Togolese Republic

African Emerald Cuckoo Chrysococcyx cupreus ©Dubi Shapiro Website

Togo is a country in West Africa north of the equator. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north.  It is one of the least developed countries and extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital, Lomé, is located. It is a small, tropical country, spanning almost 57,000 km2 (c.22,000 square miles) and it has a width of less than 115 km (71 miles) between Ghana and its eastern neighbour Benin. It has a population of over 9.5 million, over two million of whom live in the largest city, Lomé. Togo is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation whose economy depends mostly on agriculture – it is an exporter of agricultural products such as coffee, cocoa bean, and peanuts (groundnuts), which together generate roughly 30% of export earnings. Cotton is a cash crop. The official language is French.

The coast of Togo in the Gulf of Guinea is 56 km long and consists of lagoons with sandy beaches. In the north, the land is characterised by a rolling savanna in contrast to the centre of the country, which is hilly. The south of Togo is savanna and woodland plateau which reaches a coastal plain with lagoons and marshes. The highest mountain of the country is the Mont Agou at 3,235 feet above sea level. The longest river is the Mono River with a length of 400 km (250 miles). It runs from north to south.

Mono River – ©Africa Rice Center CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The climate is generally tropical with average temperatures ranging from 23 °C on the coast to about 30 °C in the northernmost regions, with a drier climate and tropical savanna. To the south there are two seasons of rain (the first between April and July and the second between October and November), even though the average rainfall is not very high (about 40 inches in mountainous areas, where it is at its most rainy).

Birding Togo

Togo contains three terrestrial eco-regions: Eastern Guinean forests, Guinean forest-savanna mosaic, and West Sudanian savanna. The coast of Togo is characterised by marshes and mangroves. Despite its small size the country has a diversity of habitats; there are only remnants of the once more extensive rain forests in the south, there is Sudanian savanna in the north-western part of the country and larger areas of Guinean forest-savanna mosaic in the centre and north-east. As the country is densely populated, only remnants of the forests survive outside of national parks and reserves. The Oti Plateau and some mountainous areas retain more of their natural vegetation than elsewhere. The forest belt found in some neighbouring countries has largely been destroyed.

West Sudanian savanna©AKOUETE Ata Franck CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

196 species of mammal have been recorded in Togo, but many of the larger mammals have become increasingly scarce or disappeared entirely from unprotected areas of the country. This is particularly so for forest species, while antelopes in the northern savannahs have survived better. Leopard, chimpanzee and giant eland are probably extirpated from the country while lion, African wild dog, bongo, sitatunga, Diana monkey, western red colobus, black colobus, king colobus and manatee are at high risk of extirpation, and the African elephant population has fallen to a critical level. Savannah antelope species include the bushbuck, Maxwell’s duiker, red-flanked duiker, black duiker, yellow-backed duiker, common duiker, bohor reedbuck, waterbuck, Buffon’s kob, roan antelope, western hartebeest, red-fronted gazelle and oribi.

Mammals recorded in Kéran National Park include olive baboon, tantalus monkey, patas monkey, kob, waterbuck, red-flanked duiker, common duiker, African buffalo, hippopotamus, warthog, crested porcupine, striped ground squirrel and four-toed hedgehog.

Some 676 species of bird have been recorded, of which about 408 species are thought to be resident and breeding.

Kéran National Park – ©Damien Halleux Radermecker CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The coastal wetlands at Zones Humides du Littoral du Togo are used by waders and terns migrating along the west coast of Africa. The greatest diversity of forest birds occurs in the south-west, near the border with Ghana. There are four Important Bird Areas, the Oti Valley Faunal Reserve, Kéran National Park, Fazao Malfakassa National Park and Misahöhe Forest Reserve. Several species of vulture, the Martial Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Secretarybird, Black-crowned Crane, Brown-cheeked Hornbill and Yellow-casqued Hornbill are all rare or threatened, while the Togo Paradise Whydah is common. A number of other parks and reserves have been established including Abdoulaye Faunal Reserve,  Fosse aux Lions National Park and Koutammakou.

