{"id":1004135,"date":"2012-01-11T17:44:46","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T22:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/?page_id=1004135"},"modified":"2025-01-04T10:22:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T15:22:36","slug":"bird-tour-companies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/bird-tour-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird Tour Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>These are mostly  my personal notes to help me plan. Thus they&#8217;re heavy on companies that go to Europe and the Americas, light on Africa and Asia. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.avianjourneys.com\/\">Avian Journeys<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birdtreks.com\/\">Birdtrek<\/a> has some cheaper tours to Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birdquest-tours.com\/\">BirdQuest<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.caligo.com\/trinidad\/\">Caligo Ventures<\/a> (especially for Trinidad and Tobago; Gil Schrank recommends)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.caravan.com\/\">Caravan Tours<\/a>: not really a birding\/ecotour company but cheap and good for traveling with non-birding spouses<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cheepersbirding.com\/\">Cheepers<\/a> (word of mouth is mixed; some folks really like them; some folks warn me away) <\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cheesemans.com\/\">Cheeseman&#8217;s<\/a> (seems on the expensive side)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ecoturs.org\/\">Ecotours Colombia<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.holbrooktravel.com\/\">Holbrook Travel<\/a> especially for Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Field Guides<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hilonesometours.com\/index.php?page=tours-by-month\">Hi Lonesome Bird Tours<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.limosaholidays.co.uk\/tours.cfm\">Limosa<\/a>: specializes in relatively easy-going trips with late starts and early returns<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.birding-in-peru.com\/\">Manu Expeditions<\/a> (The Salzmans recommend. I am told many of these tours are canceled if they don&#8217;t fill up.)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.markprettinaturetours.com\/calendar.htm\">Mark Pretti Nature Tours<\/a> has some nice trips to Mexico, Belize, and other points in Latin America<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.naturalistjourneys.com\/calendar.htm\">Naturalist Journeys<\/a> (Good for Mexico)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ornitholidays.co.uk\/holidays.asp?id=4\">Ornitholidays<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockjumperbirding.com\/tours\/quickview-calendar\/\">Rockjumper<\/a> (seems on the expensive side)<\/li>\n<li><a href='http:\/\/www.TrinidadBirding.com'>Bill Murphy<\/a> for Trinidad and Tobago; limited departures and they sell out; plan in advance<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kaiyotetours.com\/france-birding-tours\/paris-brittany-loire-valley.htm\">Kaiyote Tours<\/a>. In particular they seem to have very reasonably priced trips to France in April and October. <\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.naturalist.co.uk\/\">Traveling Naturalist<\/a>: has a lot of butterfly and other non-birding tours too; various destinations in Europe<\/li>\n<li>VENT<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wildwings.co.uk\/tourlist.html\">Wildwings<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wingsbirds.com\/tours\/\">Wings<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A number of Audubon chapters run trips that are sometimes cheaper:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/getoutside.audubon.org\/upcoming-trips\">Audubon Nature Odysseys<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.massaudubon.org\/NH_Travel\/trips_alpha.php\">Massachusetts Audubon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sandiegoaudubon.org\/birding\/avian-adventures\">Avian Adventures\/San Diego Audubon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nycaudubon.org\/home\/ecotour\/\">NYC Audubon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/getoutside.audubon.org\/upcoming-trips\">Audubon Tours<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tucsonaudubon.org\/what-we-do\/birding\/312-ecuador.html\">Tucson Audubon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tropicalbirding.com\/tour-calendar\/\">Tropical Birding<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.njaudubon.org\/SectionEcoTravel\/Tours.aspx\">New Jersey Audubon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.goldengateaudubon.org\/field-trips\/travel-with-golden-gate-audubon\/\">Golden Gate Audubon<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aba.org\/tours\/\">ABA endorsed tours<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Current, tentative plans:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strike>Cuba, March\/April, 2012<\/strike><\/li>\n<li><strike>Adirondack Birding Festival, Ferds Bog, Hamilton County, New York, June, 2012<\/strike><\/li>\n<li><strike><a href=\"http:\/\/bugshot.net\/\">Bugshot<\/a>, Archbold Biological Station, Lake Placid, FL, August, 2012<\/strike><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunbirdtours.co.uk\/netherlandswinter.htm\">Netherlands in Winter, January 26-30, 2013<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/spacecoastbirdingandwildlifefestival.org\/\">Space Coast Birding Festival, Titusville, Florida, January 23-28, 2013<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nanpa.org\/summits.php\">NANPA Conference, Jacksonville, Florida, Feb. 27 &#8211; March 2, 2013<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/floridasbirdingandphotofest.com\/\">Florida Birding and Photo Fest, April 24-28, 2013<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wingsbirds.com\/tours\/netherlands-late-summer\/\">Netherlands, August 2013<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kaiyotetours.com\/france-birding-tours\/paris-brittany-loire-valley.htm\">France, October, 2013<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most desired destinations, with specific trips where indicated:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Belize<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ecoturs.org\/?lang=en&amp;page=endemicsbonanza\">Colombia Endemics<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Dominican Republic, winter or early Spring, possibly with Wings<\/li>\n<li><a href='http:\/\/www.TrinidadBirding.com'>Bill Murphy<\/a> for Trinidad and Tobago<\/li>\n<li>Colima\/Jalisco<\/li>\n<li>The Galapagos; perhaps on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.expeditions.com\/Expedition_Team66.asp?Expedition=166&amp;Destination=294\">National Geographic Islander<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li><strike><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shearwaterjourneys.com\/index.shtml\">Monterey, California<\/a> (I assume one of these years I&#8217;ll be visiting Northern California during pelagic season, so I don&#8217;t want to plan a special trip)<\/strike><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunbirdtours.co.uk\/netherlandswinter.htm\">Netherlands in Winter<\/a><\/li>\n<li>French Guiana<\/li>\n<li>Guyana<\/li>\n<li>Hawaii<\/li>\n<li>Jamaica<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Festivals to consider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/spacecoastbirdingandwildlifefestival.org\/\">Space Coast Birding Festival<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Laredo Birding Festival<\/li>\n<li>Wings over the Hills<\/li>\n<li>San Diego Birding Festival<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/floridasbirdingandphotofest.com\/\">Florida Birding and Photo Fest<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lodges that might be worth an independent visit:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>None yet; need to research these<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are mostly my personal notes to help me plan. Thus they&#8217;re heavy on companies that go to Europe and the Americas, light on Africa and Asia. Avian Journeys Birdtrek has some cheaper tours to Costa Rica BirdQuest Caligo Ventures (especially for Trinidad and Tobago; Gil Schrank recommends) Caravan Tours: not really a birding\/ecotour company [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1004135","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1004135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004135"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1004135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005692,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1004135\/revisions\/1005692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}