Birds of Mauritius: The Complete List

Mauritius packs a surprising variety of bird habitats into a small island — coastal lagoons, sugarcane fields, upland forests and coastal cliffs all host different species. Whether you’re a casual visitor or a dedicated birder, a little local knowledge makes sightings much more rewarding.

There are 89 Birds of Mauritius, ranging from African Sacred Ibis to Zebra Dove; for each you’ll find below Scientific name,Status,Where to find (sites & season).

How can I tell which birds are native or introduced on Mauritius?

Check the Status column in the list first — it flags endemics, natives, and introduced species. Endemic or native birds are often tied to specific habitats (e.g., upland forest), while introduced species show up broadly around settlements and farmland; use the Where to find notes to confirm likely sites and seasons.

When is the best time to visit for seeing the most species?

The shoulder seasons (late spring and early autumn) balance breeding activity and comfortable weather, so many species are active and visible then. Use the season notes in the list to target migrants or breeding displays, and visit varied habitats on successive days for the highest species count.

Birds of Mauritius

Images and Descriptions

Dodo

The icon of extinction, this large, flightless pigeon was lost within a century of human settlement due to introduced predators and hunting. Its story is a powerful lesson in conservation.

Mauritius Kestrel

A small, beautifully spotted falcon once considered the world’s rarest bird. A remarkable conservation success story, it was saved from just four individuals in the 1970s and now thrives in forested areas.

Pink Pigeon

A unique, plump pigeon with a pale pink body, dark wings, and a distinctive red eye-ring. It was brought back from the brink of extinction through intensive captive breeding and reintroduction programs.

Echo Parakeet

Mauritius’s only surviving endemic parrot. This vibrant green bird was once critically endangered. You can hear its loud “kree-kree” calls echoing through the native forests where it feeds on fruits and flowers.

Mauritius Fody

A small forest bird where the breeding male is a stunning sight, with a brilliant red head and breast. Females are a more subdued olive-brown. It is threatened by nest predation from rats.

Mauritius Olive White-eye

One of the rarest birds in Mauritius, this small, olive-green bird with a distinct white eye-ring is a nectar-feeder. It plays a vital role in pollinating native flowers.

Mauritius Grey White-eye

A common and adaptable small bird, often seen in noisy flocks. It has a greyish body with a prominent white ring around its eye, and it feeds on nectar, insects, and fruit.

Mauritius Cuckooshrike

A shy and elusive bird, males are grey and white while females are brown and barred. It moves quietly through the forest canopy, searching for insects, making it a challenging but rewarding sighting.

Mauritius Bulbul

A distinctive bird with a dark body, a punk-rock-like black crest, and a bright orange beak. It’s often heard before it’s seen, giving a variety of cheerful, liquid calls.

White-tailed Tropicbird

Mauritius’s national bird, known locally as “Paille-en-queue.” It’s an elegant white seabird with two extremely long, thin tail feathers, seen soaring gracefully along cliffs and over the ocean.

Red-tailed Tropicbird

Larger than its white-tailed cousin, this species is distinguished by its stunning red tail streamers and a pinkish wash to its plumage. It is primarily seen on offshore islets.

Mascarene Swiftlet

A small, fast-flying bird with a sooty-brown appearance, often seen hawking for insects in large groups. They use echolocation to navigate within the dark caves where they build their nests.

Mascarene Martin

A small, streaked brown swallow-like bird. It’s an aerial insectivore, often seen flying over open habitats. Its population has declined, making sightings less common than in the past.

Striated Heron

A small, stocky heron with a dark cap and greyish plumage. It is a patient hunter, often seen standing motionless at the water’s edge, waiting to ambush small fish and crustaceans.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

A large, dark brown seabird, named for its distinctive wedge-shaped tail. They are masters of the air, gliding low over the waves on long, slender wings. Often seen in large rafts offshore.

Sooty Tern

A classic tropical seabird with a striking black back and white underside. They form huge, noisy breeding colonies and spend most of their lives at sea, returning to land only to nest.

Brown Noddy

A medium-sized, dark brown tern with a contrasting pale grey-white cap. They are often seen perched on buoys or flying low over the water, dipping to pick up small fish from the surface.

