Ethiopia is characterized by a great topographic and landscape diversity. The height profile varies from 125 meters below sea level in the Danakil desert to the 4,533 m high summit of Ras Dejen in
the Simien mountains. With an area of 1,127 million km² Ethiopia is something three times as large as Germany, with a comparable population of currently around 85 million. The peculiarity of the Ethiopian avifauna can be judged better when viewed in a somewhat wider context. As a spatial reference point should serve the "Horn of Africa", in addition to Ethiopia including its neighbors Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, as well as the Socotra Archipelago (short Socotra), lying off the Somali coast, but politically belonging to Yemen.
In this region more than 1,000 nesting and migratory bird species were noted. In the Endemic Breeding Birds table overall 67 species or taxonomic units are listed, which may be awarded the status of "endemic" on the Horn of Africa. Such a list is always provisional and can not offer more than a basis for discussion. This is due to the fact that a number of taxonomic and nomenclatural issues are still unclear. New findings inevitably lead to other perspectives and revised figures. Secondly,
there is always a certain discretion whether to record a species with very small area units (or occasional occurrence) in neighboring countries in such a list or not. The table includes the IUCN Red List category, population size and trend for each species.
