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Gabonese Republic

Green-breasted Pitta Pitta reichenowi ©Dominic Rollinson Website

Gabon is a country in west central Africa, located on the equator sharing borders with the Gulf of Guinea to the west, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and Cameroon to the north, with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. Its size is almost 270,000 km² (100,000 square miles) with an estimated population of c. 2.3 million people. The capital and largest city is Libreville home to around 884,000.

It has an equatorial climate with an extensive system of rainforests covering 85% of the country, there are also grasslands, savannas, large rivers and coastal lagoons. There are three distinct regions: the coastal plains (ranging between 20 to 300 km from the ocean’s shore), the mountains (the Cristal Mountains to the northeast of Libreville, the Chaillu Massif in the centre, culminating at 1575 m with Mont Iboundji), and the savanna in the east. Gabon’s largest river is the Ogooué which is 1200 km long.

Gabon has three karst areas where there are hundreds of caves located in the dolomite and limestone rocks. Some of the caves include Grotte du Lastoursville, Grotte du Lebamba, Grotte du Bongolo, and Grotte du Kessipougou. Many caves have not been explored yet.  A National Geographic Expedition visited the caves in the summer of 2008 to document them (Expedition Website). Natural resources include: petroleum, magnesium, iron, gold, uranium, and forests. Gabon is also noted for efforts to preserve the natural environment.

Birding Gabon

The National Agency for National Parks manages Gabon’s national park system that covers more than 10% of the nation’s territory with a total of 13 national parks, which may be the largest area of nature parks in the world.  The largest, Lopé National Park is almost 5,000 km² in extent.

Lopé National Park – ©Ngangorica, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Gabon has a large number of protected animal and plant species. The country’s biodiversity is one of the most varied on the planet evidenced by its 98 species of amphibians, between 95 and 160 species of reptiles and 198 different species of mammals including more than half the world’s forest elephants, along with African elephants, buffalo, pangolin, various antelope and monkey species, sitatungas, leopards, large numbers of chimps and gorillas, as well as three species of crocodiles and several marine turtle species which nest along the coast.

There are more than 750 species of birds none of which are endemic, but some, such as the Ja River Scrub Warbler, Gabon Batis, African River Martin, and Black-chinned Weaver are restricted to Central Africa and have only small ranges. The Grey-necked Rockfowl (Picathartes) and Loango Weaver are classed as vulnerable species by the IUCN.

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Contributors
Number of Species

  • Number of bird species: 765

    (As at June 2024)

    National Bird Rosy Bee-eater Merops malimbicus

Checklist

  • African Bird Club

    Checklist
    Birds best found in Gabon but occurring more widely (BT) etc.

  • Avibase

    PDF Checklist
    This checklist includes all bird species found in Gabon , based on the best information available at this time. It is based on a wide variety of sources that I collated over many years. I am pleased to offer these checklists as a service to birdwatchers. If you find any error, please do not hesitate to report them.

  • Wikipedia

    Annotated List
    This is a list of the bird species recorded in Gabon. The avifauna of Gabon include a total of 765 species.

  • eBird

    PDF Checklist
    This checklist is generated with data from eBird (ebird.org), a global database of bird sightings from birders like you. If you enjoy this checklist, please consider contributing your sightings to eBird. It is 100% free to take part, and your observations will help support birders, researchers, and conservationists worldwide.
Useful Reading

  • Birds of Western Africa

    | By Nik Borrow & Ron Demey | Christopher Helm | 2014 | Paperback | 592 pages, 266 plates with colour illustrations; colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9781472905680 Buy this book from NHBS.com

  • Coastal Waterbirds in Gabon

    | Edited by FJ Schepers & ECL Marteijn | Foundation Working Group International Wader and Waterfowl Research | 1993 | Paperback | 293 pages, Maps, figures | ISBN: 9789090067766 Buy this book from NHBS.com
Organisations

  • African Bird Club

    Website
    Despite being politically stable, sparsely populated and possessing large tracts of undisturbed habitat, Gabon is far from realising its potential and deserved status as a premier birding and wildlife destination. Perhaps its three most prohibitive qualities are (i) the paucity of information on travelling in Gabon, (ii) the cost of travelling there - Gabon targets almost exclusively high-end tourism, with no official campsites in the entire country - and (iii) the fact that it is completely Francophone, a deterrent to many English-only speaking birders…

  • West African Ornithological Society | Société d'Ornithologie de l'Ouest Africain