Contributors
Number of Species
  • Number of bird species: 676

    (As at January 2025)
Checklist
  • Avibase

    PDF Checklist
    This checklist includes all bird species found in Togo , 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.
  • E-Bird

    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.
  • Wikipedia

    Annotated List
    This is a list of the bird species recorded in Togo. The avifauna of Togo include a total of 657 species.
Useful Reading

  • Birds of Western Africa

    By Nik Borrow & Ron Demey | Christopher Helm | 2014 | Edition 2 | Paperback | 592 pages, 266 plates with colour illustrations; colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9781472905680 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • Birds of Western and Central Africa

    By Ber van Perlo | Princeton University Press | 2003 | Paperback | 384 pages, 109 plates with colour illustrations; colour & b/w illustrations, 1500+ b/w distribution maps, colour maps | Out of Print | ISBN: 9780691007144 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • The Birds of Benin and Togo

    | An Atlas and Handbook | By Françoise Dowsett-Lemaire & Robert J Dowsett | Tauraco Press | 2019 | Paperback | 692 pages, 22 plates with colour photos; 570 colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9782872250080 Buy this book from NHBS.com
  • The Birds of Togo

    (An Annotated Check-List) | By Robert A Cheke & J Frank Walsh | British Ornithologists' Union | 1996 | Hardback | 212 pages, 53 colour plates, tabs, maps | Out of Print | ISBN: 9780907446187 Buy this book from NHBS.com
Organisations
  • African Bird Club

    Website
    Togo has a bird list of 625 species but there has been little ornithological activity in the last fifteen years. In the 1980s tourism was encouraged and excellent hotel facilities were available at Lom
  • West African Ornithological Society

    Website
    The West African Ornithological Society grew out of the Nigerian Ornithologists
Reserves

Abbreviations Key

  • *Protected areas of Togo

    InformationSatellite View
    RAMSAR sites etc.
  • IBAs

    WebsiteSatellite View
    A number of species have been recorded only in the forested areas in the mountains of the southern part of the Atacora chain that cuts across the country from the south-west to the north-east or in the gallery forests along the country
  • NP Fazao Malfakassa

    InformationSatellite View
    Fazao Malfakassa National Park is the largest of three national parks in Togo. The total number of known bird species is 244, as of 2008, but there are likely many more.
  • NP Fosse aux Lions

    InformationSatellite View
    Fosse aux Lions National Park (French: Parc National Fosse aux Lions) is a national park in the Savanes Region of Northern Togo. The park is approximately 16.5 square kilometres (6.4 sq mi) in size, and was first established as a reserved forest in 1954
  • NP Oti-Kéran

    InformationSatellite View
    The Parc National de la Keran is a site for the protection and conservation of fauna and wildlife habitats. About 214 species of birds have been recorded.
  • NR Abdoulaye

    InformationSatellite View
    The Abdoulaye Faunal Reserve is a protected area located in Togo. It was established in 1951. The fauna reserve covers 300 km2 (120 sq mi).
Guides & Tour Operators
  • Adventure Birding Tours

    Tour Operator
    Unique 19 Days Ghana, Togo, Benin Birding Tour, is carefully packaged to cover interesting birding sites for a variety of Upper Guinea Endemics Species of Birds and Mammals.
  • Ashanti

    Tour Operator
    Togo may be one of Africa’s smallest countries but what it lacks in size it most definitely makes up in culture, history and stunning landscapes all waiting to be discovered by the inquisitive traveller.
Trip Reports
  • 2018 [11 November] - Mike Moore

    PDF Report
    ...exploring a few minor sites nearby, including a morning hike at Mt. Kloto where I found my only African Shrike-Flycatcher and Red-tailed Leafloves of the trip...
  • 2022 [09 September] - IBPC

    Report
    IBCP has just completed another bird research trip in Togo in collaboration with our partners at the University of Lomé. Following up on work by Olivier Boissier and colleagues in Fazao-Malfakassa National Park earlier this year, Nico Arcilla and colleagues documented birds and assessed threats to their conservation in both formally protected areas as well as other areas in Togo. During our trip, it often seemed that we were the only birdwatchers in Togo, including in Fazao-Malfakassa National Park as well as elsewhere in Togo’s Savannes and Maritime regions.....

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