Birding
The French list of the birds of South Africa is in part a recognition that a large proportion of the people of Africa are French speaking. Since the ...
What a privilege it is to be able to spend a second year based at the UK office of Birding Ecotours, right in the middle of one of Britain’s best…
Summary. A two-week journey from Harare, in the centre of Zimbabwe's high plateau, to the coastal city of Beira in Mozambique traverses..
In this article I compare three of the main world bird lists. I then also discuss why these lists give different...
Being a global tour company we have developed deep and lasting friendships and business relationships with many people all over the ...
Andy Walker outlines some of the best moments from his 2019 Amazonian birding adventure in Ecuador. After spending an awesome time ...
Andy Walker provides some highlights from his 2019 birding trip in southern Ecuador. After my time birding around the fantastic north of ...
Andy Walker provides some highlights from his 2019 northern Ecuador birding trip.I have been lucky to live and bird (and lead birdwatching tours and guide at lodges) in ...
As the UK is an island and located in the northwest of continental Europe, there is plentiful coastline (ranging from towering rocky cliffs to saltmarshes, beaches ..
The following species are commonly found in farmland and woodland within the UK. We spend plenty of time birding in these habitats (as well as many others) ...
Andy Walker and Oli Reville offer some thoughts on the common garden birds of the UK in the first of three special blog posts on the common birds of the…
There’s a vast array of bird tours available out there. To illustrate this point, Birding Ecotours alone offers a plethora of different trips just to Peru (not to mention all…
The purpose of this article is to provide the most up-to-date information on South Africa’s endemic birds (based on the 2020 update of the country’s official bird-list)...
When I lived in Wyoming, fellow birders and wildlife enthusiasts were often amazed that I was from Africa. To my American colleagues, it was a continent they...
Summary. A two-week journey from Harare, in the centre of Zimbabwe's high plateau, to the coastal city of Beira in Mozambique traverses..
Woodpeckers are among the world’s most charismatic birds. And the United States certainly has more than its fair share of spectacular-looking ones, with an amazing 22 species...
Yasuní National Park, located in the Amazonian region of northeastern Ecuador spans over 1,022,000 hectares/ 2,527,000 acres of pristine Amazonian rainforest. This mega...
It’s mid-May, and my fourteenth year teaching organic chemistry just ended. It was quite the unusual semester since the COVID-19 pandemic forced all college ...
We are now starting to run socially distanced birding day trips in places such as Norfolk in England, Ohio (where our American office is based) and across South...
Birding Ecotours was originally founded in South Africa (in 2002) by Chris (with Dylan...
The winter birding has been amazing! The birding here in Norfolk has been so good that I’ve hardly had time to miss the superb birding in Ohio, where we...
Located only five miles (eight kilometers) from Entebbe International Airport, these beautiful and bird-rich gardens are reachable within a...
What is your choice of the top 10 birds in the USA? And what is your top birding experience in the USA? Here are the lists from a few of…
After a few days birding in northern Sulawesi (at the incredible lowland site of Tangkoko National Park...
After a few days birding in northern Sulawesi (at the incredible lowland site of Tangkoko National Park and nearby...
The island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) offers some of the best birding in Indonesia, and that’s saying something for a country made up...
New Guinea immediately invokes the stuff of dreams amongst us birders, doesn’t it? It certainly does for legendary BBC wildlife ...
You may think that Andy has just been sitting by his swimming pool in Bali, Indonesia for the last four months, that is only ...
There are over 10 000 species of bird in the world. Each one is wonderful in its own special way. However, that number is just too big for anyone to…
Nearly a quarter of the year is already over, and our team has logged almost a quarter of the world’s bird species in that time during our tours! We started…
How about seeing King Penguin, Macaroni Penguin, Southern Rockhopper...
The Maleo is a megapode, but unlike most others that are very similar-looking brownish birds it is blue, black, and white with an elaborate blue-and-yellow face...
There were a few targets I wanted to look for; the first was Maleo, the rather unique-looking, endemic megapode, and the second was the stunning Sula Pitta...
There were a few targets I wanted to look for; the first was Maleo, the rather unique-looking, endemic megapode, and the second was the stunning Sula Pitta...
This short article focuses on what questions you should be asking before booking a tour to South Africa or Namibia, with briefer mention of some other countries...
I’m a new birder in Ohio, having lived here for less than two and a half years. I came to Columbus from South Africa to open the new American office…
Australia has numerous island territories, and these offer some great birding for the more adventurous, those chasing endemic birds, or those with a passion for seabirds...
he waters around Australia offer practically unrivaled pelagic seabird watching potential. In some areas the time to get from the land to the continental shelf (where the...
Central and South Australia combine well from a birdwatching point of view. Adelaide acts as a great entry way into the region and has some fantastic birding sites near the…
Adjoined to the Australian mainland until the end of the last glacial period about ten thousand years ago, Tasmania is both geographically and genetically isolated from Australia...
