Northern Mozambique’s ‘sky-island’ mountains have become increasingly recognised for their Afromontane birdlife. Despite growing ornithological coverage, however, several Mozambican mountains remain poorly known. We present results from a three-week survey of three such mountains: the Njesi Plateau, Mount Chitagal and Mount Sanga (collectively termed the Serra Jeci/Njesi highlands) in Niassa, north-western Mozambique. These mountains had received little/no previous biological surveys, but are the only known locality of the endangered Mozambique Forest-warbler Artisornis sousae (formerly Long-billed Tailorbird A. moreaui sousae). We recorded 159 species, including several range-extensions of both conservation and biogeographical importance (e.g. Dapple-throat Arcanator orostruthus), and 15 Afromontane biome-restricted species, including two species new for Mozambique (Montane Nightjar Caprimulgus poliocephalus and Dark Batis Batis crypta). We found good numbers of Mozambique Forest-warblers on all three mountains, extending the distribution of this little-known and highly range-restricted taxon. Combining our data with previous surveys (collectively totalling 184 species), we critically appraise the Njesi Important Bird Area (MZ015), based on the occurrence of 26 Important Bird Area (IBA) trigger species, correcting previous errors in its assessment and suggest extensions that include Mount Sanga to the north, and extensive miombo woodland to the west. The site also qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) and Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) site. Finally, we review all published ornithological literature from Mozambique’s mountains and discuss emergent biogeographical patterns in their Afromontane avifauna, while also highlighting key sites that require ornithological surveys. We find that the Njesi highlands are more biogeographically linked to Tanzania, than to mountains farther south in Mozambique and Malawi. Collectively, our results illustrate the critical value of even small Afromontane forests on remote highlands for some of Africa’s least known, and most threatened avifauna.

莫桑比克北部的“天空岛”山脉因其Afromontane鸟类而变得越来越知名。尽管鸟类学的覆盖范围不断扩大，但莫桑比克的几座山脉仍然鲜为人知。我们提供了对三座这样的山脉进行的为期三周的调查结果：在莫桑比克西北部的尼亚萨，内耶西高原，基塔加尔山和桑加山（统称为塞拉耶西/内耶西高地）。这些山脉以前几乎没有/没有进行过生物学调查，但是是濒临灭绝的莫桑比克森林鸣鸟Artisornis sousae（以前是长嘴Tailorbird A. moreaui sousae）的唯一已知地点。我们记录了159种，包括几种具有保护和生物地理重要性的范围扩展（例如，起斑纹的喉咙Arcanator orostruthus）和15种Afromontane生物群落受限物种，其中包括莫桑比克的两个新物种（Montane Nightjar Caprimulgus poliocephalus和Dark Ba​​tis Batis crypta）。我们在所有三座山上都发现了大量的莫桑比克森林鸣鸟，从而扩大了这一鲜为人知且范围受限的分类单元的分布。将我们的数据与之前的调查（总共184个物种）相结合，我们基于26个重要鸟类区域（IBA）触发物种的发生情况，对Njesi重要鸟类区域（MZ015）进行了严格评估，纠正了其评估中的先前错误并提出了扩展意见。包括北部的Sanga山和西部的广阔Miombo林地。该地点还符合关键生物多样性区（KBA）和零灭绝联盟（AZE）的条件。最后，我们回顾了莫桑比克山脉上所有已发表的鸟类学文献，并讨论了它们在Afromontane avifauna中出现的生物地理模式，同时突出显示需要鸟类学调查的关键地点。我们发现，内吉斯高地与坦桑尼亚的生物地理联系更多，而不是莫桑比克和马拉维更南端的山脉。总体而言，我们的结果表明，偏远高地上即使很小的Afromontane森林对于某些非洲鲜为人知且受威胁最大的鸟类也是至关重要的。