Lesser Noddy

Slightly smaller and darker than the Brown Noddy, with a more defined white cap and a slender bill. They nest in trees and shrubs on predator-free islands, unlike their ground-nesting relatives.

Common Myna

An extremely common and bold bird with a glossy black head, brown body, and bright yellow beak and legs. Known for its intelligence and wide range of vocalizations, it is found everywhere.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

A cheerful and conspicuous bird with a pointed black crest, a red patch behind its eye, and a red vent. It is one of the most frequently seen birds in gardens and built-up areas.

Zebra Dove

A small, tame dove with fine barring on its neck and sides, giving it a zebra-like pattern. Its soft, cooing call is a familiar sound throughout the island.

Spotted Dove

Larger than the Zebra Dove, this species has a distinctive black neck patch finely spotted with white. It is often seen foraging on the ground in pairs or small groups.

House Sparrow

A familiar small bird, males have a grey crown and black bib, while females are a plain brownish-grey. They are highly adaptable and live in close association with people.

Village Weaver

Known for the male’s bright yellow plumage and intricate, hanging nests woven from grass and reeds. They are colonial nesters, and their noisy colonies are a common sight near water.

Madagascar Fody

Often called the “Cardinal.” During the breeding season, the male is a dazzling, fiery red. It is much more common and widespread than its endangered endemic cousin, the Mauritius Fody.

Common Waxbill

A tiny, sociable finch with a brown, barred body, a bright red bill, and a red stripe through the eye. They are often seen in twittering flocks feeding on grass seeds.

House Crow

A large, intelligent but invasive bird with a grey neck and black body. Its population is controlled due to its negative impact on native species and its status as a pest.

Ring-necked Parakeet

A bright green parakeet, larger than the endemic Echo Parakeet. Males have a distinct pink and black ring around their neck. They are noisy and often form large roosts.

Broad-billed Parrot

A very large, flightless or weakly flying parrot with a massive bill, likely used for cracking hard seeds. Its extinction was caused by overhunting and predation by introduced animals.

Mauritius Blue Pigeon

A stunningly beautiful pigeon, said to have had a white ruff of feathers, a red crest, and deep blue plumage. It was lost due to deforestation and overhunting.

Red Rail

A flightless, reddish-brown rail with a long, curved bill and hair-like plumage. It was described as being easily caught by early settlers, leading to its rapid extinction.

Mauritius Scops Owl

A small forest owl known only from skeletal remains and a few historical accounts. Its extinction is attributed to habitat destruction and the introduction of predators like black rats.

Mauritius Shelduck

A large goose-like duck, related to the Egyptian Goose. It was hunted to extinction by early colonists before much could be learned about its biology.

Mauritius Night Heron

A species of night heron known only from subfossil bones. Like other ground-dwelling birds on the island, it was likely unable to cope with introduced predators like rats and cats.

Common Moorhen

A common waterbird with a dark body, a distinctive red frontal shield on its forehead, and a yellow-tipped bill. Often seen swimming in open water or walking on floating vegetation.

Greater Crested Tern

A large, powerful tern with a shaggy black crest, yellow bill, and pale grey back. It is a common sight along the coast, often seen plunging into the sea for fish.

Bar-tailed Godwit

A large wader with a very long, slightly upturned bill. It is famous for undertaking the longest non-stop migratory flight of any bird, but is only a very rare visitor to Mauritius.

Curlew Sandpiper

A small, elegant wader with a long, decurved bill. In breeding plumage, it has a deep brick-red underside. A regular but uncommon passage migrant seen during the austral summer.

Ruddy Turnstone

A stocky, active shorebird with a unique harlequin pattern in breeding plumage and short orange legs. It gets its name from its habit of flipping over stones and seaweed to find food.

Whimbrel

A large wader with a very long, decurved bill. It has a distinctive striped head pattern. A common sight probing for crabs and other invertebrates on mudflats during the austral summer.

Sanderling

A small, pale sandpiper famous for its behavior of running back and forth with the waves on sandy beaches, appearing like a clockwork toy. It is a rare migrant to the island.

