Bird Life

The great variety and richness of the habitats found in the Maputo Special Reserve support a remarkable diversity of bird life with a list of around 350 species recorded.

Vast expanses of beautiful and varied countryside, include grass covered rolling hills and tracts of tall sand forest, a diversity of woodland types, coastal dune forest, a number of large lakes and innumerable smaller lakes and wetlands.

Sand-forest specials include Neergaard’s Sunbird, Pink-throated Twinspot, African Broadbill, Rudd’s Apalis, Eastern Nicator and gorgeous Bush-shrike. Coastal dune forest and dune forest in remnant dunes some way inland offers Livingstone’s Turaco, Green Malkoa, Green Twinspot, Brown Scrub-Robin, Woodward’s

Batis and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird. Extensive rolling grasslands are home to specials such as Swamp Nightjar, Denham’s Bustard, Grey-rumped Swallow and various raptors. Damp grassland areas may offer Rosy-throated Longclaw and Pale-crowned Cisticola. Large lakes and associated seasonally flooded areas hold a variety of water birds including Herons, Storks, Pelicans, Flamingos, Cormorants and ducks – and a variety of waders – particularly in summer. The woodland/wetland mosaic offers a variety of other birds including Southern Banded Snake-Eagle, African Crowned Eagle and African Cuckoo-Hawk. In summer the Sooty Falcon occurs along the northern part of the reserve in association with mangrove swamps.