Birdwatching Holidays

With sensational birds to be seen on all our tours, there are far too many to mention. So here are a few of our favourites! In Africa, the swamps of Uganda and Zambia are best for the astonishing shoebill, while the savannah and bush of Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana and South Africa are alive with boubous, sunbirds, bush-shrikes and weavers. Further north, the breathtaking highlands and far south of Ethiopia are home to many strange endemics including Prince Ruspoli’s turaco.

The Himalayan forests of India and Nepal, stretching into China, hold some of the planet’s most dazzling birding. This is the realm of great pied hornbill, long-tailed minivet, grey-headed fish-eagle and far more. Higher up, in the lofty mountains and upland plains of China and Mongolia, lammergeier, golden eagle and cinereous vulture soar. Travelling east through the steamy forests of Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, you move from Asian barbets and hornbills to birds such as Wilson's birds of paradise and cassowaries. Australia holds a startling array of parrots, kingfishers and fairy-wrens while New Zealand, home of kiwis, takahe and kakapo, is where birds evolved in the absence of land mammals.

The Americas are even more richly blessed with birds. Bald eagles and California condors soar over magnificent North America, while Latin America is the undisputed bird continent. Running the length of South America, the mighty Andes are the realm of Andean cock-of-the-rock, torrent duck and sword-billed hummingbird. The vast forests of Amazonia, in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil support bewildering flocks of antbirds, antwrens, tanagers, green violetear and flycatchers. Elsewhere, the Pantanal and Llanos are a topsy-turvy world of greater rheas, red-legged seriemas, hyacinth macaws and scarlet ibises. Further south, from southern Chile and Argentina, through the Falklands and South Georgia to the Antarctic, penguins, prions and albatrosses reign.

Even close to home in Europe there are amazing bird spectacles. Colonies of Atlantic puffins, gannets and arctic terns grace northern shores. The Danube Delta in Romania still throngs with Dalmatian and great white pelicans, egrets, storks and white-tailed eagles, while the great boreal forests of the north, in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, are home to raven, capercaillie, Siberian jay, goldeneye and the spectacular golden eagle.

Shoebill

The enormous shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) haunts papyrus marshes in East and Central Africa but is always scarce. We recommend Murchison Falls in Uganda and Bangweulu Swamp in Zambia for seeing it. This extraordinary bird, whose scientific name means the whale-headed king, has no close relatives and occupies a family of its own. It hunts alone, standing on floating vegetation in poorly-oxygenated water and lunging forwards with its great bill to catch fish and amphibians as they surface to gulp air.

Golden eagle

If one bird epitomises wilderness in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the magnificent golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). Found in boreal forests, upland plateaux and mountains across Asia, Europe and North America, this spectacular bird can be seen in many of the sites we visit, including Mull, Andújar and Yellowstone, and it just creeps into Africa in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia. Our dedicated golden eagle photography tour to Sweden watches these birds at close range from specialist hides.

Atlantic puffin

One of the most loved birds on earth, the Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) nests right round North Atlantic coasts, including many offshore islands in the UK, where its waddling gait and multi-coloured bill make it a national treasure. Puffins can be heard crooning and seen bringing shining sand eels back to chicks in their burrows on our tours to Iceland and Mull in summer. We dedicate popular tours to Skomer to photographing these charismatic birds going about their business in their charismatic way.

Green violetear

Of more than 350 dazzlingly diverse and beautiful hummingbirds, found almost everywhere across the Americas, the gorgeous green violetear (Colibri thalassinus) has one of the largest ranges. Its subspecies occur from the southern border of the United States, all through Central America and south through the humid Andes to Bolivia. It can be seen on our tours to Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, accompanied everywhere by a spectacular array of sunangels, sungems, sunbeams and other hummingbirds.

Scarlet ibis

Found along Atlantic coasts of South America, and in the Llanos along the border between Colombia and Venezuela, the adult scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber) is startling scarlet, with only black tips to its wings and a red bill which flushes black when breeding. Young birds are dull canvas brown, flushing red over several years. These gregarious birds take a range of small prey in saline and freshwater wetlands, but are best known for gathering in breathtaking roosts, as at Caroni Swamp in Trinidad. 

Hyacinth macaw

Largest of the world’s parrots, the fabulous hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) uses its huge bill to crack palm nuts for the nutritious flesh inside. With a disjunct distribution across Brazil and into neighbouring Bolivia, this astonishing bird is best known from the Brazillian Pantanal, where its shocking blue plumage, broken only by golden facial skin, and its deafening calls are much loved. Since it inhabits forest islands around ranches and nests in tree holes, it is seen on all our tours here.

Arctic tern

Perhaps the world’s greatest migrant, the graceful arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) nests right around arctic coasts and winters as far south as Antarctica. These gorgeous birds are easily seen in spring and summer on our tours to Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard and Scotland. Nesting on the ground in sites frequented by otters, arctic foxes and even polar bears, arctic terns are aggressive around their colonies. Even keeping a respectful distance from their nests, it is easy to be pecked on the head!

Wilson's birds of paradise

Of around 40 birds of paradise found from Papua New Guinea west into Indonesia and east to Australia, one of the most extraordinary is Wilson’s (Cicinnurus respublica). This jewel-like bird, with a crimson back, yellow nape and sky-blue cap, laced with black like a stained glass window, can be seen displaying on Waigeo on our cruise through Raja Ampat in Indonesia. Many other gorgeous birds of paradise, including King of Saxony and ribbon-tailed astrapia can be seen on our Birding in Paradise tour.