Black-winged Stilt

An elegant, unmistakable black-and-white wader with ridiculously long, pink legs. It wades through shallow water, picking insects and other small creatures from the surface.

Grey Plover

A medium-sized, stocky plover. In its non-breeding plumage seen in Mauritius, it is a mottled grey-brown. It has a short, thick bill used for probing in the mud.

Common Greenshank

A slender, medium-sized wader with long greenish legs and a slightly upturned bill. It is often wary and has a loud, ringing “tew-tew-tew” call.

Madagascar Pratincole

A graceful, long-winged bird that looks like a cross between a plover and a tern. It is an aerial feeder, catching insects on the wing. A rare vagrant from Madagascar.

Kelp Gull

A large gull with a white head and body, black back, and a powerful yellow bill with a red spot. A rare visitor from the southern oceans, sometimes seen in Port Louis harbour.

Great Frigatebird

A huge, dark seabird with extremely long, pointed wings and a deeply forked tail. Males are famous for their giant, inflatable red throat pouch, which they display during courtship.

Cattle Egret

A small white heron often seen foraging for insects near grazing cattle or lawnmowers. During the breeding season, it develops buff-orange plumes on its head, chest, and back.

Yellow-billed Kite

A medium-sized raptor with long wings and a forked tail, distinguished by its all-yellow bill. It is a graceful flyer, often soaring for long periods.

Peregrine Falcon

The fastest animal on the planet, this powerful falcon is a rare vagrant to Mauritius. It has a slate-grey back, barred underparts, and a distinctive black “moustache.”

Yellow-fronted Canary

A small finch, the male has a bright yellow underside and rump with an olive-green back. It has a pleasant, tinkling song and is often seen in small flocks.

Spice Finch

A small finch with a rich brown back, a dark chocolate-brown head, and a distinctive scaly pattern on its breast and flanks. They form large, tight-knit flocks.

Common Quail

A small, plump, and highly secretive gamebird. It is far more often heard than seen, with the male giving a distinctive, three-note “wet-my-lips” call.

Malagasy Turtle Dove

A medium-sized dove, purplish-grey with a wine-red patch on the neck and breast. It is an introduced species from Madagascar but is not as widespread as the Spotted or Zebra Dove.

Scaly-breasted Munia

Also known as the Spice Finch, this small finch has a dark brown head and a beautifully scaled pattern on its white breast. Often seen in flocks feeding on seeds.

Broad-billed Roller

A stocky, colourful bird with a lilac breast, brown back, and a bright yellow bill. It’s an aerial hunter that perches prominently before sallying out to catch large insects.

European Bee-eater

A spectacularly colourful bird with a blue belly, yellow throat, and chestnut crown. It is a highly skilled aerial insectivore, specializing in catching bees and wasps in mid-air.

Amur Falcon

A small, elegant falcon that undertakes one of the world’s most remarkable long-distance migrations from Asia to southern Africa. Occasionally, individuals are seen in Mauritius.

Sooty Falcon

A slender, medium-sized falcon with uniform grey plumage. It is a long-distance migrant, breeding in the Middle East and wintering in Madagascar and southern Africa, rarely passing through.

Eleonora’s Falcon

An elegant, medium-sized falcon that also migrates from the Mediterranean to Madagascar for the winter. It has both light and dark morphs and is a masterful aerial hunter.

White-throated Bee-eater

A slim, colourful bee-eater with a green back, white face, black gorget, and elongated central tail feathers. A rare vagrant from its African breeding grounds.

Common Cuckoo

Famous for its “cuck-oo” call and its brood-parasitic behavior of laying eggs in other birds’ nests. A very rare long-distance migrant from Europe and Asia.

Little Tern

A very small, delicate tern with a white forehead, black-tipped yellow bill, and fast, jerky wingbeats. It hovers over shallow water before plunging to catch small fish.

Gull-billed Tern

A stout, medium-sized tern with a thick, black, gull-like bill rather than the typical sharp tern bill. It often hunts for insects over fields as well as fishing.

Caspian Tern

The world’s largest tern, it is almost gull-sized, with a massive, bright red, dagger-like bill. It has a powerful, direct flight and a harsh, rasping call.

