The birds of the Azores are still rather poor known, and most birdwatchers visiting the islands today may well contribute to the knowledge concerning breeding species, regularly migrating birds, as well as rarities. There is at the moment no official list of the Birds of Azores, and the only official document on the web is a list that can be found in the AERC homepage (www.aerc.eu). This list is however not updated, not accepted by anyone - not even the Portuguese Rarity Committee (CPR), and do not correspond very well with all new knowledge accumulated in latest years.
   When trying to give a fair description of the birds of the Azores there is a problem of documentation and acceptance. Many reports of birds seen on the islands do not reach the CPR, or no documentation or rarity reports are presented. The CPR do not active collect rarity reports - just judging those incoming and for those dates mentioned in the reports. And they do not accept any other published records (with or without documentation in form of collected specimens or photos). Only those directly reported on a rarity form, and approved by CPR will go on their official list.
   Since our object in this matter is to describe the bird fauna of the Azores as accurate as possible, and the number of species visiting birdwatchers may expect to see, we have chosen to present all available data. In the detailed account for the more rare species given in this site, there is information about sources, documentation, as well as decisions (accepted, or rejected) from the CPR. It is therefore up to the reader to make his own judgement of the right status of the birds in the Azores. There might be some misidentified birds in the material, but on the other hand we have probably missed a number of reports.
   We have omitted the birds rejected (in appendix A-B) by Bannerman (1966), and the non-migrating Edible-nest Swiftlet Collocalia fuciphaga that was collected over a hundred years ago. We have also omitted birds missing information about date, place and any other reference mentioned in Clarke 2006 (Birds of Atlantic Islands) and Le Grand 1983 (Check list of the birds of the Azores). Sightings that we know of only as rejections in the CPR reports (with no other sources) are also omitted.
   The English (American) and scientific names and order on this site follow the Swedish list of all Holarctic Bird Species, with a few local additions. Here you will find a list of all names of Azores bird species in English (American), Scientific, and Portuguese language.

Direct links to the Bird database
Continuously updated lists.
Rare species. Less than 100 birds reported on the Azores list (just observations).
Scarce species. More than 100 birds reported on the Azores list (just observations).
Rare bird reference database. Full data for all rare and scarce species.
Year lists. Year reports from 2005 onwards.
Common and regular birds. Information about 64 common or regular bird species in the Azores.
Sea watching. Seabird counts and information about sea watching.

Checklist of the birds of the Azores
Below you will find a downloadable list of the birds of the Azores including the year 2008. We have chosen to count one bird as one sighting (one long staying bird is still just one sighting). We are aware of the fact that a flock of birds of one species in many cases would be better counted as just one sighting, but there are so many difficult delimitations using this concept so we stay with the simple bird count.
Open or download the checklist here (Excel format) – Updated 2010-04-03.

Bird subspecies (races) in the Azores
On this page you can read more about different bird subspecies (races) in the Azores possible to separate in the field.