BIRDING TOURS WORLDWIDE
Welcome to Birding Ecotours! Here we will present to you some of the world’s most spectacular birding tours around the world. Our trips are for small groups of only 6-8 participants. Quality is of paramount importance to us; we prefer to use superior accommodation (where available at the top birding sites) and vehicles. Despite our focus on small groups and the fact that we err on the side of superior quality, our prices are competitive. It is Birding Ecotours’ company policy to contribute a minimum of 10 % of profits to conservation and local communities. We are passionate about birding and also about leaving a legacy – by genuinely helping people and conserving birds – for generations to come.
We like to do things differently. For example, we offer some unique tours in addition to our standard birdwatching tours, including Owls of the World® tours, tough mammal tours (fancy an Aardvark or a Black-footed Cat?), and more. Since 2003, we have been innovating some of the most wonderful bird and wildlife tours available.
What is one of our typical birding tours like?
Our main focus is, of course, on finding the important birds (especially the endemics and specials). Our trip lists are very important to us (we do really encourage you to look at our trip reports – which contain bird and mammal lists – and compare them with those of other companies). However, we understand that birding tours can be tiring, so we as a company prefer to add a day or two and actually have folks enjoy the birding tour – this allows us to accumulate a big bird list (including backup time for finding the most important birds), but it also gives us time to enjoy the bird sightings, as well as to stop for each species of mammal (plus other interesting things we may encounter along the way) rather than to be forced to tell our guests “sorry, we have no time to stop for anything without feathers” – that can be frustrating. Hence, we tend to add a couple of days so we can get the best bird lists in the industry, but without as much of a huge rush as some other companies’ bird tours. As just one example, we must have the most comprehensive eastern South Africa birding tour out there (by the way, so many mammals are also seen on this trip, incidentally to the birding).
We also run a good number of Birding Photo Tours, which need a different approach from typical birding tours – more space in the vehicles for camera gear, the correct tour pace to get photos, making sure the vehicle is at the right angle, and constantly thinking about lighting (although these things are important even on a standard birding tour, they are even more vital on a photographic birding/wildlife vacation). We also operate various other kinds of tours such as birding and wildlife cruise holidays, pelagic trips and 1-day birding tours. Our main focus, of course, is on birding tours!
One of the things we pride ourselves in the most, though, is our enthusiasm which means we get back to you with excitement from the minute you contact us. We tend to struggle to contain our enthusiasm and excitement, so when you e-mail us, you’ll doubtless find that we get back to you fast with detailed information. It’s our contagious enthusiasm for birding (and for the natural world as a whole) and for people, that spurs us on to give outstanding service.