the male is yellow, but in a few it is orange or white. The female has grey-brown upperparts and yellowish underparts, and an obvious pale supercilium. The eclipse male is like the female, but shows some green, especially on the throat. The call is a clear tew-tew-tew-tew-tew .

The western plantain-eater (Crinifer piscator), also known as the grey plantain-eater or western grey plantain-eater, is a large member of the turaco family, a group of large arboreal near-passerine birds restricted to Africa. This species is a resident breeder in open woodland habitats in tropical west Africa. It lays two or three eggs in a tree platform nest. These are common, noisy and conspicuous birds, despite lacking the brilliant colours of relatives such as the violet turaco. They are 50 cm long, including a long tail. Their plumage is mainly grey above spotted with brown. The head, erectile crest, neck and breast are brown streaked with silver. The underparts are whitish, heavily streaked with brown. Western plantain-eater has a thick bright yellow bill, and shows a white wing bar in flight. The sexes are identical, but immatures have a black woolly head without silver streaking. This bird is similar to the closely related eastern plantain-eater. The latter species has white tail bars, and lacks the chest bars and dark wing feather shafts of its western relative. This species feeds on fruit, especially figs, seeds and other vegetable matter. Western plantain-eater has a loud cow-cow-cow call, very familiar in west Africa.

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.

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.

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.

This is a medium-sized species at 39 cm (15 in). Its crown, nape and upper parts, bill, legs and long tail are black, the eyes are red, the wings are chestnut, and the underparts are creamy white, with blackish barring on the flanks. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are browner and more heavily barred above, with buff to cinnamon, barred and streaked underparts.

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.

Senegal parrots are about 23 centimetres (9.1 inches) long, weigh about 120 to 170 grams (4.2 to 6.0 ounces). They have a relatively large head and beak for their overall size, and feathers form a short broad tail. Adults have a charcoal grey head, grey beak, bright yellow irises, green back and throat, and yellow underparts and rump. The yellow and green areas on a Senegal parrot's front form a V-shape resembling a yellow vest worn over green. Young Juveniles have dark grey, almost black, irises, which change to light grey. Senegal parrots are not sexually dimorphic, but there are some hypotheses which sometimes might help to determine the gender of adult birds: The V-shape of the vest is usually longer in females; in females the green area extends down over the chest to between the legs, whereas in males the tip of the green area ends midway down the chest. The female's beak and head are generally slightly smaller and narrower than the male's. The under-tail covert feathers (short feathers under the base of the main tail feathers) are generally mostly yellow in the male and generally mostly green in the female. Males are generally, but not always, larger and heavier than female birds.

This is a large pigeon at 41 cm in length. Its back and wings are rufous, the latter heavily speckled with white spots. The rest of the upperparts and underparts are blue-grey, and the head is grey with red patches around the eye. The neck is brownish, streaked with white, and the legs are red. Sexes are similar, but immatures are browner than adults and lack the red eye patches. The call is a loud doo-doo-doo.

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.

The green-backed camaroptera (Camaroptera brachyura), also known as the bleating camaroptera, is a small bird in the family Cisticolidae. This bird is a resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Recent studies suggest this species and the grey-backed camaroptera may be the same species. This skulking passerine is typically found low in dense cover. The green-backed camaroptera binds large leaves together low in a bush and builds a grass nest within the leaves. The normal clutch is two or three eggs. These 11.5 cm long warblers have green upperparts. The wings are olive and the underparts whitish grey. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are paler yellow on the breast. Like most members in the group, green-backed camaroptera is insectivorous. The green-backed camaroptera was described by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1821 under the binomial name Sylvia brachyura. The type locality is the Cape of Good Hope. The specific epithet brachyura is from the Ancient Greek brakhus for "short" and -ouros for "-tailed". There are five subspecies: C. b. pileata Reichenow, 1891 – southeast Kenya to southeast Tanzania C. b. fugglescouchmani Moreau, 1939 – northeast Zambia, north Malawi and east Tanzania C. b. bororensis Gunning & Roberts, 1911 – south Tanzania, south Malawi and north Mozambique C. b. constans Clancey, 1952 – southeast Zimbabwe, south Mozambique and northeast South Africa C. b. brachyura (Vieillot, 1821) – south and east South Africa

The Schikrasperber or Schikra (Accipiter badius) belongs to the family of the hawk-like (Accipitridae). The species is considered largely unexplored. It originally occurred in western Central Asia, South Kazakhstan and South Asia. Schikras have also been reported on the African continent.

The mourning collared dove is a largish, stocky pigeon, up to 31 cm in length. Its back, wings and tail are pale brown. The head is grey and the underparts are pink, shading to pale grey on the belly. There is a black hind neck patch edged with white. The legs and a patch of bare skin around the eye are red. When flying, it shows blackish flight feathers and extensive white in the tail, the latter being a distinction from the similar but larger red-eyed dove. The call is a fast krrrrrrrr, oo-OO, oo. Sexes are similar, but immatures are duller than adults, and have scalloping on the body feathers.

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.

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.