Dominic Rollinson

The tour went exactly as promised. Dominic Rollinson was outstanding and our local guide and drivers were great as well. I heartily recommend this tour to other birders, particularly to listers like myself.

Dom was the hardest working guide I've ever had and I've had multiple international trips. He is birding every waking hour of the day regardless of where we are and what we're doing. Multiple times during the trip he would interrupt a conversation or a meal and identify the call we're hearing as we all jump for our optics and run out the door or to an open window. He recognizes bird calls instantly and uses recorded calls to attract many species so that we can see them. On a scale of 1-10, Dom is a 12.

There were way too many highlights to identify them all. We saw an elephant shrew being eaten by a horned adder, an adult cheetah lying in full view of a busy road, hundreds of Carmine Bee-eaters at a colony, used sound recordings to call in many, many different types of birds, saw multiple owls including the Pel Fishing Owl, and saw ALMOST 400 species of birds during the trip. It was fabulous!

I travelled with Dancho and Dom. The two guides were real birding experts, and couldn't do enough to find birds for us, including my target species. I particularly enjoyed the variety of habitats, foods, and accommodation. Extremely well planned and organised. Fascinating places to travel through – beautiful cities and countryside. Highly recommended.

Eduardo is clearly an excellent birder. He is super friendly, well organized and made sure we all had good views of the birds.
Brayan was our local guide for several days. He is an enthusiastic, talented birder. He was excellent in finding the target birds. He also knew about great places to eat.

Dom is a terrific guide. He found all the birds we hoped for and identified everything we saw. He knew all the best spots and was attentive to my preferences. In addition, he was a great companion and I enjoyed spending time with him.

Dom is an absolutely amazing person and birder. It was a great time to have him on this short tour.

Dom is a great guide – very good birder and very good at keeping the group together and cheerful given the different interests and birding abilities. Very calm as well when the odd thing didn’t go to plan.

Dominic Rollinson was an excellent guide. His knowledge of the area and the birds was top notch! He was also a good person to be around during the tour and provided for the group quite well.

Dominic was extremely knowledgeable, professional, and personable. Everything was well-organized. Dom made sure everyone got on the birds, then left some time for the photographers to do their thing. He knew where to find the birds and was very good at getting people on them (as we know can be pretty difficult!).

I don’t think we could have had a better time or been more pleased with Dominic Rollinson on our Oceanwide Arctic Cruise this past June. We had a wonderful time touring in South Africa with Dom last year and were eagerly anticipating this trip and Dom did not disappoint!
Dom is the consummate birding guide. He has an absolute command of where the birds are, how they behave, actually finding them, and getting us great looks of them! Dom is very organized and timely with his pre and post trip communications, which was very helpful. Dom shared the trip eBird lists, the well-written and illustrated trip report, and beautiful pictures in a timely fashion. And Dom is just a true gentleman and an absolute pleasure to be with. He is kind, considerate, easygoing, thoughtful, and has a great sense of humor.
Dom was very proactive in coming up with ways to make our arctic experience great! He suggested that we rent a vehicle for our pre-cruise time in Longyearbyen, which was a fantastic idea. And Dom maximized the vehicle rental by taking us out both the evening and morning before we boarded our cruise and we got fantastic close views of all our targets – in particular, absolutely gorgeous views of the Red Phalarope and the Arctic Fox! It was also a very relaxed way to see some local sights including the Global Seed Vault and the northernmost church in the world. Dom also spent the morning after disembarkation with us birding around Longyearbyen on foot, which was such a treat. He was very generous with his time.
We have so many great memories of Dom on the cruise ship! We felt very privileged to have Dom’s expertise available to us and we also appreciated that he graciously shared that expertise with other passengers. Dom was always cheerful and helpful whether we were on excursions, on deck looking for whatever wildlife presented itself, or whatever else we might have gotten ourselves into. I know that the ship’s guides also really appreciated Dom. I heard one of them tell another that they should always listen when Dom was talking because “You can learn so much from Dom!” We all are grateful for the huge amount of time Dom spent on deck scanning for polar bears and other wildlife, no matter what the temperature or wind conditions!
We highly recommend Dom. If you are considering a trip that Dom is leading, I would encourage you to sign up immediately – you won’t find a better guide!

Dom was an excellent guide for the day and was very knowledgeable about the Cape's fauna. He was excellent company for the day, and I really enjoyed talking to him about wildlife and conservation, as we scanned through various habitat types searching for birds and mammals.

Dom was AMAZING! He went above and beyond the call of duty. Even after the tour had finished. We would like to thank Dom SO MUCH. Professional, friendly, kind, highly skilled, organised, patient, generous, enthusiastic, humble, gracious, knowledgeable, wonderful with people, high in ethic, positive, I could go on and on. We were very fortunate indeed to have him guide us and we would go birding with Dom again in a heartbeat. Please pass on our sincere and abundant THANKS!  

Dominic’s guiding ability was exceptional. There appears to be a collaborative spirit amongst birders in South Africa which has not been apparent in other countries. This together with his enormous personal experience enabled Dom to get us an amazing number of birds.

Dom was an amazing guide! He was friendly, kind, and funny while also being incredibly knowledgeable, working nonstop to both guide and keep accurate bird lists, and tolerated an endless stream of questions and misidentifications with the patience of a saint.

335 species of birds is a good start for highlights. Loved traveling across the county of Namibia to Botswana, birding tours are a great way to experience the many types of environments of the country.

Birding Ecotours provided an outstanding experience, from pre-trip communications, recommended air travel assistance, accommodations and most of all finding the birds.

