Wild Marrakech: Storks, Bulbuls, Macaques and the Eagles of the Atlas

Marrakech is a city of gardens set below the High Atlas, and its wildlife comes from both: birds in the walled gardens and on the ruins of the medina, and in the mountains a national park of juniper and oak where eagles soar, the Moroccan National Tourist Office notes.

Few cities put a mountain range on the skyline the way Marrakech does: the snow of the High Atlas is in view from the gardens south of the city, and Toubkal National Park lies a few dozen miles away, between the N’Fiss and Ourika valleys (ONMT).

This is the wild side of Marrakech: the storks of the old walls, the birds of the gardens, the macaques of Ouzoud and the life of the mountains, and how to see them without disturbing them.

Storks on the walls

On the high earthen walls of El Badi Palace, white storks build their great nests of sticks, as the photographs here show; the ruins are one of the easiest places in the medina to see them.

Watch from the courts below and keep your distance from the nests.

Birds of the gardens

The walled gardens of the city, from the Jardin Majorelle to Le Jardin Secret and the Menara, are green islands in a dry plain; small birds such as the common bulbul are at home in them.

Go early, when the gardens open and the birds are busiest.

Storks nesting on the walls of a ruined palace, a short walk from the square.

Macaques at Ouzoud

The Moroccan National Tourist Office notes Barbary macaques in some gorges of the Atlas; at the Ouzoud falls they are often seen near the paths, as here.

Never feed them: it harms the animals and makes them bold.

The life of the mountains

Toubkal National Park protects some 94,000 acres of the High Atlas, the tourist office notes, with juniper and oak, eagles overhead and jackals, weasels and foxes on the slopes, among thuya, dwarf palms and prickly pear.

Feature: the storks of El Badi

The ruined courts of El Badi Palace, inside the UNESCO-listed medina, are quiet and open to the sky; storks nest along the tops of the walls, above the sunken orange gardens.

Did you know? Did you know? Toubkal National Park lies between the N’Fiss and Ourika valleys, only a few dozen miles from Marrakech (Moroccan National Tourist Office).

Our advice

Our advice: see the storks at El Badi in the morning, walk the gardens at opening time, and go into the Atlas with a local guide; never feed wildlife, and keep to the paths in the national park.