Marakissa is a well known birding location close to the border with Senegal some 40 km south of Banjul. It has woodland, cultivated areas, marshland and open fields, along with river frontage, providing a range of bird habitats. We spent the morning of 6 February with Aladin birding an area to the north of the town, starting on the north-south road that leads to Senegal, before we headed west around cultivated fields, eventually arriving at an area of marshland.
We parked near the Marakissa-Darsilami bridge and walked a short distance down to a series of lakes that had a good selection of waders and other birds, including Black Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron and Purple Heron. From a tree on the bank of the lake a Giant Kingfisher scanned for fish in the lake.
Once back on the road we walked south scanning the trees and open fields to the west for birds. With gentle early morning light behind us the conditions were good for bird photography and we were delighted to see a colourful African Golden Oriole in the trees above us. A Squacco Heron was fairly close in one of the fields while several African Spoonbills flew over. Near the Marakissa bridge a Pied Kingfisher was hovering over the water looking for fish, while a flock of Red-billed Quelea were in the trees.
As we walked westwards through the cultivated fields we saw a Northern Red-billed Hornbill, a Blue-bellied Roller and a beautiful Splendid Sunbird in the trees. Our first European Bee-eater of the trip was flying over. Arriving at the marshy area we could see a distant Palm-nut Vulture, while a Bronze Mannikin was in a nearby tree.
We returned to the main road and then walked around some fields on the other side where we saw Black Crake, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, Senegal Parrot, a female Village Indigobird and Hamerkop.
