Every year, as northern Europe moves into winter, another season begins in The Gambia.
Birds that have spent the warmer months breeding across Europe and northern regions begin journeys of thousands of kilometers southwards. Some eventually reach the wetlands, forests, mangroves, and coastal habitats of The Gambia, where they spend the northern winter feeding and recovering before beginning the journey north again.
For Yaya Barry, few things illustrate the interconnectedness of nature better.
Barry has worked as a professional birdwatching guide in The Gambia since 1996. Nearly three decades later, he remains closely involved in the country’s birdwatching industry and has served as president of the Bird Watchers’ Association of The Gambia since 2022.
“When we see a migrant bird in The Gambia, we are looking at an animal that may have travelled across continents to reach us,” he says.
The Gambia has recorded around 629 bird species, according to Barry, including resident species, migrants, and occasional visitors. The country’s wetlands and protected areas provide important habitats for birds moving along the East Atlantic Flyway, a vast migration route connecting breeding grounds in the north with wintering areas in Africa.
The migration season generally runs from around October to April, although timing varies between species.
The country’s Ministry of Environment identifies the Tanbi Wetland Complex as an important birding area, with 362 species recorded there, including resident, inter-African, and Palearctic migrants. The ministry describes Tanbi as an important stopping point for Palearctic migrants.
But for Barry, these birds represent more than biodiversity. They are also part of an economic chain.
A business built around birds
A foreign visitor arriving in The Gambia to see birds does not spend money only on a guide.
The visitor may stay at a hotel, eat at restaurants, hire a vehicle, pay entrance fees, take a boat trip, buy locally made products, or employ a community-based guide. The economic activity can therefore extend from the birding site into several parts of the tourism economy.
The Bird Watchers’ Association currently represents more than 75 licensed bird guides, according to Barry.
Its members operate around some of the country’s best-known birding locations, including Kotu Creek, Tanji, Bijilo, Abuko, Kartong, Farasutu, Pirang, and the River Gambia and its surrounding wetlands and forests.
“Therefore, the economic benefit of birdwatching goes beyond the individual guide,” Barry says.
That distinction matters for a country whose tourism industry remains an important source of economic activity and employment.
The World Bank estimates that tourism contributed 14.3% of The Gambia’s GDP and 13.5% of employment in 2023. The country recorded 206,836 international tourist arrivals that year, a 13% increase from 2022.
The government’s 2024 annual progress report recorded 226,657 tourist arrivals in 2024, up 9.5% from 2023, while the government’s subsequent review said the 2024/25 season reached about 232,000 arrivals.
Birdwatching represents only one part of that wider tourism economy, and available national tourism statistics do not isolate its specific contribution. But the U.S. International Trade Administration identifies birdwatching as an underexplored niche, noting that The Gambia has more than 600 bird species and is a major destination along the seasonal Palearctic migration route.
For Barry, that means the country should stop thinking of birdwatching simply as an optional excursion for conventional beach tourists. “It should be regarded as a specialized tourism product in its own right,” he says.
Beyond the coast
The argument for birdwatching extends beyond the number of tourists it can attract.
Much of The Gambia’s conventional tourism activity is concentrated around the coastal area. The World Bank has noted that tourism remains geographically concentrated around the coast and that a high proportion of tourism consumption is imported, limiting the extent to which spending circulates through the local economy.
Birdwatching offers a different model. A visitor following birds may travel inland, enter a forest, visit a wetland, take a boat along the River Gambia, or spend time in a village far from the country’s main beach resorts.
That creates opportunities for people who may otherwise see little direct benefit from international tourism. A guide can earn an income. A driver can get a booking. A boat operator can carry visitors. A restaurant can serve lunch. A community can sell crafts or provide accommodation.
The bird itself may cost nothing. But the experience of seeing it can generate economic activity. Barry believes this wider distribution of tourism revenue is one of birdwatching’s greatest advantages.
“The economic benefit of birdwatching goes beyond the individual guide,” he says.
A journey without borders
The birds also tell a larger environmental story. Migratory species depend on a chain of habitats spread across several countries. A bird travelling from its breeding grounds to West Africa needs suitable places to feed and rest along the way.
Wetlands International describes the East Atlantic Flyway as a network stretching from the Arctic to southern Africa and involving more than 33 countries. Millions of migratory birds depend on wetlands along the route, while the same ecosystems support human livelihoods and well being,
That makes conservation in The Gambia part of an international responsibility. “When we protect an important wetland in The Gambia, we may be protecting a bird that breeds thousands of kilometers away,” Barry says.
The threats are increasingly interconnected too. Wetland loss, pollution, unsustainable development, climate change, erosion, and disturbance can affect habitats that birds depend on during migration. BirdLife International notes that wetlands provide essential food and water resources for waterbirds while also performing wider ecological functions.
A degraded wetland therefore threatens both wildlife and the economic activities that depend on visitors coming to experience it.
Protecting the attraction
Barry believes The Gambia already has many of the ingredients required to build a stronger birdwatching economy: diverse habitats, experienced local guides, a large bird list, protected areas, and an established international reputation among birdwatchers.
But he says investment is needed. Among his priorities are improved protected-area management, bird monitoring and research, viewing platforms and hides, better access roads, signage, environmental education, and stronger protection against pollution and habitat destruction.
He also wants birdwatching to receive greater attention in schools and for guides to continue developing their knowledge of bird identification, ecology, languages, customer service, and conservation.
International organizations, he says, can support research, bird population monitoring, habitat restoration, training, and community-based tourism.
Such investment could also help answer a question that remains difficult to quantify: exactly how much money migratory birds generate for Gambian businesses and communities.
At present, national tourism statistics do not provide a separate figure for birdwatching tourism. That gap itself points to an opportunity for more detailed research into visitor spending, guide incomes, birding tours, protected-area fees, and the distribution of tourism revenue among communities.
For a sector built around an international natural phenomenon, better data could strengthen the case for greater investment.
When the birds leave
Eventually, the birds will leave. The winter will end in The Gambia, spring will arrive in Europe and northern breeding grounds, and many of the visitors that filled the country’s wetlands will begin their journey north.
But the relationship does not end when the birds disappear from the sky. Their return depends on habitats surviving across an entire migration network.
And their presence in The Gambia creates a relationship between conservation and livelihoods: protect the habitat, and the birds have somewhere to feed and rest; protect the birds and their habitats, and communities retain an attraction capable of drawing visitors.
For Barry, that connection is personal after almost 30 years of guiding. Birdwatching, he says, is not simply about looking at birds. It is about helping people understand the natural systems that connect countries and communities. “The birds connect us,” he says. “Conservation must connect us too.”
