Bird Committee of the East Africa Natural History Society · v2026.0

Checklist of the Birds of Kenya

Published by the Bird Committee of the East Africa Natural History Society (Nature Kenya). This version continues a checklist tradition dating to 1981—now updated as a reproducible, evidence-based account of the birds represented in Kenya.

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Publishing history

A living checklist with a long history

This checklist follows those published in 1981, 1986, 1996, 2009, and 2019. It carries that national record forward while making the evidence, editorial decisions, and changes between versions easier to inspect.

  1. 1981
  2. 1986
  3. 1996
  4. 2009
  5. 2019
  6. 2026v2026.0
—bird species recorded in Kenya
—families in this checklist
current global taxonomy & sequence
observations supporting this checklist
independent review of rare records

Interactive data

Explore the checklist

Search and filter every species, inspect status categories and evidence summaries, or export the current view.

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Taxonomy review

See what changed

Compare 2019.1 with v2026.0 to inspect changes in taxonomy, checklist membership, categories, and evidence.

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Printable checklist

Take the checklist into the field

Download the complete print-ready checklist, grouped by family and ordered by current AviList sequence.

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Organizations & data

The network behind the checklist

This checklist is made possible by collaboration among Kenyan conservation, research, and birding organizations.

Nature KenyaPublisher & institutional home A Rocha KenyaPartner & contributor Kenya Bird MapNational bird-mapping initiative eBird KenyaEvidence & data source National Museums of KenyaPartner & natural-history collections East African Rarities CommitteeRare-record assessment

Checklist contributors

  • Brian Finch
  • Colin Jackson ORCID iD
  • Don Turner
  • Fleur Ng’weno
  • James Bradley
  • John Fanshawe
  • Nigel Hunter
  • Okech
  • Raphaël Nussbaumer ORCID iD
  • Richard Stratton Hatfield ORCID iD
  • Victor Ikawa
  • Washington Wachira

Data and citation

Cite the published dataset

Formal publication metadata is being prepared.

GBIF publication is pending. DOI and dataset links will appear here automatically when added to the publication metadata.