    Website
    The West African Ornithological Society grew out of the Nigerian Ornithologists’ Society, which was founded in February 1964 by John H. Elgood, Professor of Zoology at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) (died in 1998 — obituary in Malimbus 21: 74–75, 127–128) and Robert E. Sharland. Its object is to promote scientific interest in the birds of West Africa and to further the region’s ornithology, mainly by means of its journal Malimbus (formerly the Bulletin of the Nigerian Ornithologists’ Society). This journal is biannual and bilingual, a unique feature in Africa.
Reserves

Abbreviations Key

  • *Important Bird Areas

    WebsiteSatellite View
    The Cameroon and Gabon lowlands Endemic Bird Area (EBA) covers much of central Gabon. The distribution of Loango Weaver Ploceus subpersonatus defines the Gabon-Cabinda coast secondary EBA

  • *National Parks of Gabon

    InformationSatellite View

  • NP Akanda National Park

    InformationSatellite View
    Akanda together with the nearby Pongara National Park comprise 25% of the total protected mangrove in the continent.

  • NP Bateke Plateau

    InformationSatellite View
    Some of the birds in Batéké Plateau National Park include the Black-headed Bee-eater, Forbes’ Plover, larks, pipits, quailfinches, cisticola, francolins, Congo Moor-chat, Marsh Widowbird, weavers, Black-collared Bulbul, Angola Batis and bush shrikes among others.

  • NP Birougou National Park

    InformationSatellite View
    It contains extremely dense rain forest in the Chaillu Mountains and is one of the two parks where the endemic sun-tailed guenon a monkey first described in 1988, can be found.

  • NP Ivindo

    InformationSatellite View
    The park covers 300,000 ha, almost all of which is forested with a mixture of Atlantic coastal forest of Lower Guinea, and semi-deciduous forest typical of central Congo Basin. Wildlife includes western lowland gorilla, common chimpanzee, African forest buffalo, red river hog, sitatunga, as well as one of the last relativity intact populations of forest elephants. Notable bird species include grey-necked rockfowl, while more than 430 bird species have been recorded within the park.

  • NP Loango

    InformationSatellite View
    Loango National Park is a national park in western Gabon. It protects diverse coastal habitat, including part of the 220 km² Iguéla Lagoon, the only significant example of a typical western African lagoon system that is protected within a national park.

  • NP Lopé

    InformationSatellite View
    Lope National Park is situated right in the centre of Gabon and was the first protected area following the creation of the Lope-Okanda Wildlife Reserve in 1946. When the country’s President declared the creation of 13 national parks in 2002, Lope National Park was included.

  • NP Mayumba National Park

    InformationSatellite View
    It is a thin tongue of beach, dunes, savanna, and rain-forest in the extreme south of the country, between Mayumba and the Congo border. Mayumba National Park shelters 60 km of the most important leatherback turtle nesting beaches on Earth and is home to unique coastal vegetation and a variety of terrestrial animals, including forest elephants, buffaloes, leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees, antelopes, crocodiles, hippos, and several species of monkeys.

  • NP Minkébé

    InformationSatellite View
    Species of bird, including the spot-breasted ibis (Bostrychia rara) and Rachel's malimbe (Malimbus racheliae), are fairly common in the park, and the tree species Sterculia subviolacea is found in the national park and not found elsewhere in Gabon.

  • NP Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

    InformationSatellite View
    The national park includes various habitat types, including humid rain forest and savannah grasslands.

  • NP Mwagne

    InformationSatellite View
    The rich mineral soil of the baï attracts elephants, apes, giant forest hogs and various antelopes. You'll also find the Gabon viper, fascinating spiders, stinging ferns and rare birds, but whether you'll see the dinosaur-like mokélé-mbembé of Pygmy myth is debatable. Bordering the Republic of Congo, Mwagna is in northeastern Gabon.

  • NP Pongara National Park

    InformationSatellite View
    The site is predominantly forested and encompasses various habitats, including mangrove forest, swamp forest, riverine forest, and seasonally-inundated forest. Many migratory birds visit the estuary and up to 10,000 waders overwinter there.

  • NP Toggle the table of contents Crystal Mountains National Park

    InformationSatellite View
    The park is home to many animal species such as elephants or monkeys, and hundreds of species of butterflies can be found here, some of which are very rare, such as euphaedra brevis, cymothoe or graphium angrier.

