Birding Tour Ghana: Upper Guinea Forest to the Sahel

Ghana is easily the ‘best’ country in which to start one’s West African birding career. Its huge range of habitats is easily accessible and all the special birds, including the charismatic White-necked Rockfowl (Yellow-headed Picathartes), are amazingly well staked-out. While a lot of birders start their West African birding with a visit to the tiny Gambia, the larger and more varied Ghana has a great deal more to offer, including a mammoth 180 of the “Guinea-Congo Rainforest” birds (which will basically all be life-birds for anyone who has not yet been to West Africa) and 12 of the 15 Upper Guinea Forest endemics (which are restricted to a much smaller part of West Africa, i.e. part of the Bulge of Africa). These Upper Guinea endemics can be found in neighboring countries, but access and birding gen is lacking compared with Ghana, and travel for English-speakers is significantly more difficult.

White-necked Rockfowl is one of our special targets on this Ghana birding tour.

Ghana certainly has a wide range of different habitats, and we look not only for forest birds at sites including one of Africa’s most impressive canopy walkways in Kakum National Park, but we also look for some charismatic arid-area birds. We ensure we have several days to spend exploring the mosaic of open wooded savannas of the fabulous Mole National Park. This is the country’s premier wildlife reserve, and megafauna like African Elephant are a regular feature (often bathing at the pools visible in front of our hotel). We also dip our toes into the Sahel zone (and some of its specials) up on the White Volta River along the border with Burkino Faso. Both Standard-winged Nightjar and the incomparable Egyptian Plover are other highly-desirable and major targets on this tour that is likely to feature a further 400 species of birds.

Ghana must rank as one of the best countries to find the incredible Standard-winged Nightjar (photo Don Cowan)