Birding in the Northern Territory offers a huge range of possibilities. In the south there is Alice Springs – but that area is discussed in the Central and South Australia…
Western Australia is a huge state, and there are loads of potential birding sites to visit. Perth is set in a beautiful coastal landscape (as are many Australian cities) and…
Eastern Australia offers many varied birding options, with cities such as Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne providing excellent entry points into the country....
This is a frequently asked question. Australia is a large place (about the same size as the United States of America, or Europe), and this continent-country stretches from the tropics…
Go to All Blogs | Birding Blogs | West Papua Birding Tour | All our birding tours This blog was last updated on 12 December 2019 Every birder dreams of seeing…
Johannesburg, more readily known as Joburg or Jozi is the largest city in South Africa, and located on the highveld plateau of central South Africa...
Cape Town is without doubt one of the top tourist attractions in the whole of South Africa, and no visit to South Africa is fully complete without visiting the “Mother…
As only India can! Have you been to India? Have you traveled to the Himalayas? Have you been on a jeep safari in Jim Corbett National Park? Well, take a…
This is my story about how I got into birding. I wrote this mainly to try and encourage you to share your story. Please do e-mail us...
Have you ever spent over 10 minutes on an infamous skulker, just sitting patiently, waiting for it to give you the briefest of glimpses? OK, OK, of course. But, have…
Thank you for joining a small group tour, and we trust you will have a truly wonderful experience. If you are on a group tour with more than ...
This blog will start as an extremely brief one, but will hopefully get increasingly extensive with your input. If you e-mail us and and tell us what the most difficult…
Zululand, the area north of the Tugela River and south of the Mozambican border, is perhaps better known for its rich cultural history and big-five ...
When I mention the Cape most tourists will envisage Table Mountain, the dramatic cliffs of Cape Point, and the spectacular flower displays of the west ...
In this blog I take a closer look at the area south of 35°S as far as the Great White Continent and between the longitudes of 50°W and 20°E. This…
Birding has truly become a great international hobby that seems to be growing and growing. It is very exciting to see so many young folk (here in South Africa at…
This April, after his very successful Neotropical Bird Club Costa Rica fundraising tour (click here for trip report), Andy Walker had a busman’s holiday and went birding ....
This June Andy Walker made a scouting trip to Iceland to have a look at some of the areas we’ll be visiting on the Birding Ecotours 2018 Iceland Tour. Here’s…
We hereby announce two very exciting pieces of news, both of them related. First, that we’re opening a formal office ...
Twelve miles off the coast of central Maine lies Monhegan Island. Monahigan, as it was originally known, means ‘Island of the Sea’. This spectacular little island is one and a…
In May 2017 Andy Walker conducted a scouting trip to Peru to meet up with Birding Ecotours colleague and resident Peruvian tour leader and expert guide, Eduardo Ormaeche....
Whether to tick heard-only birds can be a contentious issue. My personal rule is to strictly exclude heard-only birds from all of my lists (including my world list, my southern African list,…
Israel is a haven for birds and birders alike. Israel during migration season is something else altogether. Down in southern Africa we don’t get to experience the ...
In October 2017 Birding Ecotours tour leader and guide Andy Walker led a custom Pacific Tour around New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa. This custom tour followed ...
Larks, larks, larks … and more wonderful larks! The arid Northern Cape of South Africa is very well known for many wonderful species of larks, including seven ...
Birding is amazing, no matter where you go and what kind of birds you prefer. For me, highlights are walking down a ...
Pelagic Birding is a rather specific ‘art’ or aspect of birding, and it basically refers to an ocean-going trip taken on a boat in search of true ocean-going species, such…
May is known as the best month for birding in the eastern part of the United States, and in particular for the spectacular spring migration that occurs during this time…
85 % of the bird species of the southern third of Africa (705 species out of 829 regularly occurring ones), and an amazing 82 mammal species, seen in two months…
Not only was the first ever Yellow-throated Leaflove discovered just inside the southern African listing region this year, but it was actually not just one individual but a pair of…
Hottentot Buttonquail must be the most enigmatic of all of South Africa’s 18 endemics. Its world population is estimated ...
Every naturalist using binoculars has an opinion on magnification, and there is never a shortage of advice as to what constitutes the best magnification for safari goers ...
My first birding trip to South America was, strangely, a great disappointment. I opted to make Peru my first South American ...
“The Champions of the Flyway” in Israel is not just a fun race for avid birders having a good time; it carries with it a strong message that appeals to…
Megan and I just returned from a 2-day birding trip to Harare, to make the most of the brief January to March window of opportunity (….but only in years of…
Birding Ecotours is a Gold sponsor of the African Bird Club because of this club’s solid track record of helping to conserve the continent’s birds. African bird conservation is something…
Diademed Plover This is definitely my favorite bird in South America. What can I say? Strangely, I cannot explain why I feel so attracted to this bird, as many other…
A birding tour is made largely by the guide. A good birding tour leader is the single element that can make a bird tour completely and utterly brilliant, rather than…
All continents except Europe and Antarctica have bird species that rely almost exclusively on nectar as a food source. These birds, which include African sunbirds and American hummingbirds, obtain ...
I always find it extremely surprising that Zambia and Malawi are not bombarded by birders. I guess these countries are just not ...