Dominic Rollinson's first priority was to get everyone on the bird; only after everyone had gotten on the bird did he help folks who wanted a photo. His extensive knowledge as to where to find species and his tenacity in finding target species made this a very successful trip. Dom managed the trip seamlessly allowing participants to focus on enjoying the trip. I particularly appreciated his willingness to call out species we've seen throughout the trip as it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of birds being seen.

With 153 species, 113 of them new species for me, this trip met and exceeded expectations. The effort put in by our
guides to find our target species was monumental. All our guides were knowledgeable and personable and persistent,
ensuring good views of many of the hard-to-see skulkers.

Between Dom and Fan, all the details were handled seamlessly, the two of them worked well as a team with the many
local guides that were engaged. I was not really up to the rigorous level of this trip but Fan and Dom made sure one of
the local guides were keeping an eye on me or one of them lent a hand over particularly rough terrain, for which I am
exceedingly grateful.

Dom was a delight to be with for 3 weeks. He was unfailingly polite and attentive to all of the group and always made sure everyone got to see the target birds. His breadth of knowledge always made the evening check list review productive and informative. He clearly laid out the plans for the following day and the target birds for that day.

Dom and Harriet definitely know their African birds, along with their status and distribution. Their familiarity with
vocalizations helped a great deal as well.
Dom is quite affable and displayed a calm demeanor and even temper throughout, treating everyone (not just clients)
with equal courtesy and respect. I appreciate that he went over Birding Ecotours group rules/expectations at the
beginning (e.g., rotating locations on the bus and trails).

Dom is a fabulous guide! He is patient, attentive to details, & always wiling to answer questions. He’s extremely knowledgeable about birds, their songs, the differences between different species, and if he doesn’t know the bird as well as he would like, he asked directed questions to Harriet. Harriet and Dom worked very well together. He was a delight to bird with, and I will gladly go on another trip with him.
The local guides that we used in a variety of places were most excellent as well. They knew the birds & bird songs in their area; also they were very attentive when we struggled to make it up or down a hill by lending a hand. I find over all the Ugandan people that we ran into friendly helpful and eager to have us come back to their country.

I would definitely recommend Birding Ecotours! Before the trip, we had prompt responses to our enquiries and we were fast assigned to a guide, Dominic Rollinson. We had such a great time with Dom on our day out in the Cape Peninsula. He was flexible with the schedule, itinerary, and with our photographic demands. He adjusted the trip so that we did everything at a slower pace, to be able to take pictures of literally every bird we saw. He knew how to position the car to get a better light on the subject, when that was the case. He’s very patient and pleasant to be with, and he shared with us some tips on where to go during the next days.

Dom was endlessly willing to entertain our (considerable) curiosity despite initially struggling with a post-Covid dry cough. He also worked very hard to find species despite the challenge of having to drive considerable distances. His ability to notice and identify slight sounds was truly impressive and his knowledge of the avifauna was immense. He was an excellent travelling companion, able to inform us about a wide range of topics including his fascinating research. We have no hesitation in recommending him to others.
He ranks among the very best guides we have ever had.

When we were out away from the day to day living, this expedition brought the peace and quiet that was much appreciated. I enjoyed this being an informational expedition on a small ship and not a cruise of 1000's of cruisers. The knowledgeable and friendly staff shared unknown information to me about the environment and the mammals and birds.

Our guide, Dominic Rollinson, was exceptional in every way. Of course, he had an unbelievable knowledge of where and how to find the birds. Additionally, he was a real pleasure to be with. He was happy to answer any question and his knowledge of South Africa really enhanced our experience. The itinerary was thoughtfully planned and we were able to see a huge variety of birds. The accommodations he chose were comfortable and interesting and the food was consistently delicious. We can't say enough good things about Dom and the trip!

We chose the 2-day Tankwa Karoo birding trip and had an incredible time. I think we saw just short of 90 different species over the 2 days, including many new species for our bird book, which would have taken us years to find without Dom. It was an incredible experience and Dom’s ability to find birds just by their call is something to marvel at.

I am writing to you to send a formal review of our birding day tour with Dominic Rollinson on May 18,2021. Dominic Rollinson, our truly knowledgeable and awesome birding guide provided Matt and I with a truly unique and genuinely wonderful birding experience! Dominic Rollinson provided us with in-depth knowledge and a greater understanding of the various birds, wildlife and ecosystems that make up the areas in/around Cape Town and South Africa! Our expectations for the day were not only met but greatly exceeded with Dominic guiding us along the way! Matt and I truly had a blast and would highly recommend Dominic Rollinson as a birding guide!

Our birding trip to Ethiopia was fantastic. The country is so rich in history and interesting people and customs. The birding was great! Needless to say Dominic is an expert birder. He is a warm and gracious person and we all really enjoyed his company. Our Ethiopian driver and guide, Tesfaw, was also very good. He was an experienced guide and driver. His contacts were good as were his day to day decisions. He kept our group on time and on schedule but was also flexible to our requests and needs. We rate our trip excellent (A,10/10). Thank you for all your work in arranging the trip. We appreciate all your prompt correspondences. We certainly will be using Birding Ecotours in the future. We hope to meet you in person some day.

My sister and I used one of our 2 and a half days in Cape Town to do a birding tour of the Peninsula including the Cape of Good Hope. I had great communication with our guide, Dom, before the tour and he picked us up right on time at our hotel. It was an excellent day. Dom is very knowledgeable and good company. It turned out he was at Magee Marsh in Ohio the same time I was this year! The weather was glorious and we got to see lots of SA endemics plus a Humpback Whale and a lifer sewage pond! I would recommend Birding Ecotours and Dom Rollinson to anyone birding in South Africa.