ABSTRACT. – The bird fauna of West Africa region is of highest conservation value, including 1371 species, three primary Endemic Bird Areas (EBA), eight secondary EBAs and 331 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs). The aims of this review are to systematically identify and collate studies focusing on the ornithology in the region. We carried out a Google Scholar search using as keywords the habitat types available in the region (mangrove, rainforest, Guinea savannah, Sudanese savannah, Sahel), the name of the countries in the region, and six ornithological disciplinary sectors in turn (‘Community Ecology’, ‘Taxonomy’, ‘Population Biology’, ‘Conservation Biology’, ‘Pollution effects’, and ‘Climate Change effects’). Four countries (with Nigeria on the top) were subjected to much more ornithological investigations than the other countries. Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone were the least studied countries. Although the number of ornithological studies increased remarkably in the last years, the relative scientific effort remained stable across countries either before or after 2006. In terms of habitat, studies on rainforest ornithology were more numerous than studies from other habitat types. Ornithological studies by disciplinary sector showed a slight prevalence of studies on population biology and climate change effects on birds. The overall implications of the observed patterns are discussed.