  • NP Waka National Park

    InformationSatellite View
    Waka protects over 1,000 km2 of rain forest in the Chaillu Massif.

  • SNR Ipassa Makokou

    InformationSatellite View
    The biosphere reserve is Gabon’s only area where no forest exploitation takes place thus the core area is in a relatively pristine state. Within the 15,000 hectares of the biosphere reserve, more than 2,000 plant species and 600 species of mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians and birds have been recorded.
Guides & Tour Operators

  • BirdQuest

    Tour Operator
    The wonderful African River Martin, Congo Forest endemics & more

  • Birding Ecotours

    Tour Operator
    Complete Gabon — Rare Birds and Apes

  • NatureTrek

    Tour Operator
    ituated along West Africa’s wildlife-rich coastline, Gabon, with its 13 national parks covering 11% of the country’s land surface, is home to some of Africa’s most treasured wildlife, from Lowland Gorillas to the enigmatic African River Martin.

  • Rockjumper

    Tour Operator
    Our Gabon – Rainforest Birds & Mammals birding tour takes in the bird-rich Leconi area of south-eastern Gabon, near the border with the Congo, as well as the fabulous Lope and Ivindo National Parks where we will seek a plethora of monkeys, sounders of strikingly patterned Red River Hog, herds of Forest sub-species of African Elephant and Forest sub-species of African Buffalo and troops of Chimpanzee. We even have a chance of seeing Lowland Gorillas and Mandrill!
Trip Reports

  • 2016 [09 September] - David Hoddinott - Gabon, Sao Tome & Principe

    PDF Report
    Our 2016 birding adventure of Gabon and the offshore islands of Sao Tome and Principe kicked off with our pre-tour extension of the islands.

  • 2016 [09 September] - Michiel de Boer - Gabon, Sao Tomé & Principe

    Report
    ...My personal targets for this trip were the Picathartes, Rosy and Black-headed Bee-eaters, White-bellied Kingfisher (one of the last of the African Kingfishers I needed) and Bare Cheeked Trogon. Priorities were a little different with my companion George Wagner. He had not been to Cameroon but had been to Ghana and had seen the Rosy Bee-eater...

  • 2021 [10 October] - Michael Mills

    PDF Report
    ...starting with Black-headed Bee-eater and point-blank views of Bates’s Nightjar in tie for tenth. A striking Bare-cheeked Trogon came in at ninth, followed by Plumed Guineafowl, displaying Lyre-tailed Honeyguide and Sjöstedt’s Barred Owlet rounding out the lower five...

  • 2022 [08 August] - Nik Borrow

    Report
    This was a new tour to the Birdquest repertoire with the aim of seeing one of Africa’s ultimate birds, the much-wanted African River Martin. This is a nomadic and unpredictable species that breeds in coastal Gabon but apparently not in exactly the same places every year making seeing it a little bit of a challenge!

  • 2022 [12 December] - Charles Foley

    Report
    Gabon is a hugely important country for conservation. With a small human population and vast areas of forest, it protects some of the largest remaining areas of intact Congolese forest in Central Africa. These forests harbour the largest population of Forest elephants in Africa, as well as important numbers of many other mega mammal species including Western lowland gorilla, Chimpanzee, Bongo and Mandrills.

  • 2023 [09 September - André Bernon - Gabon, São Tomé & Príncipe

    PDF Report
    Highlights included some rare mammals such as African “Forest” Elephant, African Palm Civet, Lord Derby’s Anomalure, Red River Hog, Sitatunga and many primates such as the rare Black Colobus. Some great birds showed such as Long-tailed Hawk, Vermiculated and Pel’s Fishing Owls, Congo Serpent Eagle, Black-faced Canary, Gorgeous Bushshrike, Yellow-throated Cuckoo, Blue-headed Bee-eater, Rachel’s Malimbe, White-crested Tiger Heron and Hartlaub’s Duck.
Other Links

  • Birder's Guide to Gabon

    Webpage
    Gabon, especially the southern and eastern areas, is still relatively poorly known ornithologically. This, combined with the ability to see many rare and local species within a country safe for travel, will be a great lure for many birders. Until now, no birding information has been available for Gabon; only a few scientific books, papers and articles, mostly in French. This report provides a comprehensive guide to birding Gabon, and is compiled from five years of living and birding around the country between 1988 and 1992.

  • Birdwatching in Gabon

    Webpage
    Ornithological Treasures Across the Country

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