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Burkina Faso Burkina Faso Ramsar wetland

Mare of Oursi

29 bird species recorded; the most from December to January.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec29at the peak
Species recorded in each month · tap a month

Martin Wegmann · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

This month here

29 species in January.

The birds you are most likely to see in the month you choose, those that come for the season first. It opens on today's month.

No records for this month.

  • Resident all year
  • Summer visitor comes to breed
  • Winter visitor comes for the winter
  • Passage migrant in spring and autumn

In numbers

29 species, counted.

32out of 100

Our own rating, from the records only: species (50 points), threatened species (20), migrants (20) and protected status — Ramsar, IBA, SPA, observatory (10).

  • 29Speciesrecorded more than once
  • 0Migrantssummer, winter or passage visitors
  • 1ThreatenedVulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered (IUCN)
  • 127Recordsopen records within 6 km
  • 290 mAltitudeabove the sea
  • 2Raptors
  • 6Waders
  • 3Ducks & geese
  • 8Herons, ibises & grebes
  • 8Songbirds
  • 2Other birds

From open records (eBird and others, through GBIF, licensed for any use). More birdwatchers mean more records: a quiet place may have more birds than it shows.

The checklist

All 29 species.

By group, with the year in twelve cells: the darker the cell, the more often the bird is recorded that month.

Raptors2 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Black KiteMilvus migrans
  • Hooded VultureNecrosyrtes monachusCR
Waders6 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Collared PratincoleGlareola pratincola
  • Wood SandpiperTringa glareola
  • Marsh SandpiperTringa stagnatilis
  • Little StintCalidris minuta
  • Common SnipeGallinago gallinago
  • RuffCalidris pugnax
Ducks & geese3 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Knob-billed DuckSarkidiornis melanotos
  • White-faced Whistling-duckDendrocygna viduata
  • Spur-winged GoosePlectropterus gambensis
Herons, ibises & grebes8 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • African Sacred IbisThreskiornis aethiopicus
  • Glossy IbisPlegadis falcinellus
  • Little EgretEgretta garzetta
  • Egretta intermediaEgretta intermedia
  • Squacco HeronArdeola ralloides
  • Black-headed HeronArdea melanocephala
  • Purple heronArdea purpurea
  • Long-tailed CormorantMicrocarbo africanus
Songbirds8 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Yellow-billed OxpeckerBuphagus africanus
  • Greater Blue-eared StarlingLamprotornis chalybaeus
  • Crested larkGalerida cristata
  • Black-crowned Sparrow-LarkEremopterix nigriceps
  • Woodchat ShrikeLanius senatorNT
  • Red-billed FirefinchLagonosticta senegala
  • African SilverbillEuodice cantans
  • Western Yellow WagtailMotacilla flava
Other birds2 species
JFMAMJJASOND
  • Western SwamphenPorphyrio porphyrio
  • African Collared DoveStreptopelia roseogrisea

Monthly presence relative to all bird records that month, so a busy month does not inflate every species.

When to go

The most species from December to January.

Species recorded in each month, with the usual temperature and rain.

  1. Jan2931°/14°1 mm
  2. Feb035°/17°0 mm
  3. Mar038°/21°0 mm
  4. Apr041°/25°5 mm
  5. May042°/28°15 mm
  6. Jun039°/27°64 mm
  7. Jul035°/25°128 mm
  8. Aug032°/23°192 mm
  9. Sep033°/23°80 mm
  10. Oct036°/22°17 mm
  11. Nov035°/18°0 mm
  12. Dec2732°/15°0 mm
  • Bar: species recorded that month.
  • Temperature: average maximum / minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Mare of Oursi.

Lake in Burkina Faso

Mare of Oursi is a wetland of international importance (Ramsar) in Burkina Faso, 290 m above the sea.

29 bird species have been recorded here more than once, in 127 open records.

The most recorded are the Black Kite, the Western Swamphen and the Hooded Vulture.

1 are threatened worldwide, including Hooded Vulture.

The most species are recorded from December to January.

Mare d'oursi 2
Martin Wegmann · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Get there and watch

  • Oursinearest town · 6.3 km in a straight line
  • Gao International Airport (GAQ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 187 km in a straight line

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The place and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the bird hides, towers and trails that OpenStreetMap shows.

Mare of Oursi seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

    • bird hides within 6 km
    • observation towers within 6 km
    • marked trails within 4 km
    • visitor centres within 6 km
    • viewpoints within 5 km
    • car parks within 3 km
    • restaurants and cafés within 3 km
    • campsites within 10 km
    • places to stay within 10 km

    Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

    In our other atlases

    Around Mare of Oursi.

    The lakes, beaches, islands, rivers and mountains around this place, and its night sky, in the family's atlases.

    Peakyas2 mountains within 25 km
    Tchalol Olol326 m · 11 kmKortondidji334 m · 13 km

    Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

    Photographs

    The place, as people saw it.

    Entrée d'Oursi par les dunes
    Hugues · CC BY-SA 2.0
    Paysage du sahel sur la route d'Oursi
    Hugues · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Where these figures come from

    Name and typeWikidata (Q1894498) · CC0
    Birds127 open bird records within 6 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only; mostly eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
    See these recordsgbif.org
    SpeciesGBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikidata (CC0); Wikimedia Commons
    AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
    Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
    What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
    ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
    Sister atlasesPeakyas

    Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

    The family

    Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

    Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.