Since a review of the Tertiary birds of Africa 30 years ago by Rich (1974), a great wealth of new data and new interpretations have augmented this fossil record, hitherto still relatively poor when compared with that of northern continents. A growing amount of new fossils is coming from hominid localities, now extending as early as the Late Miocene. Recently found bird fossils from the Late Miocene of Chad and Ethiopia are described here. They come respectively from several localities of Toros Menalla (Djurab Desert, Chad), dated ca 7 Ma, several localities of the Western Margin of the Middle Awash (Afar rift, Ethiopia), dated 5.6-5.8 Ma, and a locality of the Central Awash Complex of the Middle Awash, dated ca 5.2 Ma. 19 different taxa in 11 families are identified, essentially aquatic birds except for part of the fossils from one Ethiopian locality, ALA-VP-2. The bird assemblages from the three groups of localities by age and location provide some paleoenvironmental indications. Several taxa are new, or are new to Africa, and several are the earliest fossil records of a modern genus or lineage. Three extinct taxa are represented: the large darter Anhinga cf. A. pannonica, a new species of a giant saddlebill stork, genus Ephippiorhynchus, and a swan Afrocygnus chauvireae. Families with an extremely scarce record worldwide are represented here (Pandionidae, Heliornithidae). Comparisons are made which reveal some similarities between the Chadian and Ethiopian sites, as well as with Late Miocene localities in Kenya, Tunisia and Libya. At a larger scale, from the Mio-Pliocene of Africa, Leptoptilos falconeri and Anhinga cf. A. pannonica were also of Eurasian distribution, while Pavo sp. and Heliopais cf. H. personata are now typical of the Oriental Region. These represent important zoogeographical links between Africa and Eurasia at that period, compared with the relations observed today between the non-passerine birds of the Paleotropical (=Ethiopian) and Oriental regions.