Top 20 Most Common Bird in Sao Tome

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 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.

The adult white-tailed tropicbird is a slender, mainly white bird, 71–80 cm long including the very long central tail feathers, which double its total length. The wingspan is 89–96 cm. The bird has a black band on the inner wing, a black eye-mask, and an orange-yellow to orange-red bill. The bill colour, pure white back and black wing bar distinguish this species from the red-billed tropicbird. The white-tailed tropicbird breeds on tropical islands, laying a single egg directly onto the ground or a cliff ledge. It disperses widely across the oceans when not breeding, and sometimes wanders far. It feeds on fish and squid, caught by surface plunging, but this species is a poor swimmer. The call is a high screamed keee-keee-krrrt-krrt-krrt. Sexes are similar, although males on average are longer tailed, but juveniles lack the tail streamers, have a green-yellow bill, and a finely barred back. The white-tailed tropicbird does not have a yearly breeding cycle; instead, breeding frequency depends on the climate and availability of suitable breeding sites. The bird can reproduce 10 months after the last successful breeding, or 5 months after an unsuccessful one.

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 yellow-fronted canary (Crithagra mozambica), also called the yellow-eyed canary, is a small passerine bird in the finch family. It is known elsewhere and in aviculture as the green singing finch. The yellow-fronted canary was formerly placed in the genus Serinus, but phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences found that genus to be polyphyletic. The genus was therefore split and a number of species including the yellow-fronted canary were moved to the resurrected genus Crithagra Swainson 1827. This bird is a resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Its habitat is open woodland and cultivation. It nests in trees, laying three or four eggs in a compact cup nest. It has been introduced to the Hawaiian Islands, where it is found on western Hawaii, southeastern Oahu and Molokai. The yellow-fronted canary is a common, gregarious seedeater. It is 11–13 cm in length. The adult male has a green back and brown wings and tail. The underparts and rump are yellow, and the head is yellow with a grey crown and nape and a black malar stripe. The female is similar, but with a weaker head pattern and duller underparts. Juveniles are greyer than the female, especially on the head. Its song is a warbled zee-zeree-chereeo.

The grey parrot is a medium-sized, predominantly grey, black-billed parrot. Its typical weight is 400 g (0.88 lb), with an approximate length of 33 cm (13 in), and a wingspan of 46–52 cm (18–20 in). It has darker grey than its body over the head and both wings. The head and body feathers have slight white edges. The tail feathers are red. Due to selection by parrot breeders, some grey parrots are partly or completely red. Both sexes appear similar. The colouration of juveniles is similar to that of adults, but typically, their eyes are dark grey to black, in comparison to the yellow irises around dark eyes of the adult birds, and their undertail coverts are tinged with grey. Adults weigh 418–526 g (0.922–1.160 lb). Grey parrots may live for 40–60 years in captivity, although their mean lifespan in the wild appears to be shorter — approximately 23 years.

The common Waxbill is a small and brightly colored bird, native to Africa. It is a highly social bird, often seen in flocks foraging for seeds and insects. With its distinctive red bills and cheerful chirps, the Common Waxbill brings a touch of brightness to its habitat. This charming bird is well-adapted to its environment, making it an important part of the ecosystem. Whether foraging for food or engaging in lively courtship displays, the bird is a delight to observe.

The lemon dove is fairly small, measuring 24–30 cm (9.4–11.8 in) in length and weighing 81.7–150 g (2.88–5.29 oz). Adult males have a plumage that is dark brown above, glossed green on sides of neck, and cinnamon brown below. As noted, they have conspicuous white face markings. The feet, iris and orbital skin are red, the bill is black. Females and young males are generally similar, with a lighter brown plumage and dull grey facial markings. The males of western African subspecies have a dark grey plumage.

The southern masked weaver is 11–14.5 cm (4.3–5.7 in) long with a short, strong, conical bill and pinkish brown legs. The adult male in breeding plumage has a black face, throat and beak, red eye, bright yellow head and underparts, and a plain yellowish-green back, The female has a pinkish-brown bill, brown or red-brown eye and is dull greenish-yellow, streaked darker on the upper back. The throat is yellowish, fading to off-white on the belly. The non-breeding male resembles the female but retains the red eye. The juvenile of this species is like the female. The call is a harsh swizzling, similar to other weavers. It also utters a sharp chuk alarm note.

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 blue waxbill has powder-blue face, breast, rump, and flanks with pale brown upperparts. The female is paler than the male and the blue is confined to the rump, tail, head, and upper breast, with the rest of the underparts being buffy brown. They measure 12–13 cm in length.

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.

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 male pin-tailed Whydah has an enormous, unmistakable tail and bright orange-red beak! These small birds can be found in open fields and farmlands, but also make their way into urban terrain. The pin-tailed Whydah has been introduced to a few regions outside of its natural range, including California, but thus far does not appear to pose an immediate threat to local species.

Barn Owl is found in most parts of the world except desert and polar regions. Also known as Tyto alba, it is mostly nocturnal but hunts by day in Great Britain and some Pacific Islands. The bird also mates for life, and can only take on a new mate if its current mate dies.