Lesser Crested Tern

Similar to the Greater Crested Tern but smaller, with a more slender, bright orange bill. It is a graceful flyer, often seen in mixed flocks with other terns.

Bridled Tern

Similar to the Sooty Tern but with a paler, greyish-brown back and a more prominent white eyebrow stripe that extends behind the eye. It is less pelagic than the Sooty Tern.

Flesh-footed Shearwater

A large, dark shearwater with a distinctive pale, pinkish bill with a dark tip. It is a trans-equatorial migrant, and very rarely seen in Mauritian waters.

Barau’s Petrel

A medium-sized gadfly petrel that breeds only on the high volcanic slopes of Réunion but forages widely across the Indian Ocean, including waters around Mauritius.

Jouanin’s Petrel

A medium-sized, all-dark petrel that is difficult to distinguish from other dark petrels at sea. It is a poorly known species from the Arabian Sea, rarely seen this far south.

Wilson’s Storm Petrel

A small, dark seabird with a prominent white rump. It has a distinctive flight, pattering its feet on the water’s surface as it picks up plankton, appearing to “walk on water.”

Black-bellied Storm Petrel

A medium-sized storm petrel with a striking black and white pattern. It is distinguished by a black line running down the center of its white belly.

Arctic Tern

Holder of the record for the longest-known migration, travelling from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back each year. It is a very rare passage migrant in Mauritian waters.

Antarctic Tern

A medium-sized tern very similar to the Common and Arctic Terns. It breeds on subantarctic islands and is a very rare vagrant to Mauritius during the southern winter.

Lesser Frigatebird

Slightly smaller than the Great Frigatebird. Males are distinguished by a white patch on each flank that extends onto the underwing. A rare visitor to the region.

Red-footed Booby

The smallest booby, it is unique for its bright red feet and polymorphic plumage (coming in white, brown, and intermediate morphs). It nests in trees and shrubs.

Masked Booby

The largest booby, it is a striking white with black trailing edges to its wings and a black tail. The bare skin on its face forms a black “mask.”

Brown Booby

A medium-sized booby with a dark brown head, neck, and back, and a sharply defined white belly. It is a spectacular plunge-diver, often from great heights.

Yellow-billed Stork

A large, striking wading bird with white plumage, black flight feathers and tail, a red face, and a long, bright yellow bill. A very rare straggler to the island.

Black-crowned Night Heron

A stocky, medium-sized heron with a black cap and back, grey wings, and white underparts. As its name suggests, it is most active at dusk and during the night.

Squacco Heron

A small, stocky heron that appears a uniform buff-brown color when at rest, but flashes brilliant white wings in flight. A rare visitor from Africa and Europe.

Glossy Ibis

A medium-sized waterbird with plumage that appears dark and dull from a distance but shows beautiful bronze, green, and violet sheens in good light. Has a long, decurved bill.

Garganey

A small dabbling duck. The male is distinctive with a broad white stripe over his eye. It is a long-distance migrant from Eurasia, very rarely reaching Mauritius.

Northern Shoveler

A medium-sized duck, unmistakable due to its huge, spatulate bill. Males are handsomely patterned with a green head, white breast, and chestnut flanks. A rare vagrant from the northern hemisphere.

Red-billed Pintail

A dabbling duck from Africa, characterized by its brown cap, pale cheeks, and a bright red bill. A rare straggler to the island’s wetlands.

Western Marsh Harrier

A large harrier that hunts by flying low over reedbeds and fields. Males are tri-coloured with brown, grey, and black wings. A very rare vagrant from Eurasia.

Indian Ring-necked Parakeet

A large, noisy green parakeet, easily distinguished from the endemic Echo Parakeet by its larger size and different call. Males have a rose-pink and black neck ring.

African Sacred Ibis

An unmistakable large white wading bird with a bare black head and neck, and a long, decurved black bill. It is a very rare vagrant from Africa.

Pied Crow

A large, distinctive black-and-white crow, with a white collar and breast. A highly intelligent and adaptable bird, it is a very rare straggler from Africa or Madagascar.

Other Birds by Country