Birding Tour Trip Reports
Read the full details and birding highlights of our completed birding tours in this collection of birding tour trip reports. Each trip report contains a day by day account of the tour, a selection of photographs, details on the sites that were visited and a full list of species seen including scientific names that denote the subspecies seen.
2024 Birding Tour Trip Reports
Uzbekistan Birding Tour; 14th-25th May 2024
Highlights included seeing Azure Tits and Rufous-naped Tits in the beautiful snow-capped mountains in the Chimgan region in the first few days, Alpine Swifts flying around mosques in Samarkand, Eastern Rock Nuthatch bounding around the rocky hills south of Samarkand where it was joined by a family of striking Finsch’s Wheatears, Red-headed Bunting in full song at just a few metres away, nesting White Storks, Turkestan Ground Jays foraging close-by on the ground and calling from the tops of low bushes, Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, Menetries’s Warbler, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and White-tailed Lapwing in a wetland setting as well as a wide variety of other Eurasian and Central Asian species.
Highlight Species: Turkestan Ground Jay, Azure Tit, Desert Finch, Himalayan Griffon, Eastern Rock Nuthatch, Alpine Swift, Finsch’s Wheatear, Menetries’s Warbler, Rufous-naped Tit, White-tailed Lapwing, Red-headed Bunting, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, Streaked Scrub Warbler
Read the full Uzbekistan birding tour trip report 2024.
South Korea Winter Birding Tour; 3rd-15th January 2024
Highlights included watching 800,000 Baikal Teal perform an aerial ballet at sunset over the Geum river as well as starting the tour with exceptional views of Steller’s Sea Eagle on day one, point-blank views of Relict Gull on an incoming tide, Scaly-sided Mergansers in a fast-flowing stream, Pallas’s Rosefinch in a snowy woodland setting, Chinese Grey Shrike hunting in a farmland setting, a flypast from Oriental Storks, an unexpected group of Japanese Grosbeaks perched in the treetops, the magical atmosphere created by flocks of elegant White-naped, Red-crowned and Hooded Cranes in three locations as well as a wide selection of wildfowl, gulls, tits, finches, buntings and raptors.
Highlight Species: Pallas’s Rosefinch, Relict Gull, Steller’s Sea Eagle, Red-crowned Crane, Japanese Grsobeak, White-naped Crane, Oriental Stork, Scaly-sided Merganser, White-billed Diver, Swan Goose, Stejneger’s Scoter, Hooded Crane, Solitary Snipe, Varied Tit, Yellow-bellied Tit, Upland Buzzard, Japanese Wagtail, Saunders’s Gull, Baikal Teal
Read the full South Korea winter birding tour trip report 2024.
2023 Birding Tour Trip Reports
South Korea Winter Birding Tour; 3rd-15th January 2023
Highlights included watching ‘The Flight of the Cranes” on the South/North Korea border, most of the world population of Baikal Teal in a single flock of half a million birds on the Geum River, Steller’s Sea Eagle feeding alongside White-tailed Eagles, being surrounded by a mass of calling Hooded Cranes at Suncheon Bay, monstrous Cinereous Vultures soaring overhead as if ready to pounce on us, Solitary Snipe in a rushing woodland stream, Scaly-sided Mergansers on a secluded river, finding Relict Gull in an unexpected location, woodland birds such as Varied Tit, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker, Dusky Thrush, Yellow-bellied Tit, Chinese Grosbeak and Pale Thrush as well as masses of birds on the sea on the east coast.
Highlight Species: Steller’s Sea Eagle, Relict Gull, Red-crowned Crane, White-naped Crane, Oriental Stork, Scaly-sided Merganser, Swan Goose, Stejneger’s Scoter, Hooded Crane, Solitary Snipe, Varied Tit, Yellow-bellied Tit, Asian Rosy Finch, Japanese Wagtail, Saunders’s Gull, Baikal Teal, Falcated Duck, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker
Read the full South Korea winter birding tour trip report 2023.
Cambodia Birding Tour; 13th-27th March 2023
Highlights included being among huge numbers of nesting large waterbirds at Prek Toal on our boat trip from Siem Reap, Sarus Cranes gathering in the morning at Anf Trapaeng Tmar, some incredible birds from a hide at Chang Kran Roy, including Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo and Bar-bellied Pitta, battling Bengal Floricans in the grasslands alongside Tonle Sap, an incredible array of colourful woodpecker in the dry dipterocarp woodlands of the north as well as global rarities such as Giant Ibis, dainty Mekong Wagtail alongside Irrawaddy Dolphins from the riverside town of Kratei, the endemic Cambodian Tailorbird close to Phnom Penh and, finally, the globally endangered Chinese Grassbird on the southern side of Tonle Sap.
Highlight Species: Greater Adjutant, Bar-bellied Pitta, Cambodian Tailorbird, Bengal Florican, Giant Ibis, Great Slaty Woodpecker, White-shouldered Ibis, Mekong Wagtail, Sarus Crane, White-rumped Vulture, Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo, Lesser Adjutant, Manchurian Reed Warbler, Black-headed Woodpecker, Chinese Grassbird, Milky Stork
Read the full Cambodia birding tour trip report.