Wildlife to see in Morocco in April
7 spectacles at their peak in Morocco in April, and 2 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open Morocco in April in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.
At their peak in April
Spring amphibian chorus of the Middle Atlas lakes and MamoraA wall of Sahara frog laughter and the slow purr of Berber toads from the reed margins of the crater lakes, tree frogs' hard 'crra' from the willows, and — in the flooded cork-oak dayas of Mamora — the underwater 'kok' of Morocco's endemic spadefoot.
Spring passage and desert night birds around MerzougaThe desert's two great night voices — the endless churring of Egyptian nightjar and the deep hoot of pharaoh eagle-owl — over a noise floor close to nothing; by day, the surprise of a full Palearctic passerine chorus grounded in a dune-edge tamarisk oasis, sandgrouse arriving to drink, and flamingo and shelduck on the salt lake in a wet year.
White storks bill-clattering on the Chellah walls, RabatDozens of pairs bill-clattering with heads thrown back on the minaret and the medieval walls, wings thumping on landing, and below them the cattle egret roost and the Bou Regreg valley.
Northern bald ibis colonies, Souss-Massa & TamriGuttural 'hrump' and hissing calls at the cliff, and the low grunting chatter of a feeding flock working the coastal steppe. The world's last truly wild population — around 95% of it — lives on these few kilometres of cliff.
Oued Souss estuary — Audouin's gulls, flamingos and waders at Agadir's doorA gull-and-wader soundscape: Audouin's gulls' nasal calls, slender-billed and laughing gulls, flamingos honking, stilts and greenshank — over Agadir's surf and the N10 bridge traffic. Not a hushed site, but a very accessible one.
Spring raptor & stork passage over the Strait — Jbel MoussaMostly a visual event: kettles of hundreds of kites and storks spilling off the Spanish side and gaining height over Belyounech. Sound is the wind, bill-clattering storks on the ground, griffons' rasping wing-noise overhead and the reintroduced griffon colony's grunts on the cliffs.
Autumn seabird passage off Cap Rhir, north of AgadirA visual event: hundreds of Scopoli's shearwaters shearing past the lighthouse point, skuas chasing terns, and now and then the park's bald ibis flapping by at eye level. Surf on the rocks, wind, and fishermen on the ledges below.
Also going on in April
Barbary macaque troops in the Middle Atlas cedar forestBarks, screams and the soft 'ooh' contact grunts of a troop moving through 30 m Atlas cedars, chest-thumping squabbles in the mating season, with Levaillant's woodpecker, firecrest and nuthatch in the canopy and wind in the cedars.
Sidi Moussa–Oualidia lagoons — 10,000 waders, flamingos and the salt-pan roostsAvocet and stilt yelping over the salt pans, godwit and dunlin flocks whirring up at each marsh harrier, flamingo honking from the lagoon, slender-billed gulls — against surf on the dune bar and the oyster farms' outboards.