Burkina Faso Ramsar wetland
Mare of Oursi
29 bird species recorded; the most from December to January.
Martin Wegmann · CC BY-SA 2.0 de
This month here
29 species in January.0 species in February.0 species in March.0 species in April.0 species in May.0 species in June.0 species in July.0 species in August.0 species in September.0 species in October.0 species in November.27 species in December.
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.
No records for this month.
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No records for this month.
No records for this month.
No records for this month.
No records for this month.
No records for this month.
No records for this month.
No records for this month.
No records for this 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.
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
- Black KiteMilvus migrans
- Hooded VultureNecrosyrtes monachusCR
Waders6 species
- Collared PratincoleGlareola pratincola
- Wood SandpiperTringa glareola
- Marsh SandpiperTringa stagnatilis
- Little StintCalidris minuta
- Common SnipeGallinago gallinago
- RuffCalidris pugnax
Ducks & geese3 species
- Knob-billed DuckSarkidiornis melanotos
- White-faced Whistling-duckDendrocygna viduata
- Spur-winged GoosePlectropterus gambensis
Herons, ibises & grebes8 species
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- Jan31°/14°1 mm
- Feb35°/17°0 mm
- Mar38°/21°0 mm
- Apr41°/25°5 mm
- May42°/28°15 mm
- Jun39°/27°64 mm
- Jul35°/25°128 mm
- Aug32°/23°192 mm
- Sep33°/23°80 mm
- Oct36°/22°17 mm
- Nov35°/18°0 mm
- Dec32°/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.

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.

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.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q1894498) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Birds | 127 open bird records within 6 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only; mostly eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology) |
| See these records | gbif.org |
| Species | GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikidata (CC0); Wikimedia Commons |
| Altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Temperature and rain | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas |
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.

