The Republic of Mozambique is a country on the east coast of Africa, with a land area of 799,380 km² and a coastline of 2,500 kilometers squared. It is divided into 10 provinces, and shares borders with South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. The coast is characterized by a shallow continental shelf with extensive intertidal areas and numerous offshore coral reefs. Other topographical features include a coastal plain accounting for almost half the land area, broadest in the south, rising to mountain ranges in the west, which are most substantial in the centre and north, with the highest peak at 2,436 meters.

The country is virtually cut in two by the valley of the Zambezi River, and the Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi river constitutes the largest body of fresh water, with a surface area of over 3,000 kilometers squared. Large flood-plains are associated with the mouths of the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, which rise in the centre of the continent and pass through Mozambique on their way to the Indian Ocean. The major rivers and their flood-plains have been profoundly affected by impoundments and steadily increasing off-takes of water upstream in neighbouring countries.

The extent to which this has caused ecological changes has not been monitored and can only be guessed at. Four-fifths of the country lies within the tropics, and the climate is correspondingly warm and frost-free. Average annual temperatures exceed 25°C in part of the Zambezi Valley and in the northernmost coastal areas, and fall below 20°C in the mountains. Rainfall occurs mainly during the austral summer and is highest along the coast and in the central mountains, where the mean annual total exceeds 1,800 milimeters, and lowest in the south-west, where it averages below 400 milimeters per annum

Renewed access to Mozambique after years of isolation by civil war has provided tremendously exciting possibilities for birders, and the central and southern parts of the country have in the last four years become popular destinations for keen, intrepid Southern Africans and others. In addition to numerous mouth-watering species peripheral and localised in more accessible Zimbabwe and South Africa, the lowland forests and miombo woodlands of central and southern Mozambique offer some of the best sites globally for such species as Olive-headed Weaver, Green-headed Oriole, Blue-throated Sunbird, East Coast Akalat, Chestnut-fronted Helmetshrike, White-chested Alethe, African Pitta and Locust Finch, and are the wintering grounds of the localised Mascarene Martin.

Furthermore, the coast offers such tropical delights as wintering Crab Plover & Greater Frigatebird. The most popular areas for birding are, in central Mozambique, the highland forests of Mount Gorongosa, and the woodlands and lowland forests between Beira and the Zambezi. Further south, excellent birding is to be had in the woodlands around Panda and along the coast around Inhambane, Vilanculos and Bazaruto Island.

The vast area of Mozambique north of the Zambezi has remained virtually unexplored since Jack Vincent's explorations there in the 1930s. Access to the region is however reasonably good, and a 1998 expedition to Mount Namuli near Gurue re-discovered the country's only endemic, Namuli Apalis, hitherto unseen since its 1932 discovery and found to be still thriving in the forests of this truly spectacular massif. Other exciting species of the northern forests include the enigmatic and elusive Dapplethroat, Thyolo Alethe and, on Mount Chiperone further south, White-winged Apalis.

Birders travelling in Mozambique will need to be largely self-sufficient, and preferably travel in more than one vehicle, including at least one four-wheel-drive. Thankfully, it was recently announced that ALL land mines have been cleared from the whole country so all visited areas are now well-established to be safe. The country still offers much untapped potential to adventurous birders, and every trip turns up many exciting species from both a southern African and global perspective

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